Dishes.

It seems like I am always doing dishes and not getting them done, either. Our dishwasher works sometimes and doesn't work sometimes so I spend a lot of time rinsing them and then running them back through if they don't get clean or just giving up and hand washing them. I read an article in Family Fun magazine about a family who got rid of most of their dishes, gave each child one bowl to use for everything and trained the kids to wash their bowl themselves. We are now trying a similar system. Everyone in our house picked out a favorite bowl, plate and glass and will be responsible for keeping them clean and putting them away. If you are caught using someone else's dish or a dish designated for storage or guests, you will be fined. The kids are taking to this very well. I figured at least someone would whine about it, but they haven't. They just picked out dishes and used them yesterday, washing them in between, without complaint. I packed up a bunch of dishes and put them in the closet. We'll see how this goes. It's just another method of getting rid of clutter, which I keep telling my packrat family, is something we need to do.