Can't get motivated to keep on top of the kitchen!

[LilllyLovesLife]

I KNOW this is the most important part of the house to keep clean and tidy. But I just hate it and ignore it and it does my head in. I have had a child free day today and have done every room except the kitchen. I have started it 4 times but after 5 mins I end up in here where as every other room I get stuck in.

I think it's because I know the kitchen won't stay clean/tidy for longer than one meal time!!

I need help/kick up the arse/advise!

Get rid of half the stuff in there, buy some nice accessories and pimp it a bit, and reduce the number of pots you use when you cook.

I know how you feel, only in my case the rest of the house is not much better. Kitchen is particularly bad though. Never have time to wash the breakfast things before school run, and it goes downhill from there. We recycle pretty much everything we can, so I always have loads of plastic and cardboard to take to the tip (life would be so much easier if I could just put it in the bin, but I just can't do it). Bin for compost is nearly always full. The piles of paperwork from school/pre-school etc. tend to get dumped. Plus, kitchen is really old and tatty (circa 1980) and we can't afford a new one at the moment.

Am going to go and do 15 minutes now before getting the kids' breakfast and new resolution is not to start looking at MN until I have cleaned it in future.

Let me know how you get on!

Try timing yourself to see how long it takes to do a job. I hate dishes, but actually I realised that it only really take me 15 mins to wash, dry and put away after a meal. 15 mins is no time at all. When its really messy, I set a timer for 5 or 10 mins and work fast til it goes off, then take a break or do another room, then come back again.

Hippee - could you run sink of hot water before breakfast and put dishes in before you leave? Do you have an outdoor space that you can keep recycling? Is the compost yours, or one the council empty? Can you get another? A wormery?
Get two shoeboxs or something for all paperwork - one for important stuff that you need to reply to, and another for artwork etc that can be viewed later.

Mousey - you are entirely right - for the last 2 days I have taken 15 minutes out of my "nagging to get dressed" routine to wash up the breakfast things and we've only been marginally later for school than usual.

We do have recycling boxes outside the back door, but the draining board is regularly full of drying yoghurt pots, etc. So looking forward to the promised kerbside collection for plastic bottles and cardboard, as this will take a lot of the bulk on a regular basis.

I'm just a procrastinator - need to keep kicking myself not to put things off until later. Am getting better at never going upstairs/downstairs empty-handed though.

Are you sorted Lilly

Hi, I am also bad at keeping my kitchen up to date. As I sit here typing this I have a kitchen full of washing up to do. I am going to try and make a start on it soon. I think it's a case of fitting it in where you can. and trying to do it a little at a time.

I hate my kitchen. Especially just now as things have been rearranged to prevent dangerous things getting into little hands

But, I've just bought some different sized storage boxes and lumped stuff that sits on the counter into them. So, oven gloves, toast rack etc - all the stuff that I use daily and which doesn't have a "home" because I use it daily IYSWIM.
Now I can just lift the box and wipe rather than having 6-7 bits to lift separately and hide it in a cupboard if guests are coming

Think the only way I'm ever going to have a tidy kitchen is by getting a new one - so that it's actually well designed and laid out. (I mean what man idiot ever thought that elaborate fretwork on a kitchen cabinet next to a cooker was a good idea? )

I agree with the timing. I set my phone timer on for 15mins and see if I can 'beat the clock'. Sad but it works.
The other thing I try to do is clean it every night after dinner. It really helps to start the day off with a tidy kitchen.
During the week I try to do one pan dinners (oven, hob or slow cooker) so this keeps the washing up to a minimum.