When beginning to organize your home and life, The One Minute Organizer says to begin by dealing with “today’s mess,” i.e., today’s dishes, today’s laundry, and today’s mail.  But what constitutes “today’s dishes” if  you don’t run the dishwasher every day?  I suppose it means putting today’s dirty dishes in the dishwasher and washing by hand those items that shouldn’t go in the dishwasher, like crystal and knives.   Of course, this means you have to empty the dishwasher promptly.

I’m reasonably good about loading the dishwasher, and only slightly less reasonably good at emptying it.  It’s the hand washing that stymies me.

When I emptied the dishwasher, the dishes were clean, but I noticed water standing in the bottom.  Obviously there’s a clog somewhere in the drain.  If it’s reachable by hand, I  couldn’t find it.  But then, I’m not really sure what I’m looking for.

So it was a good day to tackle “today’s dishes,” which included today’s dishes, yesterday’s dishes, the day before’s dishes… you get the idea.   Looking on the positive side, the term “today’s dishes” is now well defined.  The bonus is having clean crystal in which to drink this evening’s wine.

My short-term dilemma resolved, now I must decide what to do long-term.  Do I call the repairman or bite the bullet and get new appliances?  The dishwasher is several years old, but I like it.  If necessary, I could just buy a new dishwasher, but since I’m planning to remodel the kitchen, I’m not sure updating just one appliance is worth it.  Both the refrigerator and stove are ancient (original to the aging home) and in sore need of updating.  But I’m not yet ready to do the full remodel.  The one time I watched The Nate Berkus Show, he recommended (to an audience member on a budget) to buy new appliances first, then save up for the rest of the remodel.

What should I do?  I’m terrible at making decisions.