I spent a substantial portion of yesterday afternoon watching a combination of HGTV and Food Network, and for reasons completely unknown to me, looking at all those different houses and kitchens made me think about the way I do certain things in my house. You know, things like how I slice an onion or how I stack my dishes or how I fold my fitted sheets or how I don’t wash my windows, well, EVER.
Never underestimate the power of home- and/or cooking-related television programming to inspire a serious bout of housekeeping inferiority, my friends. Beats anything I’ve ever seen.
And honestly, I don’t really feel that inferior. But I do think that I may do a few household-related things in a way that’s more complicated than necessary OR that’s just flat-out different from the norm.
So, as part of a deeply informal and completely unscientific surveying process, I have a few random questions for you, the people of the interweb.
1) How many days a week are you completely caught up on laundry?
2) When you load your dishwasher, do you load the silverware basket with handles down or handles up?
3) FINALLY – can you make up recipes off the top of your head? Or do you have to follow a recipe somebody else has written?
Clearly THE FATE OF THE FREE WORLD hinges on your answers.
So, you know, NO PRESSURE.
My crazy and I will be anxiously awaiting your responses.
1) How many days a week are you completely caught up on laundry?
It has never ever happened.
2) When you load your dishwasher, do you load the silverware basket with handles down or handles up?
Which ever way is pointing down when I throw them in there.
3) FINALLY – can you make up recipes off the top of your head? Or do you have to follow a recipe somebody else has written?
The last time I cooked was in 2007. I don’t recall a recipe.
1. Only if we move to a nudist colony will I ever be 100% caught up on laundry.
2. Handles up on everything, always! My boys empty the dishwasher, and who wants their stingy hands touching a fork, spoon, or knife?!
3. I must follow a recipe. Without it, we might as well eat PB&J.
1. Caught up on laundry?! HAHAHAHAHA! Let me pick myself up off the floor! HAHAHA! Caught up on laundry…surely you jest!
2. The flatware in the dishwasher is a source of ongoing debate between the hubs and I. My preference is for forks and knives to go in handles up for safety sake. He claims they don’t get clean that way and puts them handles down. I wouldn’t necessarily dispute that and if I can get him to actually load the DW, who am I to complain!? But it’s on his head if a little girlie ends up with a fork impaled in her leg after tripping over the open dishwasher. Perhaps I’m paranoid? Spoons I mix up and down so they don’t actually “spoon” in the flatware basket and not get clean.
3. Yes, I make up recipes off the top of my head all the time. I follow recipes too but it’s the rare recipe I don’t tweak in some way, just ‘cuz I’m a rebel like that. I have several of my own concoctions here… http://www.bearandmooeat.blogspot.com
Great Q&A…love reading others’ answers!
1) Well, since I only have to do my own laundry – yes, I am often caught up.
2) I always load handles up so that the person that whoever empties the dishwasher won’t have to out their hands all over the part we eat off of to put them away.
3) I rarely use recipes – I love to make up recipes. Especially fun wasy to use leftovers. Cooking is how I relax.
i do laundry on thursdays and try to get everything put away (i make the kids help) by saturday. sometimes it actually works out like that!
my husband insists all the silverware go handle-up so that when you put it away, it doesn’t get dirty from your hands (he’s a bit of a germaphobe!)
i like to use a recipe as a starting point and change things up as necessary. i don’t like to feel bound to a recipe…
(good questions)
1. Yes, I try to stay caught up. I try to do a load a day. There are some times when I skip like 6 days though!
2. I load handles up. I don’t want to be stabbed my a fork or knife when I unload!
3. I use recipes. A lot of times I add or take away things so they are kind of in a small way..my own!
1.What does that mean, caught up on laundry? Isn’t that an urban legend? Never ever am I caught up on laundry. This will only get worse in January with the addition of spawn #4. I can only imagine laundry life then, it’s already climbing the walls & reproducing at will.
2. Knives go handle up so no one cuts themselves. All other utensils go handle down.
3. Both. Depends on my level of energy, time, creativity, and pantry supplies.
Ok, here it is.
1. The easy answer is never, on the laundry. I have big laundry days on Monday and Thursday or Friday.
2. I put the handles up on all the silverware, mainly because I have a curious toddler who can’t keep his grubby little mitts off the silverware.
