The Money Mustache Community
Around the Internet => Antimustachian Wall of Shame and Comedy => Topic started by: Parizade on March 07, 2016, 02:55:58 PM
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And this is why there is really no danger of everyone becoming a mustachian:
"Almost 40 percent of the millennials surveyed by Mintel for its 2015 report said cereal was an inconvenient breakfast choice because they had to clean up after eating it."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/02/23/this-is-the-height-of-laziness/
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"The Mintel report, released in August 2015, drew its data from a survey of 1,912 Internet users ages 18 or older in the United States who eat cold or hot cereal. These participants were asked, "Which of the following statements about cold or hot cereal do you agree with?" One option was "Cereal is inconvenient because I have to clean dishes after preparing it."
Thirty-nine percent of millennials (those born between about 1980 and 2000) said they agreed, as did 17 percent of Generation Xers (born between the mid-1960s and 1980) and 10 percent of baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964). Three percent of the World War II generation agreed that post-cereal dishwashing was inconvenient. Millennials were also more likely than other generations to agree that cereal should be more portable. But neither question addressed whether millennials were eating less cereal because of the inconvenience factor."
http://www.livescience.com/53880-millennials-not-too-lazy-to-eat-cereal.html
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That is funny, and I am a millennial.
There's been lots of press recently about how millennials don't eat cereal, which is apparently a big problem in processed breakfast food industry. Honestly, I don't eat cereal, and neither does my millennial/generation y/whatever 32-year olds are husband.
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According to my friends circle, dishes are a pretty serious problem. I know multiple people who are paying double or triple our rent because they ABSOLUTELY MUST have a dishwasher, and in Vancouver apartments with dishwashers tend to be a fair bit pricier (because they have lots of other fancy-pants things as well). These aren't people with families either - singles and couples, who don't even cook all their food themselves.
I've never had a dishwasher. My personal system has always been to offload dish duty to my boyfriend. During my short singlehood stints, my system has been "suck it up".
I actually quite like cereal, it's fairly expensive compared to other breakfast options, so I don't have it very often.
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That...was not what I expected when I clicked on the thread title. I was expecting something along the lines of "we use paper plates so we don't have to wash dishes."
I know someone whose large family actually *does* use paper plates. They ran the numbers, and decided that the extra expense was not as high as what you'd expect, and for them it's actually worth it.
But not eating cereal because a bowl and spoon are too inconvenient? C'mon! DW and/or I cook a full-on hot breakfast almost every morning for our family of 8, and given the enormous quantities of cereal our kids devour on Saturday mornings, it's not that much more expensive!According to my friends circle, dishes are a pretty serious problem. I know multiple people who are paying double or triple our rent because they ABSOLUTELY MUST have a dishwasher, and in Vancouver apartments with dishwashers tend to be a fair bit pricier (because they have lots of other fancy-pants things as well). These aren't people with families either - singles and couples, who don't even cook all their food themselves.
I guess it's a matter of perspective. Last fall, DW and I took a vacation for a week, and did a fair bit of the cooking ourselves. When you're used to dishes for a family of 8 (and the cups! The cups! You wouldn't believe how many cups a bunch of little kids will use in a day!), doing dishes for only 2 adults is nothing. But coming from the other direction, if you're not used to doing dishes at all, I can imagine how it would seem inconvenient.
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It is inconvenient. It doesn't stop me from eating cereal, but I don't like doing dishes (especially in the morning), and a cereal bowl with milk in it can't be postponed forever.
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I know someone whose large family actually *does* use paper plates. They ran the numbers, and decided that the extra expense was not as high as what you'd expect, and for them it's actually worth it.
I have a medium-big family (4 kids) and we tried using paper plates for a while. Stopped doing it because we still had to wash all the cups, bowls, and silverware anyway (since we didn't use disposable versions of those) and there was little to no marginal time savings from using paper plates (after all, the motions required to put a plate into the trash are only slightly easier than those required to put it into the dishwasher 6 inches away... hmmm)....
As a side benefit, the trash fills up MUCH slower now.
Now if I could get my kids to REUSE THEIR DAMN CUPS (I feel your pain zolotiyeruki) instead of filling a fresh cup for a drink of water EVERY DAMN TIME then dropping it in the sink 6x/day.... I swear at the end of some days (weekends especially) there are 30 cups piled up in the sink/dishwasher, and it was empty that morning.
As for cereal being inconvenient? Damn. Milk/Cereal is about the EASIEST DAMN THING to clean out of a bowl, as long as you WASH IT RIGHT AFTER and don't let it sit in the sink all day while the milk dries up and cements the leftover flakes to the side of the bowl. Takes maybe 18 seconds to wash, rinse, dry, put away... less if you just rinse and put in dishwasher. I love to eat cereal fortified with a big scoop or two of rolled oats. Adds a tiny bit of texture, increases nutritional value a ton.
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As one of my dear friends says, the best time to wash dishes was 4 days ago. The second best time is now.
I don't personally mind washing dishes ... I find it meditative. Growing up in a family of 5 kids it wasn't quite as meditative, but it's just me and my hubs now so it's no big deal.
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It is inconvenient. It doesn't stop me from eating cereal, but I don't like doing dishes (especially in the morning), and a cereal bowl with milk in it can't be postponed forever.
Yeah. Stupid survey question is stupid. Unless you're some freak who enjoy doing dishes, I assume everyone would say yes dishes are inconvenient. Not having to do dishes would always be more convenient.
