Kitchen Pet Peeves

[Kathleen]

I do relate to your struggle. I ended up gutting the kitchen and put mine in during a remodel. So I did not replace the cabinet nearest to the stove, which was painful, but...well, since I replaced all cabinets, it was easier to slide a dishwasher in. Our house was built in the 1940s, and builders did not value kitchens here either. (On an unrelated note, the house had a whopping 30 amps and ran on oil heat when I bought it. I would plug in a hand-mixer and blow the fuse.)

 

[larry_stewart]

I'm the mess maker and my wife is the mess cleaner. She hates cooking, and I dont mind cleaning up, but apparently my standards of something being clean is a lot lower than hers (not intentionally ) so we each stick to our jobs ,I cook, she cleans.

***Just as a disclaimer, I'm pretty good at using the same pot or pan over and over, to minimize the mess***

 

[KatyCooks]

I do relate to your struggle. I ended up gutting the kitchen and put mine in during a remodel. So I did not replace the cabinet nearest to the stove, which was painful, but...well, since I replaced all cabinets, it was easier to slide a dishwasher in. Our house was built in the 1940s, and builders did not value kitchens here either. (On an unrelated note, the house had a whopping 30 amps and ran on oil heat when I bought it. I would plug in a hand-mixer and blow the fuse.)

1940s Kathleen! So, if I may ask, what it is built of? Is it brick (which is what mine is - apparently standard construction in the UK during rebuilding after the war), and mine is tough as anything! Hard to even drill a hole without special tools! (Which is great - it won't fall down anytime time soon - but tough (and expensive) if you want to make any changes.)

 

[Kathleen]

It is brick and you do need a special drill to to place a hole in the wall along the outside walls. The house is built like a fortress. 2" x 16" hardwood supports for the floors and ceiling. Our walls are plaster on the inside of the house - to a point - and once you go an inch (2 cm roughly) into the plaster, you will need that special drill. Also, I don't think there is a 90 degree angle in the house. The roof is made of slate and the gutters are copper. But all wiring is also copper.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

...(On an unrelated note, the house had a whopping 30 amps and ran on oil heat when I bought it. I would plug in a hand-mixer and blow the fuse.)

I'm guessing that you guys had a fuse box? That's what my parents' 1928 house had when they bought it. Dad ended up replacing it with a circuit breaker box.

 

[KatyCooks]

It is brick and you do need a special drill to to place a hole in the wall along the outside walls. The house is built like a fortress. 2" x 16" hardwood supports for the floors and ceiling. Our walls are plaster on the inside of the house - to a point - and once you go an inch (2 cm roughly) into the plaster, you will need that special drill. Also, I don't think there is a 90 degree angle in the house. The roof is made of slate and the gutters are copper. But all wiring is also copper.

I feel some kindred spirit here! There certainly aren't many straight angles in my home! (Which I don't actually mind that much until it comes to laying carpet...)

Is there any chance you have some Irish ancestry? Obviously, your name could be a clue...

 

[Kathleen]

I'm guessing that you guys had a fuse box? That's what my parents' 1928 house had when they bought it. Dad ended up replacing it with a circuit breaker box.

I did have a fuse box! It was a little-bitty thing. We replaced it with a much larger circuit breaker box and partitioned off parts of the house when we installed it. The kitchen was placed on its own circuit as were the main bath and small flush area. Also separated out different rooms as well as floors. The electrician had several chuckles and a few choice words in doing the job. Nothing runs straight in the house. Absolutely nothing.

I feel some kindred spirit here! There certainly aren't many straight angles in my home! (Which I don't actually mind that much until it comes to laying carpet...)

Is there any chance you have some Irish ancestry? Obviously, your name could be a clue...

All of the floors are hardwood. I'm not changing that!

I do have some Irish in our family. We are the classical example of a melting pot, but my name came from the Irish line in the family.

 

[KatyCooks]

I did have a fuse box! It was a little-bitty thing. We replaced it with a much larger circuit breaker box and partitioned off parts of the house when we installed it. The kitchen was placed on its own circuit as were the main bath and small flush area. Also separated out different rooms as well as floors. The electrician had several chuckles and a few choice words in doing the job. Nothing runs straight in the house. Absolutely nothing.



All of the floors are hardwood. I'm not changing that!

I do have some Irish in our family. We are the classical example of a melting pot, but my name came from the Irish line in the family.

The best of America is the melting pot! I am named after one of my Irish grandmothers. Both of my parents were Irish.) I was born in London. So proud to be both British and Irish.

 

[KatyCooks]

Anyway, we got off topic there. So back to Kitchen Pet Peeves...

Here's another one for me... my cooker.. I try to keep it clean, daily clean/wipe etc but still I can see stuff building up where I can't get to it. Any tips for how to reach behind the clear "wall" behind the "knobs"?

 

[Silversage]

I'm the mess maker and my wife is the mess cleaner. She hates cooking, and I dont mind cleaning up, but apparently my standards of something being clean is a lot lower than hers (not intentionally ) so we each stick to our jobs ,I cook, she cleans.

***Just as a disclaimer, I'm pretty good at using the same pot or pan over and over, to minimize the mess***

we have the same arrangement. I cook, she cleans up.