3. I can come up with something on the fly, but usually don’t have the brainpower to do so. I also have a husband who thinks recipes are necessary (forgetting that someone has to come up with them first), so anything without an attached recipe is automatically sub-par. Weird? Yes.
1—I try to be caught up with laundry by Sunday night. Now, sometimes that means I’m up until midnight on Sunday b/c my washer and dryer to not seem to copy my need for haste—but I do try to get it done.
2–definately handles down (though my husband, wrongly, disagrees). I don’t want to touch the “eating part” on the way in or the way out.
3–I cannot make up recipes out of thin air. I can alter them slightly if I have made the original version 100 or 102 times. But, can’t make up the whole thing.
1. Once a week maybe. I have laundry for 5 people (will be 6 tomorrow!) and I try to get it all put away at least once a week.
2. Handles up: forks and knives…they can be dangerous you know!
Handles down: spoons
3. I like recipes…I might tweak them if I make them over and over, but I am not confident enough to come up with my own!
Is it possible to get completly caught up on laundry? I mean I am wearing clothes when I do it…
My DW has slots requiring a handle down approach, but keeps the spoons from, you know, spooning. But you can go knife down for saftey.
Recipes are a suggestion. There’s only the 2 of us and one of us who is not me is picky, therefore recipes have to be tweaked. I usually start with a recipe, though, I don’t wing it too often.
1. NEVER! i am never caught up on laundry. i do most of it on saturday and sunday, but with my husband an i and 3 children under age 5, there will be at least one full hamper the very next day.
2. the handles go up DUH! lol. i can’t stand it when ppl (my mother) put the handles down. then you have to touch the dirty part of the utensil when you are putting it in and you have to touch the clean part when you are pulling it out. it only makes sence to put the handles up so you can grab them easily. :D
3. both. i love creating new things, but i do follow recipes on certain things. but i and the kids are really picky eaters so i am constantly replacing and reworking recipes to make them work for us.
1- Never, ever, ever.
2- Mostly handles up, but occasionally some down mixed in. I am pretty sure Martha S. says down, but I don’t like sharp things pointing at me when I load the dishwasher.
3- Not on your life. Although my hubby does this all the time and I sit and watch in envy. I am a recipe follower and by that I mean I don’t even like to be a teaspoon off or add anything extra at all. Anal about it actually.
Excellent post.
1. Never caught up on laundry except once in a blue moon. So never.
2. Depends on my mood. If I’m feeling daring – knive handles down.
3. Again, depends on my mood. Certain entrees don’t need a recipe because I’ve made them too many times…emphasis on the “too” according to the husband.
Laundry caught up 1-2 days per week if I’m lucky. Sharp knives handle down on the end, everything else handles down but making sure spoons not combined. Baking recipes followed exactly, others generally not. Sound organized? SO not.
Nate’s Mom
1. caught up on laundry 2-3 days a week. I have 4 kids plus a husband and after 15 years I have finally got a system that works.
2. usually all handles up.
3. i pretty much have to follow a recipe. occasionally i’ll add a little something extra/different but originality in the kitchen is not my forte. My hubby says I have like 8 recipes and don’t ever even try something new. I am in a rut, that’s for sure!
1. I’d say 5 out of 7 days I’m caught up. Only becasue with 3 kiddos, getting behind means CHAOS!
2. Handles up. My mom taught me handles down, because they get cleaner, but my husband says handles up, that way no one gets hurt!
3. I need a recipe most of the time. Every now and then I throw something else in, mix it up a bit, but other than that, I don’t think I’ll be the next food network star. BUT I can still dream!!! :) And maybe even pretend a little when I’m cooking and no one is watching.
1) I am rarely ever caught up on my laundry (and my hubby and I are childless). Actually,the pile stacked up in the living room chair is usually used up by the time I have time to actually fold and put up.
2)I always load the diswasher with silverware handles down. Due to the unfortunate incident where I stabbed my hand with the fork (the fork prongs stuck in my hand as I lifed it, it had to be pulled out). A warning should come with those things.