Not sure what they found out by this exactly..
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As one of my dear friends says, the best time to wash dishes was 4 days ago. The second best time is now.
I don't personally mind washing dishes ... I find it meditative. Growing up in a family of 5 kids it wasn't quite as meditative, but it's just me and my hubs now so it's no big deal.
I know a woman who feels the same way, the act of washing dishes and cleaning up her kitchen is a ritual that helps her relax before going to bed. She will refuse help, even after a party, because now she just can't go to sleep without her ritual.
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Now if I could get my kids to REUSE THEIR DAMN CUPS (I feel your pain zolotiyeruki) instead of filling a fresh cup for a drink of water EVERY DAMN TIME then dropping it in the sink 6x/day.... I swear at the end of some days (weekends especially) there are 30 cups piled up in the sink/dishwasher, and it was empty that morning.
Have you tried getting your children "their very own cup"? When my son was little his regular friends all had their own personal cups too. We kept the personal cups on a shelf over the sink (low enough for the kids to reach) and they were expected to use that cup -and that cup only- for water or soda.
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I know someone whose large family actually *does* use paper plates. They ran the numbers, and decided that the extra expense was not as high as what you'd expect, and for them it's actually worth it.
I have 5 kids, and we always keep a stock of paper plates, plastic utensils & solo cups on hand; but we don't use them exclusively. Usually about once per week, and only when the teen in charge of washing that week drops the ball. However, I will never own a house without a working dishwasher again, any more than a house without a working washing machine, as they are a huge time saver. If I get the chance to remodel our kitchen, I told my wife that I was going to get two dishwashers, one on each side of the double sink. That way, we can draw dishes directly out of one machine, and put them in the other machine, cycling back and forth whenever one is full of dirty dishes, and that our sinks are not continuously half full of dirty dishes waiting for their turn.
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Interesting topic. A single bowl and spoon is easy to clean unless it's left sitting somewhere for a day or more. But I guess that washing a bowl and spoon is not as easy as throwing the wrapper from a breakfast sandwich into the trash.
For the rest of us, I'm wondering about the Mustachian take on the age-old argument about dishwasher vs. hand washing. For large families I suppose a dishwasher makes sense.
For just the two of us, the following seems to work:
- use as few bowls/dishes/prep items as possible. I take shortcuts when cooking to use one cutting board (no food processor) and do everything in one pan. For most recipes, it's just not necessary to prepare things separately and then set aside to combine. Just add things to the cooking pot in a reasonable order and it all gets done just fine. e.g., add the green veg at the end of making a stew to avoid over-cooking them.
- I wash things as they get dirty by using a quick hot rinse, then I turn the water off, then I scrub or wipe with a soapy sponge (NatureClean or other green cleaner, only if needed), then another quick hot rinse. I try to keep water use to a minimum. Sink full of dirty dishes = depressing sight.
If we were to use the dishwasher it would take a week to fill it, and some of the things we use every day, so we need to wash those. And dishwasher pods are expensive, not to mention un-green.
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Interesting topic. A single bowl and spoon is easy to clean unless it's left sitting somewhere for a day or more. But I guess that washing a bowl and spoon is not as easy as throwing the wrapper from a breakfast sandwich into the trash.
For the rest of us, I'm wondering about the Mustachian take on the age-old argument about dishwasher vs. hand washing. For large families I suppose a dishwasher makes sense.
For just the two of us, the following seems to work:
- use as few bowls/dishes/prep items as possible. I take shortcuts when cooking to use one cutting board (no food processor) and do everything in one pan. For most recipes, it's just not necessary to prepare things separately and then set aside to combine. Just add things to the cooking pot in a reasonable order and it all gets done just fine. e.g., add the green veg at the end of making a stew to avoid over-cooking them.
- I wash things as they get dirty by using a quick hot rinse, then I turn the water off, then I scrub or wipe with a soapy sponge (NatureClean or other green cleaner, only if needed), then another quick hot rinse. I try to keep water use to a minimum. Sink full of dirty dishes = depressing sight.
If we were to use the dishwasher it would take a week to fill it, and some of the things we use every day, so we need to wash those. And dishwasher pods are expensive, not to mention un-green.
That's a fixable issue. I have a bit of a background in chemistry, I've mixed my own dishwasher detergent in the past, but found it's not really worth the savings.
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- I wash things as they get dirty by using a quick hot rinse, then I turn the water off, then I scrub or wipe with a soapy sponge (NatureClean or other green cleaner, only if needed), then another quick hot rinse. I try to keep water use to a minimum. Sink full of dirty dishes = depressing sight.
If we were to use the dishwasher it would take a week to fill it, and some of the things we use every day, so we need to wash those. And dishwasher pods are expensive, not to mention un-green.
That's a fixable issue. I have a bit of a background in chemistry, I've mixed my own dishwasher detergent in the past, but found it's not really worth the savings.
Savings are just part of the equation. If all things were equal, I'd opt for being green. A hot rinse, even without soap, should destroy most organisms especially if something is not left to sit. However I err on the side of caution and use soap on anything that has touched raw meat for the odd meals where we consume it.
Any DIY green detergent recipes you could share would be greatly appreciated.
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"The Mintel report, released in August 2015, drew its data from a survey of 1,912 Internet users ages 18 or older in the United States who eat cold or hot cereal. These participants were asked, "Which of the following statements about cold or hot cereal do you agree with?" One option was "Cereal is inconvenient because I have to clean dishes after preparing it."
