House kitchen tips

So, for the past few days we have been canning. Of course, the dehydrator has been running as well.  The freezers are already packed tight. I am sure we will be heavy into preserving food for a few more weeks.

My wife is the night person, so she finished things up after I went to bed.  I am the morning person, so when I got up, I began cleaning up the kitchen and putting a new load in the dehydrator. I still have  couple more loads of dishes to wash and the floor to attack.

My question is, after a few decades of doing this, is there something we are missing?  Is there a better system to putting food up?  What does everyone else do to keep things orderly?  Does anyone actually keep their kitchen clean and orderly all the time they are preserving food?

It sounds like you have a great system!  If you are getting the kitchen back to clean on a daily basis, you're doing better than me.

I've got two teenagers who only help with food preservation when a metaphorical gun is held to their head.  (They help with meals, so it's not a complete loss, but food preservation is considered to be my thing.)

Just looking for ideas. My wife and I came to terms with the fact that we lack the neat gene a long time ago.

John F Dean wrote:Does anyone actually keep their kitchen clean and orderly all the time they are preserving food?

Good Lord no. Stuff everywhere, not to mention vegetables dying in various corners at this time of year. Our goal is to embrace the chaos and preserve the illusion of control.

Since I'm not the neat-and-tidy half of the act, my Dear Wife taught me a Jedi mind trick that works for me: put away 10 things. I may not have time or energy to do everything right now, but I can put away 10 things while the kettle boils (or whatever). Which often leads to 20 or 30. It's about by starting with a bite-size task to gain momentum .