3)Unlike my talented husband, I usually need a recipe. The hubs can go into the kitchen and magically produce a meal out of nothing (of course, let’s not even mention what the nutritional value of these meals are or the fact that they fit no where in my Weight Watchers plan, but hey it’s dinner)
I guess since I am single, my answers will be much different than those with a family.
1. I always catch up on my laundry on Saturdays. Most of the time I only wash on that day, but sometimes I have to do a load during the week.
2. I always load with the handles down!
3. I am good at cooking without a recipe, but since I am only cooking for myself, I always know I am going to like it! If I was cooking for others besides me, I would probably try to follow a recipe! = )
1. why don’t we go with days a month? Maybe 2 or 3 in a month. Really.
2. Forks and spoons, handles up, knives-handles down.
3. No. Never. Nope. (I’m pretty sure throwing a little fiesta cheese on top of reheated outback cheese fries doesn’t count as making up a recipe.)
1. Zero days.
2. Handles up, but I’ll put some down when it gets crowded.
3. No, ma’am! Need recipes.
1. Once a week. I do all the laundry one day a week… no way I could handle streaching it out to multiple days
2. Handles up (anyone who does differntly is crazy!)
3. recipe only. Only occassionally do I get wild and add my own ingrediant!
1) Laundry. Hmmmm. Not sure what you mean by “caught up”. As in it’s all done–washed, dried, folded, and put away–all at once? Approximately zero days.
2) knives: handles up; everything else: handles down.
3) I can’t even remember the right amts of butter and milk to put in the mac and cheese and I’ve been making that for 30 yrs. So, I guess I’d say I’m a recipe follower. But I do that pretty well I think.
Happy Monday, friend!
1. I always have a house full of CLEAN unfolded laundry. The clean laundry goes directly into 4 place: Clean towel basket, Clean underwear basket, clean sock basket or if it is a hang up item it gets put on a hanger and hung on the rack in the laundry room. If it is pajamas– it get’s immediately folded and put into owner’s personal laundry room basket. One day a week, I fold whatever is in the clean towel basket, Clean underwear basket, or clean sock basket. There are 7 of us. If someone needs clean underwear or socks and I haven’t folded– at least they know where they can find some in a hurry.
I have a huge laundry room. It is very organized. This gives me peace. :)
2. Handles up. Why does this matter?????
3. I have 3 recipes I can do on my own. For all the rest?? Follow the recipe card.
1. I am completely caught up probably once every two or three weeks. My hubby and son seem to create dirty laundry at the pace of ten men.
2. Sharp knives, handles up. Everything else, handles down.
3. I do a little of both.
so fun!
1. That depends on what you call laundry and what you called “caught up.” I tend to throw it in the wash one day, wash it again the second day, dry it the third (even though it needs to be washed again) fold it several days later, let it sit on the futon in the bonus room several days while it awaits my family members picking it up and putting it away (I refuse to put it away). Then there’ the basket that needs to be ironed. I wait until my mom visits twice a year for that. So if I get one load washed, dried, folded, and someone puts it away I count that as a success. I have a family of four and I am ashamed.
2. Somedays they are all handles down, some days I do a mixture. I am creative and whimsical that way.
3. If I have just watched a marathon of cooking shows on the TV I tend to pretend that I am a chef and make up my own recipes (something with ground beef which real chefs would never use, of course). Otherwise, I stick to things you don’t need recipes for or I use the recipe.
Wow, I’m pretty weird I think.
Thanks for the dose of domestic inferiority!
1/Zero days/week.
2/Knives, handles up. Forks, handles down. Spoons, handles up.
3/Some recipes MUST be followed exactly. Many recipes need that personal touch. Sometimes creative liberties in the kitchen lead to excellent meals.
1. My husband asked me nicely to stop doing the laundry, that he will do it. Translation: he doesn’t like the way I DO laundry. I can’t be bothered to much with separating, etc. As long as I make sure not to put any red objects with whites, I am doing good. We are never “caught up” for long. For a day, maybe.
2. Everything UP, except knives. I always put them down. Hubbie leaves them up. Must be trying to kill me or something.
3. After 11 years of cooking, I can now make up my own recipes. It’s so FREEING to not follow a recipe. I do, however, use recipes. I’m not crazy.