Thirty-nine percent of millennials (those born between about 1980 and 2000) said they agreed, as did 17 percent of Generation Xers (born between the mid-1960s and 1980) and 10 percent of baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964). Three percent of the World War II generation agreed that post-cereal dishwashing was inconvenient. Millennials were also more likely than other generations to agree that cereal should be more portable. But neither question addressed whether millennials were eating less cereal because of the inconvenience factor."
http://www.livescience.com/53880-millennials-not-too-lazy-to-eat-cereal.html
Thank you, ha ha, I had heard people mention this "news" item and thought it sounded weird but was too lazy to look into it.
Now if I could get my kids to REUSE THEIR DAMN CUPS (I feel your pain zolotiyeruki) instead of filling a fresh cup for a drink of water EVERY DAMN TIME then dropping it in the sink 6x/day.... I swear at the end of some days (weekends especially) there are 30 cups piled up in the sink/dishwasher, and it was empty that morning.
With a six person household, why do you even own 30 cups? Put all but six cups in storage in the basement (if you want them for parties). Problem solved.
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- I wash things as they get dirty by using a quick hot rinse, then I turn the water off, then I scrub or wipe with a soapy sponge (NatureClean or other green cleaner, only if needed), then another quick hot rinse. I try to keep water use to a minimum. Sink full of dirty dishes = depressing sight.
If we were to use the dishwasher it would take a week to fill it, and some of the things we use every day, so we need to wash those. And dishwasher pods are expensive, not to mention un-green.
That's a fixable issue. I have a bit of a background in chemistry, I've mixed my own dishwasher detergent in the past, but found it's not really worth the savings.
Savings are just part of the equation. If all things were equal, I'd opt for being green. A hot rinse, even without soap, should destroy most organisms especially if something is not left to sit. However I err on the side of caution and use soap on anything that has touched raw meat for the odd meals where we consume it.
Any DIY green detergent recipes you could share would be greatly appreciated.
I never did any research on "green" recipes, just effective ones, but a quick google search caught this...
http://www.treehugger.com/cleaning-organizing/make-non-toxic-dish-detergent-8-cents-load.html
I know from experience, that citrus based rise agents do work, if you don't have particularly hard water. If you can capture rainwater for your dishes, green detergents will work wonders. Rainwater is great for your clothes also. There is no cheap solution if you have hard water, though. It's kind of like the old triple goal thing, you can have any two; cheap, green or effective.
But you are right, that most of the work is in the temp of the water, and just a good rinse agent and a hot cycle are effective on almost anything that hasn't been sitting around for hours. You don't need the rinse agent, if you aren't freaked out by water spots on your dishes. It's just hard water deposits anyway, mostly calcium.
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I have a quality solution to this problem!
1) Open box/bag of cereal (in Aus, the cereal is usually in a sealed bag inside the box)
2) Pour milk straight into bag of cereal
3) Shake the bag
4) Scoop contents of bag into mouth using hand. Make sure fingers are together to ensure milk does not go everywhere
Look Mum, no dishes!
(sarcasm)
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I have seen single-serving cereal portions with the premise that you cut open the side of the box and pour milk into the bag and eat it straight out of the bag, with a spoon though.
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"The Mintel report, released in August 2015, drew its data from a survey of 1,912 Internet users ages 18 or older in the United States who eat cold or hot cereal. These participants were asked, "Which of the following statements about cold or hot cereal do you agree with?" One option was "Cereal is inconvenient because I have to clean dishes after preparing it."
Thirty-nine percent of millennials (those born between about 1980 and 2000) said they agreed, as did 17 percent of Generation Xers (born between the mid-1960s and 1980) and 10 percent of baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964). Three percent of the World War II generation agreed that post-cereal dishwashing was inconvenient. Millennials were also more likely than other generations to agree that cereal should be more portable. But neither question addressed whether millennials were eating less cereal because of the inconvenience factor."
http://www.livescience.com/53880-millennials-not-too-lazy-to-eat-cereal.html
Just quoting the whole thing because this train of thought needs a bump, especially the highlighted part.
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I wash dishes as I go, so a huge pile never accumulates.
Also, rarely use measuring cups, whisks, food processors, etc. so that stuff never gets dirty to start with.
A little squirt of dish soap on a dish or pan, scrub it up clean under hot water and set it in the drainer, immediately after use.
Only use the dishwasher for all the plates, cups, bowls, silverware, etc after a big meal.
My wife and daughter drag out everything we own to prepare a meal, then leave it dirty piled beside and in the sink till done cooking. Then gripe about having to do dishes.
Some of the lazy folks at work tend to just throw dirty dishes in the sink, thinking it will magically go away.
Somebody put a funny note there a while back ..... CHECK IT OUT, SELF CLEANING DISHES, AWESOME !
That kind of stopped things for a while.
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I clicked on this because I thought someone else was complaining about this issue that plagues my life - Dishes! But cereal dishes? Seriously?
I actually do feel like getting all dishes washed every day is an insurmountable challenge. By the time the kids are finally settled in bed every night, it is like 9:30 and I stare at the pile of dinner dishes to be washed and just growl that I will spend the next 15-30 minutes cleaning my kitchen and dining table.
I do not find chores meditative at all; drudgery is the word that pops to mind.
But as a millennial - I don't buy that people don't eat cereal because they have to wash a dish. Badly worded survey question!
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I don't eat cereal, but this certainly isn't why. Astounding.
