This morning the guys from Best Buy showed up with our new portable dishwasher. Since our kitchen is pretty lacking in space the only place I could put it was under the kitchen window. The small island that is there had to be rotated 90 degrees to make room...but at least they both fit. Better than just fitting, it has changed the way I feel about the entire house.

As I have stated before I am a bit of a "clutter bug". The biggest obstacle I encounter is keeping the kitchen clean. Having to do dishes by hand was always a headache to deal with, but even worse than that, having the kitchen be the first room see in the morning (no I don't sleep in the kitchen...but I don't see anything 'til after my morning coffee) means even a single dish in the sink sets the tone for the whole day. If the kitchen is a mess when I get up, I tend to have no motivation to clean the rest of the house until the kitchen is clean...and no motivation to clean the kitchen as the dishes always take so much time. Undoubtedly the Who will interrupt me 6 times during the course of washing them. So something that should take 45 minutes usually takes all morning long.

Now to help put this in to perspective here are a few photos of our kitchen sans dishwasher.



The new dishwasher (sorry no photo yet) sits beside the kitchen island. Since it is portable it doubles the amount of workspace on that side of the kitchen as it has a counter top surface. That may not seem like a big deal, that is until you pay close attention to the other counter space in the room. The bank of upper cabinets on the wall sit at just under 14 inches above the counter top. In addition, the bottom cabinets are only 4 inches deeper than the uppers so with the overhang on the counter top I only have about 6 inches of work space that isn't directly underneath another cabinet. I feel claustrophobic everytime I try to prep dinner! Not to mention nothing tall can sit on that space. If you note, the only appliance there is a microwave. My coffee maker & espresso machine wind up taking up valuable prep space on the island.

But it isnt' just about prep space. It's also about feeling uncluttered! Now that I have the dishwasher, there are no longer dishes waiting to be washed on the countertop at the sink (on the left) or draining and drying (on the right) which means I have even more space and less clutter!

I didn't realize how much this had affected our lives until I started cooking dinner tonight. I actually enjoy cooking again. First...I have enough space to actually prepare the meal, instead of having to shuffle stuff around. Second...I don't have to worry about how many dishes I use when preparing dinner as they are all going in the dishwasher anyway. No longer will it take me longer to clean up that it did to prepare and eat the meal! I feel like I am living in an entirely different house!

L was thrilled to come home to steak, potatoes, garlic asparagus, saut