1. Laundry is NEVER caught up. I’m always digging through the laundry baskets to find clean undies. At least they are clean. I wash and dry like a marathon runner but the folding and putting it away……..not so much.
2. Handles are always down. Had a bad dream once that my oldest fell on the open dishwasher door and got poked by a fork. It was bad, scarred for life, me not my daughter though cause it was my dream.
3. I don’t have to follow a recipe unless I’m baking.
Now this should bring some very interesting results. Cannot wait to see the final tally on these!
Laundry-with only 2 of us home I stay caught up all of the time but that really isn’t a lot to brag about!
Utensils-about 1/2 and 1/2 since I don’t know what is the right way and what is the wrong way??
Recipes-about 1/2 and 1/2 here too. WHEN I cook it is usually something I have memorized but on ‘special occasion’ I’ll skim the cookbooks, internet & blogs in an effort to hopefully find something new and GOOD:)
Blessings today and always,
Kaye
Matthew 21:22
Ah, thanks for bringing back the wonderful memory of that one time I was caught up on laundry. It was the day before my daughter was born (4 years ago) and my husband took every dirty item in our house to a laundromat so he could just get it all washed and dried at once. Then he came home and folded it and put it away. That’s never happened since and, considering that we are done having children, will probably never happen in the future.
1. By caught up I suppose you mean “laundry not spilling out of laundry room and into hallway,” right? Well, then I’m caught up 3 out of 7 days of the week!
2. I do them both ways, because they supposedly get cleaner if they’re not all one way or the other.
3. I always thought I was a strict direction follower. But as I’ve gotten more practice, she says with a grimace, I’ve gotten bolder about tweaking recipes. I’m not sure I could pull one out of thin air, though. Although I have been known to pull the three ingredients remaining in our pantry and make something up with those. I’m not saying it was great, but you add enough Dale’s seasoning and just about anything is edible.
1. I do laundry 1 or 2 days a week, there are only 2 of us so we only have 4 or5 loads a week.
2. Handles always up
3. I always use recipes or something I remember in my head from a recipe.
Ha! I love that so many people love to share thier crazy. So I will share mine.
1) none.
2) handles up. ALWAYS.
3) most of our fave recipes I do off the top of my head. and yes, I have messed them up more than once :)
Oops, I read that wrong. But I have been known to make up recipes out of no where or dramatically changing one to accomodate what’s in the cupboards. Just needed to clear that up. Phew.
1) Zero. If I stretch the truth a tad, possibly one…kinda.
2) Handles down except for knives.
3) 90% follow the recipe, 10% make things up as I go. But, those 10% days give me anxieties…hence, the 10%.
1. Never. 6 kids + hubby = constant laundry.
2. Handles up.
3. I do both. I have cooked long enough now to be able to come up with something out of what I have. If I have cheese I am good.
1) I am usually caught up on laundry 5 days a week, but there are only 2 of us. I am sure that will change once our little boy makes his appearance in October!
2) All handles always go down! Don’t know why, but that’s way I did it growing up, so that’s why I do it that way now.
3) Both, I can make stuff up and follow a recipe.
i have never even considered washing my windows. Hmm.
1 – Oh puhlease.
2 – I switch it all up, cause I’m crazy like that.
3 – I follow a recipe but I never follow it. I tend to make it about twice as spicy as the recipe calls for. Cause I’m from TEXAS.
I just got back from a visit with my 84 year old aunt who is soooo particular and has one (right) way of doing everything, so this has also been on my mind.
1. Almost always something in my dryer that I will have to turn on again before I fold.
2. Handles up – don’t want to touch the clean eating parts (my aunt however was very particular about doing it the opposite way)
3. Most always make some adjustments to a recipe or make it up as I go, unless it is baking.
1. I do laundry as the hamper fills up or if something is especially dirty or may stain…with a 9 month old that’s mostly all the time. I usually catch up on the weekends if not before.
2. Handles up.
3. I have a few staple meals I make without recipes and that I keep the ingredients for, but I like to try new ones out pretty frequently. I try to find a good one before I go on the weekly store run to get all the stuff.
1) How many days a week are you completely caught up on laundry?