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I don't eat cereal because when I was a kid, a new kind would come out and I'd want to try it, and rather than go out and get a reasonable sized box, my dad would go to BJs (New England Costco/Sams) and buy the biggest value-sized box he could find "because it's a better deal." Invariably we'd get sick of it and/or it would go stale, and he'd refuse to buy another box until we finished the last one. So my sister and I basically gave up on cereal as a result.
My dad is an odd mix of cheap and spendy; he loves to travel, eat out, play golf, buys a new car every other year, etc, but he's super cheap on things like turning off the heat during the day and using a fireplace (which heats one room but the rest of the house is freezing) and once chastised me for reading a book at one of the couch with a light one rather than the other near a window.
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Additional information is required:
Are millennials more likely to not have a dishwasher?
I'm a lazy millennial, I admit, but now that I've had a dishwasher for a couple of years (best $20 I ever spent, hands down) it wouldn't occur to me to call cereal bowls inconvenient. But back when I washed all of our dishes by hand? Every damn dish was inconvenient. Like I said, I'm kind of lazy and I also don't like washing dishes.
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As one of my dear friends says, the best time to wash dishes was 4 days ago. The second best time is now.
I don't personally mind washing dishes ... I find it meditative. Growing up in a family of 5 kids it wasn't quite as meditative, but it's just me and my hubs now so it's no big deal.
I know a woman who feels the same way, the act of washing dishes and cleaning up her kitchen is a ritual that helps her relax before going to bed. She will refuse help, even after a party, because now she just can't go to sleep without her ritual.
Yipes! That might be me. I recognize the excuse.
Sometimes, I throw elaborate dinner parties, cook all the food from scratch, and serve it on tableware that can't go in a dishwasher. No, I did not buy any of that stuff myself; I got it the old-fashioned way. It has to be washed by hand, and I prefer to not have other people in the kitchen while I do this. Not only do I get to bask in the afterglow of a lovely evening, but if something old and irreplaceable gets broken, I prefer for it to be my fault. That way my guests don't feel guilty.
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Additional information is required:
Are millennials more likely to not have a dishwasher?
I'm a lazy millennial, I admit, but now that I've had a dishwasher for a couple of years (best $20 I ever spent, hands down) it wouldn't occur to me to call cereal bowls inconvenient. But back when I washed all of our dishes by hand? Every damn dish was inconvenient. Like I said, I'm kind of lazy and I also don't like washing dishes.
Good point. Younger people are more likely to live in apartments and/or temporary accommodations without dishwashers. Or have to deal with a sink full of a roommate's dishes. It's not that that makes it an insurmountable challenge, but it's not fair to compare it to an older adult who's more likely to have a house or other permanent residence where they've splurged on a dishwasher.
Also millenials are more likely to be single. So every one of them who eats cereal has to clean their own dish, while half the people in couples may not list bowl-washing as being onerous because the other partner does the washing up (and the washing up partner doesn't get to vote twice).
One of my reasons for not liking cereal (in addition to its being expensive and not at all adequate for calories/nutrition) is that you have to commit to buying milk and if you're single you're committed to eating cereal every single day and even still the milk might go bad before you finish it. For someone with a family, this is less of an annoyance.
Seriously, this is corporations freaking out because young people aren't buying their product. Who the fuck cares?
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I know someone whose large family actually *does* use paper plates. They ran the numbers, and decided that the extra expense was not as high as what you'd expect, and for them it's actually worth it.
I have a medium-big family (4 kids) and we tried using paper plates for a while. Stopped doing it because we still had to wash all the cups, bowls, and silverware anyway (since we didn't use disposable versions of those) and there was little to no marginal time savings from using paper plates (after all, the motions required to put a plate into the trash are only slightly easier than those required to put it into the dishwasher 6 inches away... hmmm)....
As a side benefit, the trash fills up MUCH slower now.
Now if I could get my kids to REUSE THEIR DAMN CUPS (I feel your pain zolotiyeruki) instead of filling a fresh cup for a drink of water EVERY DAMN TIME then dropping it in the sink 6x/day.... I swear at the end of some days (weekends especially) there are 30 cups piled up in the sink/dishwasher, and it was empty that morning.
As for cereal being inconvenient? Damn. Milk/Cereal is about the EASIEST DAMN THING to clean out of a bowl, as long as you WASH IT RIGHT AFTER and don't let it sit in the sink all day while the milk dries up and cements the leftover flakes to the side of the bowl. Takes maybe 18 seconds to wash, rinse, dry, put away... less if you just rinse and put in dishwasher. I love to eat cereal fortified with a big scoop or two of rolled oats. Adds a tiny bit of texture, increases nutritional value a ton.
Ha ha ha ha! I reuse my cup all the time, and when my MIL is visiting...where's my cup? She keeps washing it.
For the kids though, I never know what was in the cup - often milk - so yeah, we wash their cups all the time.
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I have a quality solution to this problem!
1) Open box/bag of cereal (in Aus, the cereal is usually in a sealed bag inside the box)
2) Pour milk straight into bag of cereal
3) Shake the bag
4) Scoop contents of bag into mouth using hand. Make sure fingers are together to ensure milk does not go everywhere
Look Mum, no dishes!
(sarcasm)
LOL! I know this was a sarcastic post but my brother used to do this with those single-serve cereal boxes! My mom would hate it (because he wasn't raised in a barn) and he would say "I'm saving you dishes to wash".
