I don't really have a system so much as a cultivated intolerance for kitchen mess, such that I feel discomfort whenever I see it, producing a strong urge to dea

I don't really have a system so much as a cultivated intolerance for kitchen mess, such that I feel discomfort whenever I see it, producing a strong urge to deal with the problem immediately. I suppose you could call it a system if you described it as an interrupt-driven state machine: - Stuff on the counter? Yuck! Dishes to the sink, bottles to their homes. - Dirty dishes in the sink? Yuck! Load them into the dishwasher. - Clean dishes in the dishwasher? Oh no! Put them all away. - Dishwasher getting full? Yuck! Start it running. - Crumbs or grunge on the counter? Yuck! Wipe it down. - Crumbs on the floor? Yuck! Sweep it all up. - Trash can nearly full? Gross! Empty it. Only after the signal queue has been cleared can I relax and proceed with whatever task it was that originally brought me into the kitchen, whether that was cooking the family dinner, or simply pouring myself a cup of water. An outside observer might think I had regular, schedule-driven habits around kitchen cleaning, but it doesn't feel that way; I don't intentionally empty the clean dishes from the dishwasher every morning, that just happens as a consequence of making coffee.