Maybe 2 days/month. Really, I loathe laundry, because you can do it all beginning to end, but when you get ready for bed that night? Laundry again. It’s never done.
2) When you load your dishwasher, do you load the silverware basket with handles down or handles up?
I’m a handles-up girl so I don’t get poked with tines, etc. But I’m compulsive about not having spoons….well, spoon in the basket.
3) FINALLY – can you make up recipes off the top of your head? Or do you have to follow a recipe somebody else has written?
Oh please. I can’t even fake it with a microwave.
1. If I diligently do 3 loads per day, plus an extra 6 loads on bedding day, I usually take the next day off. But technically, taking the day off while 3 more loads have accumulated may not be “caught up.”
2. Handles up, sharp pointy parts down. Toddlers + fork prongs = disaster.
3. Some recipes – yes, but they are very basic casseroles akin to hamburger helper. Anything fancier – I must use a recipe or it will be bad. I promise.
I can be caught up on laundry when I go to bed … and yet, while we sleep, it seems to divide and conquer.
Chick-fila-A china can be tossed and not washed. Haha!
I don’t have even one dish that I can make without a recipe. Pathetic … but I’ve made peace with it. My family, unfortunately, is still searching for it.
1) I am rarely caught up. We have a family of six so they are always dirtying something up. Anytime I get close I threaten to make them go around naked for the day just so I can enjoy the empty laudry room!
2) Big dilema right now! We got a new dishwasher. It has these fancy tops on the silverware holder to separate the silverware, but they have to be handles down. Hubby can’t stand it! Since a kid is usually unloading the dishes, he thinks they are getting them dirty. I haven’t been able to really tell a difference, so I took the tops off and we’re back to handles up. So far none of the “fancy” features are working better than the plain ol’ normal wash. :(
3) I can’t make a recipe up to save my life. I’m lucky if the recipes I make come out right!
1) People get caught up on laundry? Really? Wow!
2) Knifes and forks down, spoons up.
3) It depends. Sometimes I have to read the instructions to make a pop tart.
1. Completely caught up om laundry? Usually only once a week, sometimes twice — but it only lasts a few hours until we change clothes again.
2. Handles down. If the handles are up, all the widest parts of the utensils are crowded together where I don’t feel they’re getting washed and rinsed thoroughly.
3. I can’t do any baking without a recipe — and cakes don’t turn out well for me even with a recipe (or a cake mix…). I’ve made up a couple of main dish or side dish recipes on my own, but I usually follow a recipe. I do adapt recipes to my own liking, though.
I recently discovered your blog & I love it!
1. Zero times. The last time I was cought up on laundry was years ago, when I only had one little under my feet!
2. I am blessed, I have 2 dishwashers, one is 13 & one is 10. Fortunatley I have never loaded them with knives, forks or spoons! :)
3. Thrown together off the top of my head is the way I like to go! I do use recipes, but I don’t remember the last time I actually followed one to a T. I don’t actually measure either or time things in the oven.
1. Snort! I have actually threatened my kids to have a “nakey day” just so I can FINISH the laundry for once in my life.
2. Whichever way they get tossed in there. I’ve heard to mix them up so they don’t “nest.”
3. I follow recipes, but I often make adjustments based on what sounds better to me. I’m in awe of people who can just create yummy foods without consulting a book.
1. We are generally caught up one day a week … the day we run six loads.
2. All handles down so no one gets poked or cut. (We have Cutco knives, which are exceedingly dangerous, as well as three boys 6 and under.)
3. I couldn’t cook without a recipe to save my life.
1 – laundry is ever caught up?
2 – handles up. handles down & you’ll stab yourself on a fork tine. but you must mix them up so that there is less potential for nesting, which would negate the whole point of a dishwasher.
3 – i like to use a recipe as a guide (a suggestion, if you will), but i can finagle the recipe to match what we like & what’s on hand.
1) I’m a working mom, so I do laundry once a week on the weekend. Sometimes I can get it all done,which includes folding, ironing and putting away, but usually it takes me a week to get the last bit put where it belongs.
2) Handles down. I feel like the food is more likely to be blasted off if they are handles down.
3) I cook a lot, but I’m not very creative in the kitchen. I am more comfortable with following a recipe and when I’m good at it, maybe change things up a little bit.