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I drink chocolate milk straight from the container often because I only want a sip or two, and don't feel like using a cup.
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My family of four doesn't use dishes. We just dump everything on the table and use our hands. Then we just have to set the dog on the table when we are done... everything clean... still have not figured out how to effectively get the hair of the table without wiping thought.
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I have a quality solution to this problem!
1) Open box/bag of cereal (in Aus, the cereal is usually in a sealed bag inside the box)
2) Pour milk straight into bag of cereal
3) Shake the bag
4) Scoop contents of bag into mouth using hand. Make sure fingers are together to ensure milk does not go everywhere
Look Mum, no dishes!
(sarcasm)
LOL! I know this was a sarcastic post but my brother used to do this with those single-serve cereal boxes! My mom would hate it (because he wasn't raised in a barn) and he would say "I'm saving you dishes to wash".
I was on a business trip with this dude once, and he got 3 or 4 little single serve cereal boxes from the breakfast bar, then proceeded to rip into, pour milk, and eat each one in succession. Thinking he maybe didn't notice that there were bowls up there, too, I pointed them out, and then he proceeded to have a temper tantrum. "What! Is it! With women! And bowls! My wife! Is always trying! To make me use a bowl! And I don't want to!"
At which point I whispered, "Um, not your wife, dude!" and backed away very slowly.
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I pointed them out, and then he proceeded to have a temper tantrum.
Oddly enough, I can somewhat sympathize with him, though not his response to you. One thing about going on business trips is that I can do things I normally wouldn't do. For instance, I stay a slightly nicer hotel than I would otherwise (rate is the same as a Holiday Inn, due to my showroom's management negotiating a bulk rate), as I'm in a hotel, I eat out for dinner, and yes, feel like compulsion to be neat.
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I pointed them out, and then he proceeded to have a temper tantrum.
Oddly enough, I can somewhat sympathize with him, though not his response to you. One thing about going on business trips is that I can do things I normally wouldn't do. For instance, I stay a slightly nicer hotel than I would otherwise (rate is the same as a Holiday Inn, due to my showroom's management negotiating a bulk rate), as I'm in a hotel, I eat out for dinner, and yes, feel like compulsion to be neat.
Me too! Only on business trips do I eat in bed, watch cable TV, and use more towels than what's strictly necessary.
I just can't imagine why a person would prefer eating out of several little weenie boxes than a bowl. Nor why it would be necessary to have a cow at me instead of just going "Oh, okay, I'm good though." It's not like I was going to MAKE him use a bowl. He wouldn't even have had to wash it!
Luckily this dude is in a part of the world now that is not adjacent to me.
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Perhaps - like this millennial - we reject cereal because it's annoyingly loaded with sugar and unhealthy, and actually spend significantly more time each morning making a healthy breakfast of eggs and not-instant oatmeal!
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Perhaps - like this millennial - we reject cereal because it's annoyingly loaded with sugar and unhealthy, and actually spend significantly more time each morning making a healthy breakfast of eggs and not-instant oatmeal!
Yup! I suspect that this "study" is bogus, it's more likely that millennials are simply doing a cost-benefit analysis. Many people drink coffee each morning and have no issues with washing that mug. It may be that they just don't care enough about eating cereal to wash the bowl. I made eggs most morning and will just put it on a plate. That plate then goes in the dishwasher, mischief managed.
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Me too! Only on business trips do I eat in bed, watch cable TV, and use more towels than what's strictly necessary.
I just can't imagine why a person would prefer eating out of several little weenie boxes than a bowl. Nor why it would be necessary to have a cow at me instead of just going "Oh, okay, I'm good though." It's not like I was going to MAKE him use a bowl. He wouldn't even have had to wash it!
Yeah, I don't like his reaction, but I can understand the appeal of eating like a kid. It's funny to do once in a while.
It's funny that you mention watching cable TV, apart from something like MNF, watching cable TV for a few minutes makes me realize how little I like it now. Too many commercials and most of the stuff put on TV is crap.
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Millenial here. To add another data point, my most frequent breakfast foods are homemade granola, toast, oatmeal (old-fashioned, not the packets), and eggs. All of these are at least as dish-intensive as boxed cereal, if not moreso.
I don't eat cereal regularly because it's expensive per serving and generally not as tasty as the options above.
Growing up, breakfast was almost always cereal, never homemade, and if we had oatmeal it was in packet form. I'm sure my changed habits have meant less cereal-company profit, but painting a group of 80 million people as lazy because you're not making as much profit off of us is a pretty terrible way to change that.
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Me too! Only on business trips do I eat in bed, watch cable TV, and use more towels than what's strictly necessary.
I just can't imagine why a person would prefer eating out of several little weenie boxes than a bowl. Nor why it would be necessary to have a cow at me instead of just going "Oh, okay, I'm good though." It's not like I was going to MAKE him use a bowl. He wouldn't even have had to wash it!
Yeah, I don't like his reaction, but I can understand the appeal of eating like a kid. It's funny to do once in a while.
It's funny that you mention watching cable TV, apart from something like MNF, watching cable TV for a few minutes makes me realize how little I like it now. Too many commercials and most of the stuff put on TV is crap.
What's MNF?
Normally I have one night of watching a bunch of "Property Brothers" in a row and then I'm good :D
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The rise of cereal coincided with the demise of bacon and eggs for breakfast.
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It is inconvenient. It doesn't stop me from eating cereal, but I don't like doing dishes (especially in the morning), and a cereal bowl with milk in it can't be postponed forever.
