Clean and recycle my take-out containers from quarantine

Final summary: In the end, I was not able to keep a consistent schedule with my cleaning. But simply focusing on this problem for a month definitely helped me take a chunk out of the pile:

Unfortunately, some parts of the problem are still unchanged, such as the mac and cheese cups in the sink, and all the to-go containers in the fridge:

Post-mortem / Last thoughts: My participation in this DK30 was an eye-opening experience, and I’m glad I did it. I feel I’ve learned a number of helpful things about how I approach chores and deal with setbacks, which I mention in individual posts below but will summarize here:

• It’s difficult for me to do a chore every single day, and this was one of the major hurdles that prevented me from making consistent progress on this project. I’ve noticed in the past that I’ve frequently failed doing daily chores like exercise or journaling, but it wasn’t until this project that I really appreciated how difficult it was to do something that required time, attention, and energy, even if I knew I wanted to do it.

• Energy is a big limiting factor in how much time I can spend doing chores on any individual day, and doing work during the week takes a significant amount of this energy. Even if I’m home all day, going through an 8-hour work day takes enough out of me to make it difficult to spend my free time doing anything other than relaxing and recharging. This is why it was so much easier to make progress on weekends.

• Cleaning takes time and mental energy, and these costs should not be underestimated. The act of cleaning seems simple enough, but when I started to get tired or bored, I’d often find my mind wandering and my progress slowing considerably. Just because the task seems simple doesn’t mean it doesn’t require an investment or take a toll.

• Being able to see the results of your work has a definite, positive emotional effect on your perception of progress. When my counter top started clearing up, or when certain long-lived piles started disappearing, the mere act of looking at the shrinking pile of plastic felt good, even if progress was slower and more taxing than I’d anticipated.

• The hardest thing for me on any day was getting started. If I was just able to get myself cleaning one piece of plastic, it was easy for me to keep that momentum going for at least half an hour. But I think the idea of dedicating at least half an hour every day was daunting to me, and kept me from being consistent. If I were to do it again, I would set myself the goal of only cleaning one piece of plastic per day, and let the momentum carry me the rest of the way. If I made just a little bit of progress every day this month, I’d definitely be further along than I am now.

• For this particular problem, stacks are a bigger issue than I’d anticipated. Since the grease and food waste can coat both sides of stacked containers, cleaning them takes twice as long. And the fact that I stack certain containers is usually a good indicator that cleaning them is challenging to begin with.

• Similarly, the very act of giving a recently-used piece of plastic a quick once-over, simply by rinsing it and wiping it down with a paper towel, can make a world of difference to how difficult it is to clean later. I used to think that greasy containers needed to “soak” for a while before they were ready to clean. But I’m starting to think that wiping them down once or twice first, then only soaking them if necessary makes the cleaning go much faster. Hopefully this will help me deal with problematic containers in the future.

And finally, as I’m coming to appreciate how difficult this problem is and how challenging it is to work through a backlog of tedious and unpleasant chores, I shouldn’t beat myself up about how long it’s taking me. I see now that this really is a difficult problem, and I still need to learn how to tackle it effectively. This DK30 was invaluable for helping me realize the challenges in making consistent progress in any project, but I’m glad to have participated and made the progress I did.

For the next DK30, I’d like to do something related to video game development. But for the DK30 after that, if the plastic pile is still around then, I’d definitely consider tackling it in part 2: plastic boogaloo.

Bonus Day - As predicted, it was much easier to set aside a chunk of time over the weekend to do some catch-up work than it was during the week. I was able to take two batches down to the recycling room (walking up and down the 10 flights of stairs in between, as usual):

Afterwards, I still had the energy to spend an hour cleaning. I finished the pile of metal lids, as well as a flimsy and irregular to-go container that had contained something greasy (which made the cleaning take a little longer):

Day 31: As this is supposed to be the official last day of the DK30, I wanted to put in a little extra effort today and end on a good note. I wanted to dedicate two 1-hour segments to cleaning, and to take two batches of cleaned recyclables down to the recycling room. In the end, I only ended up having the energy for one 1-hour session, with some grocery shopping afterwards.

I was finally able to finish cleaning the fruit containers and the two most complicated containers in the pile (the ones for storing cake slices). I also started cleaning the can lids I specifically pointed out on the first day. I was a little wary of these, since their edges are a bit sharp and I was worried about cutting myself. But I was able to progress halfway through the stack of lids without issue:

I understand that we’re supposed to be done with our projects after the 30 days are up, but since it’s seeming to be a pattern with me that I only consistently have the time and energy to clean my recycling on weekends, I’m planning on giving myself one bonus day over the weekend before closing this project and writing up the post-mortem. (I hope this won’t disqualify me from being featured if Sean only selects from projects marked as completed at the end of the month.)