1. I’m NEVER caught up on the laundry of my family of five.
2. Handles down in the dishwasher, unless it’s a sharp knife
3. I can make up my own recipes out of my head, but I’m sure they all started with a recipe that I read
1. I do one load of laundry each day so it doesn’t get ahead of me
2. Handles down (I know, that means one touches the eating part when emptying the dish washer…bad habit
3. I usually start with a recipe, but rarely follow it word for word…and somethings are simply made from whatever is in the frig or cupboard.
In an attempt to avoid hogging up the comment section of your post, I have posted my answer to question number in this post:
http://www.insertgracehere.com/2009/06/just-another-manic-monday/
Everyone else, feel free to take up comment space. I just saved a huge section.
Your welcome, Big Mama!
Rena
1. I do at least 3 loads of laundry EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. And there’s STILL MORE!! I hate it. I have one that wets the bed every other night and is allergic to pull-ups, and one that is potty training and has at least 2 accidents a day. And we have a pool, so there are at least 5 beach towels and a pile of swimsuits to wash and dry every day. The only time my laundry is ever caught up is when my MIL comes to visit because she is a Magician. I wsh she’d just move in and save me from drowning in laundry.
2. Spoon and fork handles go down in the dishwasher so that the spoon bowls and fork tines won’t have spots on them, although I am not sure who would notice spots on the spoons and forks if people are tripping over all the mountains of laundry.
3. I love to follow recipes to the letter, but usually I have to make it up from whatever we have in the cabinets/fridge. I mean really, who actually has every ingredient in a recipe??
That was so much fun to read I feel a lot better about myself now! Not sure if you still want responses, but here goes…
1. Laundry might be caught up once a month & that is when my husband does it. He is the laundry KING!
2. If I load the dishwasher, handles down. But my daughters take turns with kitchen duty now & I am not going to make that big of a deal about it. Hey, they are clean, right?
3. I am a mathematician. It makes me a little crazy to make something without a formula. That said, I will make substitutions when necessary & play with a recipe I have used a lot. Crazy, I know. ;)
I do towels and bedding during the week. On Friday I do all my husbands and my laundry. I don’t like to have laundry on the weekends. All the handles of the silverware are turned up in the dishwasher. I cook all the meals everyday except for Saturday night. That is our “date night” and we always go out to eat. I cook from tried and true recipes. I pretty much follow the recipe exactly.
Hi BooMama,
I just read your post from my email and I was dying to answer your question ’cause I like to be all domestic and stuff but when I saw you already had 258 comments I wasn’t going to answer. Probably by now you are maybe regretting asking these questions and being a mom of a young one can you still even be reading these anymore? Wow, you are a loved one, look at how many people care enough about you to want to help out. So, since I care too I am going to answer away.
1. I do laundry two days a week. Mondays and Thursdays. After those two days the laundry is completely done, nothing is hanging on the bar, all clothes are folded and put away. I keep 3 tall baskets in the laundry room. Towels, lights and darks and the kids roll their baskets to the room and seperate into the 3 baskets. I have four kids, we have lots of clothes. But, my laundry is always caught up every day of the week. I had to commit to it or the laundry room looks like a tornado swept through.
2. I like your second question. My mom and I often do silverware batttles…. I do handles down EXCEPT knives. The sharp part of the knife should always face down. Safety and all.
3. I hate cooking and it is like a weird science to me. Someday I want to eat a Bobby Flay meal so I can see what the heck all the hub bub is about. I live for the Food Network by the way! (Go Melissa)I have to have a recipe or I am toast.
Jenn
I know this is after the fact, but a few years ago locally, a small boy running though the kitchen while his Mum was unpacking the dishwasher, fell onto the dishwasher tray and was stabbed through the heart by a knife with the blade up.He died. Since then, and the endless reports in the papers when it happened, no-one I know puts the blades up, or the forks. Sharp ends down. Makes complete sense to me, never mind the fact that I do not want to cut myself grabbing the knives! I can’t bear the thought of a child potentially dying because I had a faddish tendancy to stack my dishwasher a particular way!
Oh – the laundry? There is no such thing as completely caught up. And what about ironing?????? No chance.
