Six-minute magic

It's amazing how stuff just piles up. In my case it's dishes in the sink.

Since winning Lotto and hiring someone to wash my dishes is not an option, here's what I do...

The cooking time for my soup in the microwave is six minutes. I suppose I could sit and stare as the microwave counts down OR I could do something productive and nearby for six minutes.

How about them thar dirty, crusty dishes?

The goal isn't to finish the dishes or whatever mini project you take on, though if you do, triple cool.

No, the aim is to get you closer to a desired outcome.

For six minutes while the soup is warming up, I putter with purpose around the kitchen. It might be washing as many dishes as I can in six minutes or putting away as many previously-washed, air dried dishes as I can in six minutes or cleaning out the fridge of as much furry food as I can in six minutes or wiping down the countertops and reorganizing as much of the kitchen cabinets as I can in six minutes.

The key is to do as much of or as many as, then stop and resume working during the countdown.

The beauty of the kitchen is that it's a room that it provides many minutes for you to do something else while something else is counting down such as waiting for coffee to brew, waiting for the oven to let you know that it's at 450 degrees or waiting for cookies to cool.

Yes, think of your kitchen as one big, ol' egg timer. Oh, yeah! Add "waiting for eggs to boil" to that list, too!