We're all optimizers here; I don't see why it's inherently lazy to prefer something that's mildly more convenient. I like cereal and cottage cheese about the same for breakfast. I usually pick cottage cheese, because 1) it's a little cheaper than cereal, 2) I eat it straight out of the container, so I only dirty a spoon instead of a spoon and a bowl, and 3) I don't have to try to keep complementary amounts of cereal and milk in the house (which I find often leads to food waste, or buying more than I otherwise would).
I'm also more likely to choose recipes that dirty fewer dishes, or that don't have a lot of extra garnishes/finishing ingredients I'm unlikely to use up. I don't avoid washing dishes or buying cilantro at all costs because of the HORROR of inconvenience, but optimizing your time and not creating unnecessary chores isn't lazy.
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Millennial here, Between my daughter and I, takes us about 2 weeks to go through 2 boxes of cereal and a gallon of milk. Wife doesnt eat breakfast usually. My box costs $5(quaker oats granola), and the kid's is generally $3.50. A gallon of milk is $2.69 from the local pharmacy. So $10-13 for 2 weeks, or roughly a dollar a day... or 50 cents for each of us. Thats expensive?! Pay attention to the portion size!
We tend to rush out the door, so more elaborate meals like cooking eggs and bacon arent viable. Cereal is great!
And to the point of dishes, Cereal is stupid easy to clean. If you dont have time to wash the dish right then and there, when you are finished, rinse with water so no food sticks to the bowl, and wash it that evening when you are done with dinner.
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As a millenial (albeit an old one) I eat cereal when I'm lazy precisely so I don't have to wash many dishes.
I can rinse out a bowl and spoon without considering it much effort.
But a normal meal I need to wash out multiple pots/pans, cooking utensils, and then the dishes I ate off of. Cereal IS the lazy food.
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Time to check what you missed on Twitter overnight: 20 minutes
Time to check what you missed on Facebook overnight: 15 minutes
Time to clean cereal bowl and spoon: 30 seconds. 30 seconds?!! FUCK THAT! I don't have time for that shit! I hate dishes!
While I don't normally eat cereal, this:
Great taste of Sugar Crisp > length of time to clean one spoon and bowl
I don't know if it's generational, but I'd assume the same personality type gets their coffee in takeout cups on a regular basis.
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What's MNF?
Normally I have one night of watching a bunch of "Property Brothers" in a row and then I'm good :D
Monday Night Football (it's on ESPN).
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Time to check what you missed on Twitter overnight: 20 minutes
Time to check what you missed on Facebook overnight: 15 minutes
Time to clean cereal bowl and spoon: 30 seconds. 30 seconds?!! FUCK THAT! I don't have time for that shit! I hate dishes!
HAHAHA that is funny.
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Millennial here, Between my daughter and I, takes us about 2 weeks to go through 2 boxes of cereal and a gallon of milk. Wife doesnt eat breakfast usually. My box costs $5(quaker oats granola), and the kid's is generally $3.50. A gallon of milk is $2.69 from the local pharmacy. So $10-13 for 2 weeks, or roughly a dollar a day... or 50 cents for each of us. Thats expensive?! Pay attention to the portion size!
Well it's expensive per calorie/nutrient. I think that's what people mean. Personally I find eating cereal completely useless. I might as well skip breakfast. Not that I'm knocking it for you if it works for you.
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Millennial here, Between my daughter and I, takes us about 2 weeks to go through 2 boxes of cereal and a gallon of milk. Wife doesnt eat breakfast usually. My box costs $5(quaker oats granola), and the kid's is generally $3.50. A gallon of milk is $2.69 from the local pharmacy. So $10-13 for 2 weeks, or roughly a dollar a day... or 50 cents for each of us. Thats expensive?! Pay attention to the portion size!
Well it's expensive per calorie/nutrient. I think that's what people mean. Personally I find eating cereal completely useless. I might as well skip breakfast. Not that I'm knocking it for you if it works for you.
Agree. "Convenience" is always measured against the benefit for me. Really any type of inconvenience, even if minor, isn't really worth it for cereal IMO because it's basically sugar and simple carbs. I eat non-instant oats for breakfast a lot, and find the cost-benefit analysis favors that breakfast. It's harder to clean up (top of bowl oats have cemented to the side before I finish eating the bottom) and cook (boiling water, adding honey, nuts, and dried fruit). But it's significantly tastier, more nutritious, and cheaper than cereal, so the inconvenience is worth it.
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Millennial here, Between my daughter and I, takes us about 2 weeks to go through 2 boxes of cereal and a gallon of milk. Wife doesnt eat breakfast usually. My box costs $5(quaker oats granola), and the kid's is generally $3.50. A gallon of milk is $2.69 from the local pharmacy. So $10-13 for 2 weeks, or roughly a dollar a day... or 50 cents for each of us. Thats expensive?! Pay attention to the portion size!
Well it's expensive per calorie/nutrient. I think that's what people mean. Personally I find eating cereal completely useless. I might as well skip breakfast. Not that I'm knocking it for you if it works for you.