Day 27: Spent an hour cleaning irregular to-go containers.

Day 19: I made a bit more progress on the irregular containers, but still have a few to go.

Day 15: It’s becoming clear to me that my goal of making progress and posting an update every day was unrealistic, at least for my current lifestyle. Instead of forcing myself to write a post for every day I miss my goal, I’m going to settle for only posting updates when I have progress to report. This has been an eye-opening experience, and I’ll plan to share my thoughts, if only for my own benefit, at the end of the project.

Day 14: Today, I started on one of the more daunting tasks that I’ve been dreading: the stacks. Generally, if a particular type of container is difficult to clean correctly, I put it off again and again until I have enough to create a small stack. Today, I spent an hour chipping away at three different stacks: fruit containers, their lids, and an assortment of irregular rectangular lids. I got about halfway through, but made some undeniable progress:

Day 13: I took two batches down to the recycling room this morning:

(I’m going to skip taking pictures of the empty container in between to save time.)

In the evening, I cleaned containers for an hour. The containers I chose used to have greasy/buttery foods in them, which took a bit longer than usual. As a result, the pile today is small despite the time investment:

Day 12: I did a little more cooking than usual this week and had some dishes I still needed to wash. I spent two hours doing dishes, with some of that time dedicated to cleaning recycling, although I didn’t end up with enough to justify taking a picture.

Day 11: Same deal as yesterday. Had the energy, put it off too late, and ended up passing out. Will try again tomorrow.

Day 10: I had the energy to do some cleaning today, but ended up putting it off until it was too late in the evening. I could have gone ahead and done it anyway, but it would have impacted my sleep schedule. I opted to skip it today and get enough sleep instead.

Day 9: I got another late start today, but was still able to spend an hour cleaning.

Day 8: Success! I was able to empty two containers worth of recycling today. I forgot to mention this earlier, but my apartment is 10 stories above the recycling room, and part of my plan is to walk the 10 flights of stairs up and down each time I empty my recycling container. I can usually make two trips before my legs start shaking, so that’s how many I plan to do in a single day for now. But it still took me a while to get off the couch. It wasn’t until after I’d played enough video games to earn my weekly loot boxes and re-watched Age of Ultron that I started taking the first batch down at 11pm, but I did it. I had also wanted to do an hour of cleaning afterwards, but I decided to leave that for tomorrow so I can try to get to bed at a more reasonable hour. Here’s hoping I can keep up this trend tomorrow.

Batch 1, before and after:

Batch 2, before and after:

Day 7: Still feeling low-energy, so giving myself another day. I’ll see if I can get back on the horse at the 1-week mark.

Day 6: I feel I may be in a bit of a rut. I’ve been finding it exceedingly difficult to summon the energy to do my usual household chores. I’m realizing my usual mental response to this kind of thing is to resolve to completely catch up on all the work I’ve missed the next day, but the longer I wait, the more daunting that task becomes, and the bigger the pile of work that looms over me. Instead, this time, I’m going to just give myself time to get through this rut, but stay prepared to get back to work once it’s over.

Day 5: My back is feeling a bit better, but is not yet fully healed. I am still feeling very tired and don’t have the energy to do any chores today. (I even skipped a workout I had scheduled because of how I was feeling.) I’m starting to realize part of the reason it’s been so difficult for me to make consistent progress on any long-term project is because I usually feel tired after a full day of work and haven’t built up the discipline to consistently force myself to do potentially tedious tasks regardless of my energy levels. Maybe I’ll have more energy over the weekend and can can make up for some lost time then.

Day 4: I had another early morning meeting and was tired again all day. My back is still hurting, so I will give it another day.

Day 3: I lost several hours of sleep to attend a mandatory early morning meeting and was exhausted the entire day as a result. Then, because of bad posture and exhaustion, I ended up pulling a muscle in my back. I don’t think it would be safe for me to stand over the sink for an hour to do the washing I had planned for today. I’ll give my back time to heal before I resume my project.

Day 2: I wanted to empty my recycling and do some cleaning today, but ended up letting the day get away from me. I’ve learned from this that I should get started earlier, while I still have the time and energy, rather than putting it off until the evening. I plan to dedicate an hour to cleaning tomorrow before dinner.

Day 1: I had planned to start cleaning today, but ended up needing to spend the time figuring out how to upload images to this page and filling out the paperwork for my first car purchase. I would like to make up for this lost time starting tomorrow.

Day 0 - The Damage: I’m making this post to show where things stand at the beginning of the month.

Containers taking up an entire corner of my kitchen counter

Detail: containers expanding onto the stove top

Detail: unwashed can tops

Detail: mac & cheese cups with the quick-cook goop still on them

Detail: Empty to-go containers stacked in the fridge

Cardboard and washed containers ready for recycling

Recycling bin ready to be taken to the recycling room and emptied