1) maybe once per year am I completely caught up on laundry… maybe. UGH.
2) handles DOWN, except knives and then handles up.
3) I need a recipe for a guide and inspiration but I then tweak it to fit my liking (or what ingredients I have on hand).
1. I am caught up for approximately 1 hr after I complete the laundry.
2. Handles up… I don’t want to grab the food end when I’m putting them away.
3. A little of both. Depends on how creative I feel
Usually we are caught up every day by the end of the day-only because we do laundry every day-usually two loads. The other contributing factor is that I have an almost 19 year old and a 17 year old children that help in all of this. When everyone is pitching in, it gets done. (though on the days it doesnt, it’s not a big deal-we catch up later.)
Handles up,
I follow a recipe, only tweaking it if we’ve made it many many times and I find that I don’t like a particular spice or cheese that they recommend.
I found a long time ago that I had my own ways of doing things…and we live our lives and set up our house the way that works for us. To compare myself to my friends (or HGTV) only creates discontent with myself. (and a potential for coveting-even if not “things”, but a way of life someone else has)
1. I am caught up on my laundry for about 30 minutes out of every week. But, I do MAKE myself fold and put away (or call the kids to put their own away) after each load.
2.Handles up since my mom (who is a nurse) called me from ER one evening and warned me about having untensils straight up in the dishwasher with children in the house.
3. I can ‘wing’ a recipe if I am in a good mood AND have plenty of time…if I am in a hurry, it will turn out to be a mess.
1) How many days a week are you completely caught up on laundry?
caught up? what does this mean? i’m not even “caught up” when the basket is overflowing, until it is overflowing with underwear and panties and i am forced into either doing laundry or heading to macy’s to buy us more so i can avoid doing laaundry.
2) When you load your dishwasher, do you load the silverware basket with handles down or handles up?
handles up. it just seems practical to do it this way so the handle is what i grab when i empty the dishwasher.
3) FINALLY – can you make up recipes off the top of your head? Or do you have to follow a recipe somebody else has written?
i’m pretty good at making them up off the top of my head. even when i follow a recipe i make changes and add to it most of the time. cooking is my thing (not baking, just cooking.)
i know i am late getting this in, but i liked the questions you asked )
1. Depends on your definition of “caught up”, doesn’t it? If caught up means that every speck of linen that we own is clean at the same time, I would say I’m never caught up. There’s always *something* that’s dirty, even if it’s just the lonely sock under my bed. However, if being caught up simply means that we have clean clothes to wear and clean sheets to lie on, I’m probably caught up 70% of the time. Oh, but if folding and putting away is all part of the deal, then nevermind. I’m never caught up.
2. When I had a dishwasher to load, it was handles down on everything but the knives, which are handle up because – duh – they’re sharp!
3. I’ve only just gotten to the point where I can begin to tweak certain recipes. Once I have a (much) better working knowledge of the basics of cooking, I imagine I might be able to whip something up on the spot. Until then, I’ll be happy with reading my recipes at least ten times over to make sure I’ve got them right!
My word, you have 266 comments on this post — so I thought I’d give you one more thing to read…. yes, you can thank me later.
1. Never on the laundry. I like to always have something to do in case I get bored with work, writing, blogging, twittering, playing with the cat, watching tv, well I think you get the point.
2. Dishwasher is broken. I only load it when the dirty dishes are in sink and company is on the way.
3. I love to make up recipes — and do it all the time… well, that is when I cook.
1 – I’m never caught up because I always put off the folding. I’ll have them all washed, but piles waiting to be folding. Oh, how I despise the folding!
2 – Handles down, except for knives. I think that the part your mouth goes on has to be out in the water spray to get really clean.
3 – Depends–some I have memorized, some I make differently each time I make them and some I rely solely on the recipe.
1 – i don’t go to the laundry, i washed them alone,
2 – Silverware Hands up..
3 – sometimes i follow the recipes in the book and i try to make my own recipes, at holiday, i usually spend a lot of times reading cookbook to get more inspirated :)
1) 0 – I do at least 3 loads a day but I have rarely ever been caught up on laundry since my youngest child was born.
2) Handles up! No germs get on the eating parts that way
3) I am not good at all at “winging it” in the kitchen. I follow the recepie if I want people to eat it LOL.