If I have a bowl of processed cereal for breakfast I'm hungry again an hour later. I find it just as convenient to cook a bowl of rolled oats in the microwave with some almond milk and frozen fruit. Takes about 30 seconds to put everything in a bowl and 3 minutes to cook in the microwave (during which I can be doing something else). Lots of protein and other nutrients plus heart healthy fiber. Works out to about $1.40/day and keeps me satisfied until lunch.
oh, and I put the bowl and spoon in the dishwasher when I'm done
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I think a lot of these millennial-shaming articles don't really grasp the reality for a lot of folks under 30. We have three adults and a dog (earning combined ~400K) in our tiny apartment, paying roughly 4500 monthly. For a lot of kids in cities (where it makes the most sense to chase money to pay off your massive loans), air conditioning, ceiling fans, dishwashers, and laundry are all pipe dreams. Obviously everyone makes their own choices about trade-off, etc, but it's striking how many people have responded with some version of "just put it in the dishwasher, DUH!" It's a bit out of touch for millennials and lower-income folks, generally, especially in urban areas.
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Geezer millennial here. Also a recovering cereal addict. I don't eat cereal because I'll probably eat half the box in one sitting. That said, I HATE dishes (no dishwasher), but rinsing a bowl and spoon and tossing them in the drying rack is pretty much the easiest thing ever. My morning oatmeal is WAY more involved in terms of effort and dishes.
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My kids like old fashioned oatmeal in real bowls so I not only have to wash a pot, I have to wash two bowls and I swear, that stuff is like glue! Seriously though, I can't believe the argument against cold cereal is that it is too labor intensive.
When I became an adult, I was amazed to find many families only use paper plates, etc. I just never even realized that was an option. I couldn't deal with that much garbage.
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I think a lot of these millennial-shaming articles don't really grasp the reality for a lot of folks under 30. We have three adults and a dog (earning combined ~400K) in our tiny apartment, paying roughly 4500 monthly. For a lot of kids in cities (where it makes the most sense to chase money to pay off your massive loans), air conditioning, ceiling fans, dishwashers, and laundry are all pipe dreams. Obviously everyone makes their own choices about trade-off, etc, but it's striking how many people have responded with some version of "just put it in the dishwasher, DUH!" It's a bit out of touch for millennials and lower-income folks, generally, especially in urban areas.
What part of 3 people earning a combined income of 400K is low income?
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That's sort of the point. When we moved in together we had student loan debt in excess of that, and we pay that much for a eleven-foot wide, two-bedroom place in an expensive city.
But, sorry, I didn't mean to conflate high-earning, huge student loan-having millennials with general low-income population, except to say that "put it in the dishwasher" is not applicable advice for either.
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I think a lot of these millennial-shaming articles don't really grasp the reality for a lot of folks under 30. We have three adults and a dog (earning combined ~400K) in our tiny apartment, paying roughly 4500 monthly. For a lot of kids in cities (where it makes the most sense to chase money to pay off your massive loans), air conditioning, ceiling fans, dishwashers, and laundry are all pipe dreams. Obviously everyone makes their own choices about trade-off, etc, but it's striking how many people have responded with some version of "just put it in the dishwasher, DUH!" It's a bit out of touch for millennials and lower-income folks, generally, especially in urban areas.
onlykelsey- this is a great point about urban areas! I'm a granny millennial but definitely spent the ages 24-29 in apartments exactly like you describe. Cooking was such a pain because we didn't even have room to dry the dishes, let alone have a dishwasher. And in the summers we just ate meals at work ALL THE TIME just to spend more time in air conditioning.
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Can't believe such a fuss over doing a few dishes?
This chore can't take more than a few minutes out of your day.
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Can't believe such a fuss over doing a few dishes?
This chore can't take more than a few minutes out of your day.
Isn't this true of most chores though? It's when you have to do all of them that chores become a huge hassle.
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Can't believe such a fuss over doing a few dishes?
This chore can't take more than a few minutes out of your day.
I know, right? My boyfriend is exceptionally slow at dishes and it still only takes him maybe 20-25 minutes a day tops, and that's with the massive amount I produce from cooking and baking everything we eat.
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Just a tangent - I read once and then discussed with a microbiologist colleague - the dish towel is the dirtiest part of doing dishes. So letting dishes air dry in a dishwasher is sanitary. Getting a dish-rack (obviously setting it up so it drains into the sink) and just putting clean wet dishes into it is sanitary. Drying a bunch of dishes with a dish towel is less sanitary, and takes more time. So for those with few dishes (one or two people, or meals with few dishes) just washing and leaving them to dry in the dish-rack is fast and efficient.
Comment from my Scouter days - the biggest cause of upset tummies in campers is eating off poorly rinsed dishes (it's more work to heat more rinse water over the cook fire, so people tend to let the rinse water get too soapy). So hot water and a bit of dish detergent for cleaning, but definitely a good rinse in hot water to get the detergent off. I did it in a tiny apartment a few years ago, you can wash dishes quite easily in a one-basin kitchen sink. And the dollar store has lots of inexpensive dish basins if needed. I actually washed the dishes in a basin, rinsed in the sink, and drained in the dish-rack.
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Getting a dish-rack (obviously setting it up so it drains into the sink) and just putting clean wet dishes into it is sanitary.
Before I had a house with a dishwasher I installed cheap wire shelf over my sink. I would wash dishes and put them on the wire shelf to drain dry. No need to put them away when they were dry, they were already on their shelf. Fast and easy.
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I was in a rental, couldn't do that. But for a house, w hat a great idea.
Getting a dish-rack (obviously setting it up so it drains into the sink) and just putting clean wet dishes into it is sanitary.
