Clean as You Go — Don't Let Dishes Pile Up Until the End

The biggest reason people dread cooking is not the cooking itself — it is the mountain of dirty dishes waiting afterward. The solution is absurdly simple: clean while you cook. While onions are softening, wash the cutting board. While something simmers for ten minutes, wipe the counter and rinse the prep bowls. While the oven does its work, load the dishwasher.

This is not about being obsessively neat. It is about using the natural pauses in cooking — the simmering, the resting, the waiting — to chip away at the mess. By the time you sit down to eat, the kitchen should be nearly clean. After dinner, you have one plate and one pan to deal with, not a disaster zone. Cooking becomes dramatically more pleasant when cleanup is not looming over the meal.