I am never caught up on my laundry, never, ever. There is always something in that basket.
The handles go up only because my dishwasher is lame and it needs all the help it can get so I figure the closer to the spraying water, the better.
I can’t really wing it in the kitchen unless it is a variation of something I already know. It’s usually the way to season meat that I’ll play around with off the top of my head. But other dishes, I usually stick to a recipe.
1) How many days a week are you completely caught up on laundry? – One, usually Saturday or Sunday. I usually do laundry on the weekends; rarely will I do a load during the week.
2) When you load your dishwasher, do you load the silverware basket with handles down or handles up? – Handles down, because my dishwasher doesn’t clean the “eating end” of the silverware as well if they are stuffed in the basket.
3) FINALLY – can you make up recipes off the top of your head? Or do you have to follow a recipe somebody else has written? – I cannot make up recipes off the top of my head, but I frequently add ingredients to other people’s recipes. (And it doesn’t always work!)
I forget to address the germ answer in my response to question #2: I always wash my hands before unloading the dishwasher, so there is no need to worry about germs getting on the clean dishes. Also, my silverware basket is on the door of my dishwasher, and it opens so that I can retrieve the silverware by the handles.
1. Laundry is always an ongoing process for my family of five, which I’ve had to just concede to and be reluctantly OK with, but my guideline is that the hampers NEVER get too full that they don’t close completely. Really, though, I’m so OCD that I have to do at least a load a day. So rarely does the laundry get out of control. But I kind of dig laundry, truth be told, so it’s not a big “chore” for me so much as therapy. :0)
2. Handles go down on all of my silverware. It just seems like the service sides get cleaner when they’re up?
3. I cannot cook on the fly. Ever. I MUST have a recipe! Perhaps it’s the OCD I mentioned in #1? :0)
1) Is this even POSSIBLE???
2) Handles down. Because, otherwise, the peanut butter- and avocado-smeared spoons (though NOT a combination of these) would never come clean.
3) I always begin with a recipe (because I have absolutely NO original ideas swimming around in my head) and sometimes customize it based on my mood and/or ingredients on hand.
1. When my family decides that they want to be naked 24 hours a day, for the next 30 days, I will be caught up. Until then? I hide cookies in the laundry room.
2. Since I’m usually throwing my utensils into the dishwasher in stealth mode to prevent infiltration from the 13 month old or help cleaning from the dogs, it’s whatever way they land. Preference? I like them clean, I don’t care.
3. I tried to experiment once. I think we had to throw the pan away due to an overabundance of burnt on cheese. Just sayin’
Getting caught up on my reading!
1. Laundry is always a work in progress…and I HATE it! I have a 17-year old that is worse that having a baby, if an item of clothing touches her body, it MUST be rewashed! Luckily she is becoming a laundry queen.
2. Silverware goes up and down because Martha Stewart SAYS SO!
3. I wing it in the kitchen a lot
Okay. 277 comments? I’m clearly blogging about the wrong stuff. And also, since I feel compelled to comment, the crazy, it is catching.
1. Our household of 7 has two loads of laundry each day. So, in a way we’re always caught up in that the two prescribed loads get done each day. In another way, we’re never caught up in that there is always laundry in the hampers. Lookee there. A whole paragraph and I managed to not answer the question at all.
Moving on.
2. On the silverware, I prefer knives with handles up and other pieces with handles up. I also prefer wearing a size 6 and vacationing at George Clooney’s Italian villa. But, to quote philosopher Alan Jackson, here in the real world I’m happy if whoever’s doing the dishes manages to get the silverware IN the dishwasher and keep the Polly Pockets OUT.
3. Last night, I thawed 8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts and put them in my Pampered Crap..er..Chef stoneware deep dish baker. Then I mixed a can of golden mushroom soup, a pint of sour cream, an envelope of onion soup mix and about half a cup of cream and poured it over the chicken, covered it in foil and baked it. I called it Chicken Surprise, we ate it over noodles and nobody went to bed hungry. So, yeah, I wing it in the kitchen. Chicken. Wing it. I slay me.
One of these days you’re going to learn to close your comments before I get to clearing out my feed reader.