4 Little Men & Girly Twins - Latest Comments in As seen in...

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Firefly Photo Jewelry — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 00:53:00 -0000

We had that frog in our house when I grew up! Those were the things to have back in the day. I wonder if my mom still has it. I imagine she does {grin!}

Thanks for clearing it up a little what you guys are doing there.

How are the kids adjusting to the "move"?

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Mel Bowman — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 22:54:22 -0000

Rinse dishes in between meals to reuse throughout the day; wash them right away if they are dirty. I find it takes me less time if I dry the dishes and put them away immediately than if I wait for them to dry. By then there is just SO MUCH and it makes me cranky.

Soak dirty pots as soon as possible with hot, soapy water. Whenever possible, I use aluminum foil to keep messes to a minimum.

Good luck Mama!

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Carrie — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:22:54 -0000

I'm a big fan of the dishwasher wand. The soap goes directly into the sponge. Or a sink of dishwater for a bigger meal, then rinse and set on counter to dry. But it's that dishwasher wand that keeps me from wasting money on paper plates and cups.

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Marie — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 06:13:13 -0000

I'm a big fan of children being responsible for themselves and simple household tasks, so I like the idea of giving each child a week/day where they do the dishes, or the idea others suggested where each child has a color and they wash up their own stuff.

Eating outside also saves dishes and mess! (I learned that one from Mckmama ;) )

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Keesler Chaos — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:39:11 -0000

As kids we had color coded dishes. (I was orange.) We each had a cup, bowl and plate, and we were responsible for washing our own, drying and putting away. Each big kid had a little "partner" to help, and whomever's week it was did the pots and pans. It worked great, because you always knew who to blame if your plate was missing or dirty!

PS: If it was your week to scrub, you got to help make the menu too, and later, to help cook dinner.

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Amy - AKA - TigerMommie — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:10:31 -0000

Great finds in the basement!
We don't have a dishwasher......and do have a house full of people. Due to circumstances, TigerBoy was solely on bottles from about 4-5 months old......everything washed and is washed by hand....
A secret to uncluttered sinks? What we do is wash as you go......not letting it pile up......

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Twinkletoes — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:00:53 -0000

Neat history...can't wait to see more.

We have a dishwasher but really never use it (we are also a family of 6, not 8, so I don't know if it does make a difference) but we just wash as we go (while cooking) and then for dinner, I wash and either hubby or grandma dry and put away.

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HD — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:02:01 -0000

Okay, I didn't read all of the other comments, so pardon me if I repeat. Up until a couple of months ago, I NEVER had a dishwasher. So let me tell you about the art of doing them as you go. If you're baking, for example, as soon as your treat is in the oven, do a sink full of dishes.

Also, we bought a great scrubber from Ikea that suctions to the sink for quick and easy washing of those couple of items.

I'm a big fan of "air drying" the dishes too. Then I can take a break, come back later, and put things away. However, if you're very tidy, this won't do.

Good luck!

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Michelle Riggs — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:58:41 -0000

Great pictures!

Thank you so much for praying for Abby!

RiggsFamilyBlog.com

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Tami — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:39:34 -0000

LOVE the frog. My mother had one when we were growing up and I hadn't thought about it in years but now I want to know what happened to it.

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MomBE — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:03:33 -0000

I am a long time reader and was glad to see someone above said that they were confused as to what exactly you were doing? Asking, have you moved? I know you did not move, but would love a re-cap on EXACTLY what it is that you are doing, why, when you will get back to the house? Do you own the other home, are you renting? what is your social security number...teehee, just kidding! BTW, LOVE the swing pic, just tells a story about WHO you are!

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Tribulation — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:35:53 -0000

what we do is make sure that everyone uses only one glass all day. * kids have a tendency to think they need a new glass for every beverage. i am a firm believer of rinse and use it again* then the dishes get rinsed well after being used and then the dishes are all done after dinner, and put up the next morning. now sometimes, we have to do the dishes in the middle of the day if we have been doing alot of cooking but it helps keep the job to less than fifteen minutes.

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Me — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:04:45 -0000

I tried to live without a dishwasher..I couldnt do it! I love my dishwasher!!

