Kitchen chores (wah wah waaaaah)

[Jenise]

Today for the first time in 22 years I cleaned the stove and hood from top to bottom all by myself. I used to clean the cooktop fairly often but it would take Bob and a ladder to get to the rest. Today, I got out the ladder (and even cleaned the ceiling fan in the den while I was at it. Huge mess--it always is. The grill part and catch-all underneath could wipe out a day all by themselves. I'm tempted to say I'll never cook again.

I was congratulating myself thoroughly when I went to the kitchen sink to dump out the soapy graywater. And then I noticed that the sink's soap dispenser was wonky. I touched it and it slid out in my hand. Since the tube was full of dish soap, that means that the no-longer-attached soap bottle underneath was full and has now created a new disaster requiring my attention.

How did that happen? I had a friend here yesterday for a major cooking session. At a certain point she said "I'll to the dishes, sit down" and I did. I suspect that she didn't recognize the dispenser for what it is and somehow unscrewed it.

And now I have another big mess to deal with.

Cleaning the stove and the hood is certainly a chore. Now that we have a redone kitchen and a hood (we've been here 27 years without one), I am telling myself I'm committed to making sure that none of it gets beyond being a chore to being a really awful chore. Hope I can stick with that!

My range hood over the cooktop has huge filters that I remove and put into the dishwasher. They take up the entire area over the stove, so there is no more area to clean up except for the top of the hood, which gets wiped up every 2 weeks by my housekeeper.

Some day I'll have a hood that vents to the outside.

Some day I'll have a hood that vents to the outside.

You and me both, Jeff. It's been the single biggest annoyance of the last several decades, made much more so once our Victorian home was rewired (getting rid of the knob-and-tube fire hazards) and wired smoke detectors were installed, including one in the kitchen. Any time I pan roast or broil most anything I'll set off the fire alarm... and don't even mention blackening.

(and the answer to "why don't you replace it with a vented hood?" is that we aren't staying here more than another 2-3 years)