There's a big difference between my post-cook mess and my partner's.
I clean as I go; not even a hassle. They leave it all to the end; monumental post-meal dread.
this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2026
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Why does everyone not understand the value of clean-as-you-go? So much better.
I want to eat sooner
It doesn't take any extra time, it's just kerping busy in your down time. Waiting for water to boil? Wipe the counter. Waiting for your steak to sear? Clean the cutting board and throw away any bits left over. Baking anything? Well there's plenty of time before it's ready.
Waiting for water to boil? Chop some veg. Waiting for steak to sear? Get the plates out of the cupboard. Baking anything? Then putting it in the oven is usually the final step, and all the mess has already been made.
I'm filling the waiting time with other tasks already.
Not trying to argue so please please dont take it that way, just wanted to add anecdotally that my wife says the same thing, yet more often than not when I pass the kitchen the waiting time thats allegedly being used for other cooking related tasks and cannot be reallocated to cleaning as she goes is actually being used to surf Insta, Pinterest, or Etsi lol
And also to be extra clear, I could care less what she does when she's cooking dinner up to and until the point that the deal is that she cooks and I clean. Since I genuinely do clean as I go when im cooking and she's cleaning, I feel like she's violating the terms of our agreement when her cleaning up behind me always only takes her 10 minutes yet whenever im cleaning up behind her Im dealing with so many pots and pans that the water heater gets tapped out halfway through and im still standing in front of the sink over an hour after I started cleaning up the unholy tragedy that is often left behind in her wake.
When two people are cooking the same basic meal and the cleanup time is orders of magnitude higher depending on who is cooking the meal, thats a conversation worth having in my book lol
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Depends on if you’re comfortable and planned ahead with the prep and steps of cooking.
Sometimes it’s all done at once and there’s no time to spare or risk burning, cooling or delaying one of the items.
On some meals I cook regularly, cleaning as I go is fine. But other times when I’m trying something new or just super tired after work, all I have time for is to throw it in the pot just in time prepping and then go sit while it cooks or eat right away if it’s fast.
I’ve had thoughts of making detailed recipes with cleaning steps, and also a streamlined design for ingredients and when and where they’re needed that I use on recipe cards. Sort of similar to the cooking for engineers cookbook, but for more visually oriented peeps.
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A lot of it depends on the recipe. Dishes like Japanese cream stew or beef bourguignon have lots of prep but end with slow-cooking in a single pan, so you have plenty of time to clean before dinner is served.
Compared to something like, I dunno, steak with scratch-made bernaise sauce and buttered kale - it all comes together at the end very quickly, so you'll have pans and measuring jugs and ingredients on the counter right until the moment you plate-up. No time to clean as you go.
I often choose what to cook purely on the basis of how much mess there will be at the end, because I hate clean-up!
I completely agree. I'm a clean-as-you-go type guy, but sometimes you still end up with a mess, especially if the meal has multiple components that come together at end.
I actually toyed with the idea of making a YouTube channel dedicated to recreating food from other channels and only showing the clean-up. Like "thanks for the tip Babish now I get to scrape off sticky eldritch bullshit from a ridiculously tiny whisk AGAIN" and "we're going to soak these plates for at least an hour because we fell asleep as soon as the guests left and the sauce hardened into concrete".
Any YouTube money would've gone into a dishwasher fund. I would've reviewed the dishwasher after buying it and that would've been the last video on the channel.
I'd watch that religiously.
DO THAT
This is the kind of idea that works and actually makes your chanel relatively popular.
Throw in effective cleaning tips for the worst stuck-on crud, and I'm there. Acids, abrasives, bleach, ammonia, detergents, brillo, scotch-brite, magic erasers, scrapers, heat, cold^1^, steam... they all have their place but a lot of people aren't aware of the best tool for the job. Plus there's already people watching power washing, lawn mowing, and snow removal on youtube - the audience is already there for a clean sink.
I would’ve reviewed the dishwasher after buying it and that would’ve been the last video on the channel.
That's begging for a collab with Technology Connections.
^1^ - throw bacon grease into a ceramic coffee mug and refrigerate; other materials may not handle the temperature shock and break. After it's set it's easily used as a cooking fat. Also, it's now solid enough to sit in the kitchen garbage without leaking everywhere.
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If they can write a 7 paragraph story about their dying grandmas old family recipes, they can show us the mess.
Lukewarm take: if you don't make some effort to clean up to have less of a mess while you cook, you're not competent enough to be in the kitchen.