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Jenn — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 11:28:07 -0000

We don't have a dishwasher so we let the dishes pile up until there are enough to make it worth washing (or until we run out or forks, whichever comes first)... Our counter is so tiny that we don't even have a spot for a drying rack. So I try to keep the things we use a lot in plain sight so we'll use them and wash them more often because we WANT to use them again.

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Sarah @ BecomingSarah.com — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 11:13:55 -0000

In my family, the rule was always that we had to wash and dry all dishes as soon as the meal was finished. There were never any good tricks, it was always alot of dishes, but getting it done immediately helped alleviate the piling-up-and-becoming-insurmountable problem.

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Juliana E — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 11:12:24 -0000

Hi Brittany!

I would love to have all those cabinets - the storage!
I hope you post more pics of your temporary home - I love looking at old farm houses.

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JenT — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 11:09:22 -0000

Yeah, no dishwasher here either; unless you count the 11 year old. Dishes are one of her chores. To keep it easy, she does them immediately after each meal and we also use paper plates for lunch. Sometimes even for supper.

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indavao — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 10:51:49 -0000

hi... just dropping by!
http://www.fileafro.com
http://mobileandetc.blogspot.com
http://kantahanan.blogspot.com

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Aimee' — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 10:31:57 -0000

We're a family of 4 and don't use our dishwasher...soo my rule is we TRY to use the same drinking glass unless it gets "dirty" and I often serve snacks on paper towels instead of a dish...sometimes breakfast is on a paper towel too, depending what it is!

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Joey and Bobbi Kenow — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 09:48:48 -0000

We have extremely shallow sinks...so just one meal looks like one weeks worth of dishes. My husband and I normally put the kids to bed, and when the house is quiet, we catch up on each other's day as he washes and I dry and put away the dishes. It is a very peaceful time of night...and then the kitchen is ready for a fresh start in the morning!! BUT...I don't have 8 people's worth of dishes :)

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Jennifer — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 09:34:57 -0000

I haven't been using my dishwasher - my biggest thing is just to wash after every meal and if you have a couple minutes before serving the meal, do a quick wash of all the prep stuff so you just have plates, silverware and cups after.

Make everyone use the same cup all day :-)

I often prep for dinner at lunch time - I find after dinner dishes the hardest to do with DH home, kids needing to get in bed, being tired..... so if I can make all the mess at lunch and clean it up then, all we have after dinner is what we ate off of.

CROCKPOT is your best friend..... if you don't have one, find one!

Stick all the silverware in a cup as you are cleaning up, it rinses it and gets everything off so those wash easy.

If you have pots and pans that are gonna have to wait a little bit and have icky cooked stuff in it, pour boiling water into the pans and let them sit, the boiling water will loosen everything so when you get back to washing them they clean so easy - that is a trick my MIL taught me :-)

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Kelli @ RTSM — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 09:12:02 -0000

That kitchen reminds me so much of my grandparents' old kitchen! My grandmother had a little frog just like that too...she used it to keep sponges in. I hate to wash dishes...and my dishwasher just broke! We are waiting on the replacement part, and as I type there is a HUGE pile of dirty dishes in the sink!

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bethy — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 09:02:13 -0000

i thought washing dishes was going to be the worst but it really isnt terrible. i wash them every morning and before dinner and my hubby washes them every night after dinner (which i cook, if he cooks i just wash them all in the morning!) it works for us and i like knowing that my dishes really are clean!

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Queen Mommy — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 08:51:08 -0000

LOVE all that cabinet space! My parents used to have a frog just like that....in fact, they still might have it somewhere. :-)

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Steph and Mitch T — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 08:49:55 -0000

We have a "worthless" dishwasher...but with a family of 9 + daycare, we have lots of dishes. I admit my hubby Mitch does most of the washing. We assigned our 3 oldest kids as meal helpers (one per meal). It is their job to clear the table and help with dishes. We use our worthless dishwasher as a rinsing/drying rack. The helper puts the clean dishes away. Mitch washes, and the helper loads them into the dishwasher. They we run the 7 min. rinse cycle (seriously, that's all we trust it for). Having the kids be assigned to a meal as helper has really made a big difference. Yes, we wash dishes 3 (sometimes more) times per day...but it cuts down on the work.