 

[Kathleen]

On my old stove, I would pull off the knobs and clean it with the cleaner I used on everything else.

 

[KatyCooks]

On my old stove, I would pull off the knobs and clean it with the cleaner I used on everything else.

Sadly, that doesn't work with this stove (but yes, that was what I used to do with my older stoves - made life easier!) Amazing how "new tech" makes it harder to do basic things like keeping them clean!

 

[KatyCooks]

we have the same arrangement. I cook, she cleans up.

I think there is balance in this arrangement (the other way around in my case) and I would like my brother to agree. Sadly, he doesn't seem to appreciate the "balance" part of the arrangement.

 

[medtran49]

I think there is balance in this arrangement (the other way around in my case) and I would like my brother to agree. Sadly, he doesn't seem to appreciate the "balance" part of the arrangement.

He would if he wanted to eat in my house!

Craig and i started out with that agreement but it quickly became a whoever cooks also cleans. We cooked about 50/50, but I'm a pot/utensil reuser, clean as i go kind if cook. He wasn't , so i would get left with a sink piled high with dishes and he'd have just our dinner dishes plus whatever pots/pans food was in. Let's put it this way, once he had to face a sink piled high over and over again, he became not a great reuser/clean as you go cook, but a much, much better one.

My DD and her ex also had the whoever cooks doesn't have to clean arrangement. He started not cleaning up when things began to go south with them and she was always complaining about it to me. Finally, i told her to quit doing the dishes and let them pile up even though a mess sitting around drove her crazy and even if it meant they ran out of dishes. Told her to get food for her and the girls out, buy paper plates and hide them so he couldn't use them, clean silverware as they needed. It took about 4 days. He started cleaning up after that. When he would backslide and start to leave them again, she would just let them sit and it might take him up to a day to get them done but never longer than that.

BTW, he did cook about 25% of the time and would start making comments about dishes needing to be done if they weren't cleaned up within a couple hours of dinner, but, if she did the same, he would get angry about being bothered . Many things like that and worse are why he is an ex.

 

[Roll_Bones]

You'd better be really nice to that lady. Sounds like you hit the jackpot.

I did. Took me me 3 tries but I finally hit a home run.

 

[Marlingardener]

Cleaning up isn't one of my pet peeves. Actually, I'm mad at myself for not getting a dishwasher sooner. My mantra was "I need to wash and reuse a bowl /pot/skillet, and don't want to wait for a dishwasher to clean it."
Then we moved into a house with a dishwasher, and I found it was soooo much easier to get more bowls/pots/skillets that to be up at 2:00a.m. doing dishes after a dinner party! I love my dishwasher, wouldn't be without one, and anyone who gets between me and my dishwasher is going to feel the full force of my "pet peeve".

 

[Roll_Bones]

Cleaning up isn't one of my pet peeves. Actually, I'm mad at myself for not getting a dishwasher sooner. My mantra was "I need to wash and reuse a bowl /pot/skillet, and don't want to wait for a dishwasher to clean it."
Then we moved into a house with a dishwasher, and I found it was soooo much easier to get more bowls/pots/skillets that to be up at 2:00a.m. doing dishes after a dinner party! I love my dishwasher, wouldn't be without one, and anyone who gets between me and my dishwasher is going to feel the full force of my "pet peeve".

I wash pots, pans, bowls, utensils as I go. By the time the dish is done, there should not be any dishes to wash in the sink.
But after dinner my wife puts the plates and flatware into the dishwasher. This way she only rinses a few times before actually washing. We couldn't leave them without rinsing. We run it about 2-3 times a week.
We just bought a new dishwasher and my wife loves it. I installed it. The old one did not clean nearly as good as this one. And it is the most quiet one we have ever had.

 

[GinnyPNW]

Cleaning up isn't one of my pet peeves. Actually, I'm mad at myself for not getting a dishwasher sooner. My mantra was "I need to wash and reuse a bowl /pot/skillet, and don't want to wait for a dishwasher to clean it."
Then we moved into a house with a dishwasher, and I found it was soooo much easier to get more bowls/pots/skillets that to be up at 2:00a.m. doing dishes after a dinner party! I love my dishwasher, wouldn't be without one, and anyone who gets between me and my dishwasher is going to feel the full force of my "pet peeve".

I never had a house with a dishwasher, until we bought this one is 2012. Well, actually, that's not 100% true. I've had a dishwasher ever since we got married. His name is Mikey!

 

[Wooleybooger]

My pet peeve is the person who uses home canned products in my kitchen. That person won't store the empty jar outside the kitchen counter until it starts overflowing then only moves a couple to make room for a couple more. Arrrrgggghhhh.

I'm the person who cans, uses the product in meals, washes empty jars and won't put them away. Maybe I'll take myself out behind the woodshed and kick my butt.

 

[dragnlaw]

Before you kick his butt, why don't you suggest to him to put the empty carton, that normally holds the canning jars, on the floor/counter/chair, and place the washed jars in them (upside down, keeps them cleaner) as he goes along. Then move the filled carton to storage and bring back a new carton.
(that's what I used to do, worked for me)