Do not leave dirty dishes unattended for a long period of time

Washing up is important, very much so.

It's all very well to think that it can be left until later.  But in a family of six, the kitchen is filled with dirty washing up after two meals.  And the really annoying thing is that this is true after tea and breakfast, even though it could be assumed that meals which don't require cooking don't require lots of dishes.  Yes, I do know this from experience, and yes, it is probably my fault if this happens because mum isn't feeling too well currently.  And no, that's not anything to worry about at all.

And if the washing up has been left from tea and breakfast, making dinner is a pain.  As the kitchen is full of dirty dishes, it's not as simple as walking into the kitchen and preparing food.  No.  First one has to sort the dishes.  As we've got a dishwasher, this isn't quite as bad as could be assumed, but it still isn't really very nice to have to sort dishes before cooking.  This is even more relevant if you only thought of dinner at eleven am, and you don't like to eat later than one pm.

When faced with a pile of washing up, the person who has to cook will begin to stack the dishwasher and wash up....and by the time they actually get to cooking the meal, they will not be feeling happy.  In fact, that is an understatement.  They will be annoyed and stressed.  This is true in my experience, but maybe I just get annoyed and stressed easily.

I know all this.  So why is it that I still don't feel a great urge to sort the dishes after tea?  Not that we've already eaten this evening, but I know that I won't feel a great urge to do dishes later.  I never feel a great urge to do dishes unless I need to use these dishes or need the area they occupy—although I can stack dirty dishes very neatly and very space efficiently.

And, although not much else can be said for stacking dirty dishes neatly and space efficiently, they look a lot nicer that way.  If the dirty dishes were to be stacked neatly and someone popped round unexpectedly and happened to look in the kitchen, they would automatically assume that the dirty dishes were under control.  If the dishes were just put in the kitchen any old how, as so often happens in this house, an unexpected visitor would assume that the dirty dishes were out of control.

But I must ensure that someone does the washing up after tea tonight, because no one's going to do it before breakfast tomorrow.