Preventing Messes newsletter 5-13

Preventing Messes
by Jill Cooper

There really is some truth in the old saying, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". We may say that all the time but do we really know what it means and even more importantly -- do we practice it?

There are so many times in our daily living if we would take one or two extra minutes to prevent or fix a problem, no matter how big a hurry we are in, it will save 30 minutes or more dealing with that same problem at a later time.

Little things like wiping that sticky spill you make on the counter immediately with a rag instead of waiting until later when you have to chisel off the mess can make your life so much easier.

Try these suggestions for preventing headaches later. They may sound like common sense, but it's amazingly easy to throw them all out the window when we're "busy". These all may seem like little things, but they add up over the course of a day. Staying ahead of things can keep your home looking neater and make your whole day run smoother, saving you time and energy.

Use a spoon rest. Even a small saucer or dish works. Its is easier to wash one dish than to try and scrape 5 or more spots on the stove or counter where you kept laying the spoon.

Make and cut sandwiches on the plate you are going to eat them off of to prevent messes on the counter (or cut bread on a bread board instead of the counter).

Rinse dirty dishes right away. I couldn't figure out why I see so many people fill their sinks full of hot soapy water and vigorously scrub them before putting them in the dishwasher. Then it dawned on me that since they aren't rinsing them immediately after using them they have to scrub them before putting them in the dishwasher. Why even bother with a dishwasher then?

Empty the trash before it is too full. Too many of us wait until the trash is stuffed and overflowing. Then you put something in the trash and it won't fit, so you stuff it in there. If someone less patient or less responsible throws something in the trash and it falls on the floor, they leave it. It's not their problem. Soon you have trash piled everywhere.

Then along comes the "trash emptier person" (That's a new term I made up -- like it? ;-) trying to step around trash to get close enough to the trash can to empty it. This person then proceeds to stuff, push, pull and stretch until everything is squeezed into the one bag to avoid making two trips. What happens next? Of course the bag splits open or gets dupmed in the process of stuffing it. This happens all the time. I know because if it didn't they wouldn't have invented "Hefty, Hefty, Hefty." If you're a "stuffer" you've probably experienced this personally.

How much easier would it have been to take a moment to take it out before it was overflowing? Most of us have done this because when we don't want to mess with it we convince ourselves that it is easier than having to make an extra trip to the trash can, but it isn't.

Eat only in the kitchen or dining room. Don't allow family members to drag food all over the house. I don't think we realize how much of a mess we make when we eat all over the house. Besides the crumbs and spills, eating away from the table usually means that people leave empty wrappers, cans and containers all over. And don't forget about the sticky rings and spots all over the furniture.

I like to eat while watching TV. We all do. That's OK, but try to keep it under control. Have the kids eat their after school snacks at the table or if you want to let them watch TV, then put a small table in the family room where they can eat their snacks.

Make sure that all extra messy and crumbly items (like crackers) are eaten at the table. Leave the less messy things for the family room or bedroom.


When feeding babies, don't lay sticky messy food all over their high chair trays. I have had enough children and grandchildren to know that there is no way you can feed a baby or toddler without having some mess but there are a few things you can do to help keep it under control.

Feed gooey, extra messy things to babies yourself. Let them practice feeding themselves with the less slimy things first.

Start teaching them to use plates or bowls as soon as possible. That doesn't mean to give them Spaghetti O's the first time they use a plate. Instead start with something like a cheese sandwich.

When they first start feeding themselves, start out with things like dry Cheerios and continue to feed them the chocolate pudding yourself.


Always fill children's drinking glasses half full. Then, if it spills, they only spill half a glass and not a whole one. This makes easier cleanup and less waste.

Don't let anyone eat off of the table. How many times do your children make sandwiches and then just take them to the table to eat? If you don't want to dirty a plate, have them at least put the sandwich on a napkin. This saves you from having to wipe down the table every time someone eats something as simple as a cookie or a sandwich.

When you are sitting in the family room or some place other than the kitchen, don't place glasses with liquid in them on the floor. You are the only one that knows that the glass is there (if you remember) and the chance of a spill is nearly 100%. If you decide to allow drinks in the family room, make sure you have enough end tables and such for people to conveniently set them. If you let kids have drinks in the family room, you will almost certainly have more spills.

If you seem to be cleaning up the same messes over and over, look at what you are doing and see if there is a way to change it. For example:

I love using talcum powder after my shower but I would always get powder all over my dark rug. It was a mess. Then I figured out if I dried myself off in the shower and powdered myself before I got out of the tub, all of the mess stayed in the white tub and would be rinsed out with the next shower.

If your kids keep tracking mud into the house through the back door, a few well placed stepping stones might prevent mud from getting in.

Does someone spill a drink at the table every night? Do you then have to jump up run for a towel trying to get back before it spreads all over the table and down onto the floor? Often mom or dad are yelling "Why can't you be more careful?" the whole time and it messes up the whole meal.

I couldn't figure out why I didn't have this problem when my kids were young and then it dawned on me -- I used cotton tablecloths at every meal. When something spilled the tablecloth absorbed most of it. Even with a bad spill, I could still take my time getting a towel because the tablecloth would hold until I got back. It was much easier just to toss the tablecloth into the washer than to try to wipe up a sticky spill.

If you don't have or want to use tablecloths, you could do what my daughter did. She rolled some small hand towels and placed them in a basket that she kept on or near the table so that they were always handy when there was a spill.


You may find that it doesn't work well for you to use all of these specific examples. The point is to try and think of something different you can do that will work for you. Every little thing that you can do to make your home function better will make your life easier.