Working With Our Brains: Kitchen Style

We have really been taking our time when we buy stuff for the Professor Haus. Not because we're lazy (despite my brain tell me that laziness is the real reason), but because we're trying to find the things that will actually work for us. 

Not the things that people say we 'should' have in our house or even the way our kitchen 'should' be laid out. We are taking the time and evaluating our needs and then picking stuff out based on those. 

This is especially important in the kitchen.

There have been two things that we've bought for the kitchen that have really be standouts over the last few months.

The first one is this:

It's an over the sink drying rack. And I put off buying it for a long time. Why did I do this? Well, it's because I thought it was gonna be ugly and I would hate it. 

But when I went through all the checklists of the problems we needed to solve. 

• Visible storage for utensils
• Space to dry dishes that isn't just laying on the counter
• A convenient location to access my Scrub Daddy and Soap Daddy 
• Did you notice my spoopy Frank Scrub Daddy?
• Must fit our "camp" theme

This metal monstrosity fit the bill best, so we bought it. 

When it arrived, I put off putting it together for the longest time, because my brain kept telling me it wasn't gonna use and it would be a wasteful purchase. It was trying to get me to hate this thing before I even tried it!

I understand that happens so much to me because there were so many years where I was the one "at fault" for everything that went wrong. There were never any accidents, ever, every bad thing always had a cause and it's name was Jacki. 

No wonder my brain tries to protect me from stuff so much, 😂.

Eventually, I put this thing together and suction cupped it to my green counters. 

And...

I loved it. 

Having so much so easily accessible to our eyes is so helpful for our neurodivergent brains. 

Another thing that surprised me? Since installing this rack, I barely use the dishwasher. Really the only time I use the dishwasher nowadays is when I am teetering on the edge of a bad day and simply can't bring myself to do the dishes. 

This doesn't happen very often right now and I give myself a break when it does happen, because obviously my brain space needs to be used elsewhere that day. 

But most days, I'm happily cleaning my dishes with my respective Daddies (Scrub and Soap) and putting 'em away in my rack, which fits quite nicely with our camp theme. 

The worst part (for me) about doing dishes (aside from gloop on my hands) is putting them away afterwards, so this rack just lets me "put them away" - some permanently and some temporarily until I put them away or use them again. 

I don't think this same rack would have worked in our old kitchen in Florida, but it is fantastic here in Michigan and I'm so glad we bought it!

Here is the other thing that has been making Kitchen Life amazing for us here at the Professor Haus:

This rolling basket rack thingie!

We do not have a pantry at The Professor Haus so storing our staples has been a challenge. 

You know what has not been a challenge? Whittling down our staples to the bare minimum. Potatoes for Mickey, Noodles for me, Peanuts and Walnuts for my Squirrel Friends, and Apples for Everyone!

75% of it is all local too. And that makes me so happy. 

The top shelf is my "ingredients" shelf, where I have all the stuff I need to make treats and eats. The best part of this system is that nothing gets left behind, because everything is right in front of our faces. 

We can SEE if we're getting close to running out of something. At a glance, no need to open up a cabinet or anything. 

And both the potatoes and apples have been staying fresher longer this way. 

All in all the kitchen is coming together. We've replaced the microwave and range. My range is gorgeous - gas, double ovened with a griddle in the middle. Somehow, I can make eggs perfectly on it. It's the best. 

There are a few other kitchen-related things we're using that have improved our lives, but I'll save those for another post on another day.