So much this. I can’t remember the last time I had a huge pile up of dishes that I didn’t clean while something was simmering or whatever. By the time my meal is ready, everything is clean or there’s one pot that might need to soak while I eat.
I really think this is one of the secrets to successfully keeping up with household chores as an adult. After I started focusing on cleaning up when I could while cooking and saw how much easier it made my life later, I started noticing stuff that’s quick and easy to put away/clean while just walking through the house on my way to do something else. Doing little things all the time instead of saying “Oh I’ll clean that up later” and leaving everything as a big project was a switch in mindset that’s helped me a lot.
If you spent 2 hours cooking hopefully you made enough for more than one meal.
For me, 2 hours of cooking would be like 2 weeks worth of food, unless I’m smoking something, of course.
Or make the other people who ate help clean up.
Mental illness, which is why I as an enlightened man of the 21st century only drink meal replacement shakes
One pot wonders are good for regular cooking. Crock-Pot can make it easier too. Dump it in and come back a lot later.
I think Dan Olsen on Folding Ideas said it best that it is maddening when people talk about cooking at home that they always exclude the clean up.
https://youtu.be/V-a9VDIbZCU?si=IJ1Ffr_luBReNfIV (Folding Ideas, longer video about Jamie Oliver’s war on chicken nuggets)
If you clean as you go, there should be very little cleanup after.
For me, the only cleanup after eating is rinsing the pots/pans that had been soaking while I ate.
Cooking is basically just a choreographed dance, so planning beforehand is important.
I think it depends on how many guests you have for the post-cleanup. However, I generally agree with you.
I sometimes get on my partner’s or family members case about things left around when we’re waiting for the oven or something and they’re like: “I’ll just do it at the end”. For big meals, the large dish rack plus the dish washer (which seems to be another dish rack for us) almost always gets over crowded and we need to use those drying pads.