Hubby empties the dishwasher each morning when he gets up. We all load the dishwasher during the day with our dirty dishes (we have two teenaged boys). I tend to do the evening dishes and general kitchen wipe-down, and I turn on the dishwasher at that time.

We tend to use paper towels for a lot of things, like a snack of cheese or fruit. We did the paper plate thing when the boys were little and it seemed like I never had enough time to do anything. The amount of waste ended up bothering me too much. We do use extra party plates and napkins until they're used up, though.

I like doing the dishes. I like doing the laundry, too. I hate cleaning the toilet and Swiffering or vacuuming every day, so those are things my kids do ) They don't mind! They hate doing dishes, and the biggest thrill in our house is hearing an affirmative to, "Are the dishes in the dishwasher clean?" They know they can leave their dirty dishes in the sink because Daddy hasn't done his job!

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I am a retired homeschooler with brilliant beautiful Godly boys who please and surprise me every day. I live with my sweet hubby of 22 years. Life changes all the time, but God has blessed us with the ability to keep our eyes on His prize.

That is why I have kids. Up until a month or so ago my oldest dd and I took turns loading and the 3 younger ones unloaded. Now my oldest has taken over laundry and the 2 middle dds have been loading what will fit in the dishwasher and doing the rest by hand. They also help their brother unload the dishwasher, adventually he will be worked into the rotation of loading.

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Michele

We all use the same cup all day, and sometimes into the next day, since we mostly drink water. Another thing I do that I learned from my grandma, is to fill the sink with warm water to "pre-rinse" my dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. (Our Bosche dishwasher doesn't really work very well, we have to rinse the dishes before placing them in the dishwasher.) They just sit there for about 5 minutes and either my son or I come in and load them in the dishwasher, then we handwash any pots we may have used and place on our drying rack. I'm like Pam, and love to have the dishes done so I don't have to wake up to a dirty kitchen.

There are three of us.
No dishwasher, got rid of it 10 yrs ago, kept leaking.
I fill the sink with hot water and soap before we eat and after we eat, DD does the dishes, she hates this one pot so I do it and the others so I can get them out of the way.
I clean the counters and stove top.

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It is a hard chore and it does seem like there are always dirty dishes in the sink. We use to have a dish washer that helped out so much. Now we do not. Most of the times I do the dishes, rarely my hubby will do them-I appreciate this so much because his back is hurt and I know when he DOES do them he IS sacrifices for me. When Sky is home she helps and to be honest does them most of the time. Since she has been gone Meadow has stepped up to the plate but only maybe once a week. I find that I'd rather wash once a day then to have a pile so I try my best to stay on top of things. That does not always happen! lol I find for our house clothes are the hardest chore. We just have too many clothes and we need to downsize!

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“The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.”
― Mother Teresa

Same here with the clothes, Jenileigh.
We try to go through DD's clothes every three months, the kid still has clothes she can wear but are wearing out that she wore at age 12, she is 18, size 2.
I have more tops than anything, I do switch out the winter clothes from the summer. Well, this winter if we have one I am wearing sweat pants and tops at home, and sweaters and jeans to church.
DH he has more shirts and t shirts, he needs longer t shirts because his belly shows and he does not seem to care, but DD and I do.

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I have downsized my clothes Linda. Where I gain and lose weight so frequently I had many many sizes of everything. I went through my things and boxed up absolutely everything that I had not worn this year period. Now my closet it thin. I have clothes that fit and that is it. I've actually lost a little again and they are bagging some but I purchased a belt and that keep my pants up. lol I have a few tops that I've had to give away because they are just too big. I love pjs. When I'm at home I'm almost always wearing a gown or pj top and bottoms.

Since I have been working as a dental assistant I wear uniforms to work. I'm amazed how they cut down on my need for clothes.

I just need to DO the same thing for my dh, Sky and Meadow. DOING it is the hard part for me. I'm so busy all the time my house is the last thing I feel like tackling. I just have no motivation. I'm really hoping that when I am able to come out of full time work to concentrate on the RN program that I will have a little more time to spend getting my house in order.

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“The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.”
― Mother Teresa

I wash our dishes whenever is possible. our family is small all going for job then i am alone at home so i wash my dishes whenever its possible for me.

I was just remembering, when we were kids Mom did what many Moms did then - she color-coded us. Each kid had their own favorite-color of drinking glass for water (mine was purple!), so that if it was used all day - or for several days, there wasn't a problem with kids swapping glasses & germs by accident. Our toothbrushes and photo albums were also the same color.

I've heard of families that did the same with bath towels to save laundry.

There's no reason you couldn't do the same with plates & silverware, etc (assuming kids are old enough) and make everyone responsible for their own color.

(Of course, if anyone is color-blind, you might want to go for a different color intensity, or a different pattern/print)

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I have found that me taking on the task of handwashing dishes once or twice a day as I have time keeps me from feeling overwhelmed in the kitchen. The kids and I have a very busy sports schedule, so this is what works for me rather than letting enough collect to run the dishwasher. I do use the dishwasher as a glorified drying rack. LOL