~Just my opinion; don't burn me at the stake.~
Agreed, came here to say this. Clean as you cook. Not always super easy or possible, but if you're waiting for something to finish/warm up/cool down/whatever, you can probably wash a cutting board or some spoons or something
Or do what I do and wash things as you cook only to realize that you're going to need the thing you washed to finish whatever you're making. You get to do 3x the cleaning per 1x cooking.
This is easily avoided by doing a tiny bit of thinking with a pinch of foresight.
I am not a smart person.
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It's really just an amortization or, perhaps, an atomization of effort; sadly many don't really value the benefits of that behavior.
You have to spend time in the kitchen to develop competence.
Very true, but I submit that the wisdom of "clean as you cook" is obvious on day 2.
Well...you're not wrong, but it's not like we get a choice at the end of the day.
People lucky enough to not need a kitchen are few and far between.
Did you reply to the wrong comment?
I'm sure it's respone to this take
you're not competent enough to be in the kitchen.
A lot of people are not in the kitchen for passion or profession, but for necessity so it's only natural you'll get sentiments similar to the OP.
Clean as you go... i should follow what I preach... but its hard
with new recipes it's not always clear because you're not sure what you need to reuse or the timing ...
I've been leaning heavily on my dishwasher in the past year. It's been such a relief.
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Slow cookers have entered the chat.
90% of slow cooker recipes:
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Ingredients
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Put in slow cooker
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Cook for 4-8 hours
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Eat for a week
Clean out the slow cooker crock and maybe a cutting board. God-tier appliance and cooking method.
Agreed. The real slow-cooker superpower is where it cooks dinner for you while you're away at work, letting you come home to a hot meal.
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That's why baking wins every time
When my partner bakes, there's fucking flour everywhere. And I mean everywhere. I'd rather have post meal mess.
By baking, I simply mean I of in the cold food of out hot eat the food, not the entire process before it.
For example, bake pork chop. Put tinfoil on the tray, put the pork chop on, add some salt, put another tinfoil to cover it. You don't even need to wash the tray.
Cook some rice with a rice cooker to go with the pork chop and you're done.
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This is why we have mise-en-place.
Isn't that the opposite? Makes it easier to get the timing right, but at the cost of dirtying loads more little bowls? Whereas if i dice my carrots while my onions are sweating etc, I can keep the production line going and only use one pot..
Depends on how you look at it, I guess. Assuming you have a dishwasher, you can just put the containers in there as you use ingredients and be left with a clean counter. Definitely a trade-off involved, though!
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What mess? Never heard about cleaning your station while cooking? There is more than enough time to put things away and dishes in the dishwasher while dinner is cooking. Knifes are cleaned immediately after use. No mess.
When am I going to find time to clean while cooking? I'm too busy cooking!
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A ha ha ha ha ha hah.
For some things you do have to multitask and keep the plates spinning, so to speak. For example making sure something doesn't burn while you're cleaning the last mess.
And that is something that a lot of people need to acclimate to I think. If anyone reading this is one of those people then I'd suggest focusing on reducing the mess as much as possible while you're cooking, even if you aren't perfect. Then try to take care of whatever's left after you finish cooking but before you actually eat. One or two dirty implements is a lot less daunting to take care of than a sink full of stuff.
Another thing I'd suggest is trying to reduce the amount of stuff you dirty in the first place by focusing on single pot recipes or modifying a recipe to be single pot. Frying meat and onions in the bottom of a soup pot before deglazing and adding the rest of the ingredients, for example. This isn't always possible to do of course, especially if you're doing something big and fancy, but you should save those kinds of recipes for times when you have all day to dedicate to them.
Depends on how many things you are making at the same time and the volume of mess.per item.
Cleaning as you go is the best, but sometimes you can't stop stirring or chopping or peeling to do it.
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CAYG
Clean As You Go
Yup. Or just fill the sink with soapy water and toss stuff in to rinse off after you eat (or if you forgot you needed it for a later step).
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One of the things I consider when choosing a new recipe is how many different pots and bowls are involved, and how many things have to come together at the end; I like to minimize them to keep the amount of work and cleaning low. My wife has a knack for choosing ones that maximize those things, and there's always so much more to do. I love a one-pot meal.
This is why the one who does the cooking should do the dishes.
When I am done cooking?
The only dishes are the plates we eat off of, and the utensils.
It is not difficult to clean as you go .
My wife somehow uses every single pot, pan, cutting board, and cooking utensil we own. Like good damn it was just a grilled cheese. What happened
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