viscious [spin] cycle

Some weeks ago we ran out of dishwasher powder and I dreaded a return to sharehouse days when bowls could be piled more than a foot high (and none left to use) before anyone did the washing up by hand.

It didn't happen. We do some handwashing almost daily anyway (wine glasses, some pots, knives and chopping boards) so it wasn't much harder to include a couple more items.

More importantly, we used less! The kids refilled the same water cups all day, I rinsed out my teacup with boiling water (which I do anyway, to heat the cup up) and sandwich plates did double duty with fruit for a 2nd course. It was no big deal.

Which is how I came to realise that
a) dishwashers make us use more than we need to (perhaps an unconcious wish to avoid the stiff sitting in there for three days and going mouldy
b) using more than we need to means we *have* more than we need to (as you need enough to use while the other stuff is in the dishwasher)
c) having more than we need to means we need more room to store it all, and more storage space in the kitchen (not to mention the space taken up by the diswasher itself) and therefore a bigger kitchen than we would otherwise need.

It's a viscious cycle.

Here's another one.

Sydney has had almost 7 days of constant rain (apparently only a couple of mm of this has fallen into the catchment). With only a small indoor clothes frame at my disposal (and no dryer) I've been economising on clothes, dressing my children in yesterday's t-shirt, trousers and even singlets - depending on how much clean stuff is left in the drawer. That economising mentality has probably added up to several fewer loads of laundry in the course of the week. If I always thought like that, it would mean we needed significantly fewer clothes (it's not like three-year-olds need evening or office wear!)

Why don't I always think that way? Who told me you needed new t-shirt every day regardless? Why did I try to "fake it" for preschool days (clothes from the weekend, but not worn yet at kindy) so other mums wouldn't know my children weren't in fresh clothes that day?