The Merits of Cleanliness

My roommate Julie and I about once a week spend half an hour or so cleaning up our kitchen. This isn't time spent doing the dishes. It's time we spend cleaning out our fridge, deciding if things have gone bad to toss them, cleaning our stove, bleaching our sink, and any other odds and ends tasks we have to do. It's a very liberating time for both of us, because we like having a clean kitchen.

We'd like to give some of our friends lessons in cleanliness. Today we tackled a disgusting task. A few weeks ago (we think about three) Bharti had a dinner party. She borrowed this deep pot (sort of wok looking) from a friend to deep fry some stuff. The pot (I call it "the oil vat") has been sitting on our stove ever since, with the oil used for deep frying in it. Not only is this nasty, but it's been sitting taking up 1.5 burners on our stove. She usually leaves 1-2 other pots or pans on the stove after she cooks, so at any given time we probably only have 1 (maybe 2) burners free if we need to cook.

The vat was disgusting. Julie set up a multiple layer plastic bag situation and I poured the oil out of the pan. It was a nasty brownish-black color. Then we had to clean the pot and its lid.

Some people might say, "Why don't you ask Bharti to do it? It's her problem." Well, we have asked her. Julie today got to the point where she just wanted a clean kitchen, and didn't want to wait it out any longer. Mess is one thing. Dirt is another. In our book, cleanliness trumped roommate self-righteousness (The typical, "It's not my job, so I'll wait for person X to do it.").

Kitchens are difficult things. I wonder across the board how many roommate disputes have to do with the kitchen. In a roomming situation with a naer end in sight, the kitchen isn't that big of a deal. But in an indefinite situation, the kitchen could cause some deep problems. The question of dishes, the trash, cleaning out rotting junk in the fridge . . . it could add up!

Some of my friends have a little white board on their fridge. The one roommate that always cleaned left a note on it last semester that said something to the effect of "Hey guys, I'm not the only one that lives here, so I shouldn't be the only one that cleans. Do your share." The funny thing is the note is still on the white board; it won't erase now because it was left there too long. Ironic?

So Julie and I would like to give some sanitary kitchen lessons. Our points are simple and straightforward. I'll put them here just for my own release of tension.
1 - After you cook, cover food (or put it in tupperware) and put it in the fridge. Otherwise, it goes bad! And, it makes your kitchen smell.
2 - Doing dishes promptly helps the apartment smell less.
3 - Throw away leftovers that you won't eat or haven't eaten.
4 - Don't leave oil vats on the stove to annoy your roommates for 3+ weeks.**

The merits of a clean kitchen? It smells good. It's relatively germ free. You are not embarassed when guests come over. You can fully utilize all your space and appliances. I highly recommend it.

**caveat: We love Bharti! Just not her lack of kitchen cleanliness habits.