A Clean Kitchen is a Happy Kitchen

I am not a good housekeeper by any means. Despite the fact that I was made to do chores when I was growing up, I did not keep up those habits as an adult. Dishes in my kitchen were mostly done on a "as needed" basis. When I needed a pot to make something for dinner I washed the pot and then used it. Not the healthiest habit, I know.

In recent weeks I have actually had the gumption to keep the kitchen clean, or at least wash the dishes right away after dinner. I discovered that it was actually really nice and convenient to have the pots and pans already clean when going to make dinner. Plus dinner was done a lot faster without the extra time spent washing the cookware.

This past Sunday being Mother's Day, I let the dinner dishes sit, figuring I'd do them the next day. Well, with 3 kids the schedule got full and those dirty dishes sat all the way until Wednesday.

So here I am making dinner (cinnamon rolls and omelets) and I am in the process of placing the uncooked rolls into their baking dishes before putting them in the oven. With a small kitchen, counter space is very limited and in order to have enough room for both baking dishes on the counter, I had to move a large bowl which was one of the dirty dishes left from Sunday's dinner.

When I attempt to move the heavy bowl onto the top of the dirty dish pile, it of course, makes the pile top heavy and falls over. Not only does the pile of dishes topple, but the bowl knocks over another dish that was still sitting on the counter. That particular dish just happened to be half full of marinade from Sunday's dinner and this spicy mixture splashed all over the counter and into one of the baking dishes already holding uncooked cinnamon rolls.

I managed to salvage 3 rolls that did not get tainted by the marinade and I still had the other baking dish unscathed so dinner was luckily not a disaster. The incident however, made me realize that much more how great it is to have a CLEAN kitchen when going to cook a meal!