Last Updated on September 30, 2010 by Dave Farquhar
My mom came in and helped me move this weekend. Moving is a pain, which is why I do it as little as possible. I’m hardly a neat freak, as any of my coworkers can attest to, which makes it harder.
But Mom told me a story.
Not long after she met my Dad, she helped him move. She came over to his apartment, and he handed her two boxes. One was a small box, slightly bigger than a shoebox. The other was a really big box. She pointed over to the box my 19″ monitor came in, and said the box he handed her was bigger than that one.
“Put the clean dishes in the small box, and the dirty dishes in the big box,” he told her.
She opened the cabinet and found a couple of dishes. She put them in the small box. She found a few dirty dishes in the sink.
“But there aren’t that many dirty dishes,” she said.
“Hold on,” he said. He opened the dishwasher. It was bursting. Then he walked over and opened up the oven. More dirty dishes. “And I think there are some in here too,” he said, opening up the freezer. There were.
“David, your dad was a slob,” Mom said.
Suddenly I don’t feel so bad about those times I waited until all my dishes were dirty before I washed them. I’ve never had to resort to putting dirty dishes in the oven and freezer.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.
Why should you feel guilty about not washing dishes until they’re all dirty?
If you have spare clean dishes, then you don’t really need to clean those you have. Much more economic to batch wash them when you need them.
heh. I’m with ya’ll on the dishes thing! lol
I use paper plates. Environmentally safe – yeah, that’s my excuse.
When I was younger and one of my parents would say, in exasperation, ‘You’re just like your father/mother,’ I would cringe. Now, I’m glad to have that connection. Most of the time.