Before I had a house with a dishwasher I installed cheap wire shelf over my sink. I would wash dishes and put them on the wire shelf to drain dry. No need to put them away when they were dry, they were already on their shelf. Fast and easy.
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According to my friends circle, dishes are a pretty serious problem. I know multiple people who are paying double or triple our rent because they ABSOLUTELY MUST have a dishwasher
Yup, I absolutely must have a dishwasher because I despise washing dishes by hand.
And dishwasher pods are expensive, not to mention un-green.
This is a reasonable complaint. I've never bought those pods, but I'm starting to have trouble finding the plain crystal-type detergent (which is less expensive in the first place, AND you can use only half of the recommended amount and get good results).
I make my own homemade laundry detergent and love the quality and the price (it's like paying sale price and getting a premium product), but I have not yet found a dishwasher detergent recipe I like.
Perhaps - like this millennial - we reject cereal because it's annoyingly loaded with sugar and unhealthy, and actually spend significantly more time each morning making a healthy breakfast of eggs and not-instant oatmeal!
Yep, this is why I don't buy cereal. Compared to a breakfast of an egg or a bowl of steel-cut oats, it's a bad deal for both cost AND healthfulness.
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Millennial here, Between my daughter and I, takes us about 2 weeks to go through 2 boxes of cereal and a gallon of milk. Wife doesnt eat breakfast usually. My box costs $5(quaker oats granola), and the kid's is generally $3.50. A gallon of milk is $2.69 from the local pharmacy. So $10-13 for 2 weeks, or roughly a dollar a day... or 50 cents for each of us. Thats expensive?! Pay attention to the portion size!
$0.50/person isn't objectively expensive, but when it's double the cost of homemade granola, toast on homemade bread, etc, it's relevant. If I preferred the taste of boxed cereal, I'd probably say it's worth it, but since I don't, I'm rejecting boxed cereal on both cost and taste grounds.
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I know someone whose large family actually *does* use paper plates. They ran the numbers, and decided that the extra expense was not as high as what you'd expect, and for them it's actually worth it.
As for cereal being inconvenient? Damn. Milk/Cereal is about the EASIEST DAMN THING to clean out of a bowl, as long as you WASH IT RIGHT AFTER and don't let it sit in the sink all day while the milk dries up and cements the leftover flakes to the side of the bowl. Takes maybe 18 seconds to wash, rinse, dry, put away... less if you just rinse and put in dishwasher. I love to eat cereal fortified with a big scoop or two of rolled oats. Adds a tiny bit of texture, increases nutritional value a ton.
Ha ha ha ha! I reuse my cup all the time, and when my MIL is visiting...where's my cup? She keeps washing it.
I just have a sink and I find that most things I eat are probably fine with just a rinse. I have a sponge that I put a drop of detergent on, give it a quick swish and put it in the rack. Cereal IS one of the easiest things to clean up after.
But on cups...yeah. When I lived with my family, I'd always leave cups out (especially water-I mean, I keep drinking water throughout the day!) but they'd disappear because someone would put them in the sink. That person would invariably get mad at me for going through 6 cups a day and not washing them. Ummm...
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Agree. "Convenience" is always measured against the benefit for me. Really any type of inconvenience, even if minor, isn't really worth it for cereal IMO because it's basically sugar and simple carbs. I eat non-instant oats for breakfast a lot, and find the cost-benefit analysis favors that breakfast. It's harder to clean up (top of bowl oats have cemented to the side before I finish eating the bottom) and cook (boiling water, adding honey, nuts, and dried fruit). But it's significantly tastier, more nutritious, and cheaper than cereal, so the inconvenience is worth it.
Millennial here, Between my daughter and I, takes us about 2 weeks to go through 2 boxes of cereal and a gallon of milk. Wife doesnt eat breakfast usually. My box costs $5(quaker oats granola), and the kid's is generally $3.50. A gallon of milk is $2.69 from the local pharmacy. So $10-13 for 2 weeks, or roughly a dollar a day... or 50 cents for each of us. Thats expensive?! Pay attention to the portion size!
Well it's expensive per calorie/nutrient. I think that's what people mean. Personally I find eating cereal completely useless. I might as well skip breakfast. Not that I'm knocking it for you if it works for you.
If I have a bowl of processed cereal for breakfast I'm hungry again an hour later. I find it just as convenient to cook a bowl of rolled oats in the microwave with some almond milk and frozen fruit. Takes about 30 seconds to put everything in a bowl and 3 minutes to cook in the microwave (during which I can be doing something else). Lots of protein and other nutrients plus heart healthy fiber. Works out to about $1.40/day and keeps me satisfied until lunch.
oh, and I put the bowl and spoon in the dishwasher when I'm done
Yes, I'm in the oatmeal club as well. I make a canister of my own mix on the weekend with chia seeds, flax seeds, walnuts, and raisins, then throw in a pat of butter for extra amazingness.
But I do also sacrifice for convenience by using instant oats. I'd rather use non-instant but being able to just pour boiling water from the kettle to the bowl rather than also dirtying a pot is not worth it when I don't have a dishwasher.
Ooh, another convenience trick I learned is poached scrambled eggs. http://food52.com/recipes/17328-daniel-patterson-s-poached-scrambled-eggs I don't bother with draining the eggs in the first step. While the eggs are cooking you quick rinse out the bowl you stirred them in. Now you have scrambled eggs without the hard to clean frying pan!
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I can't really be bothered with cereal - expensive, not very filling, inconvenient (having to have milk) and not very portable - I usually boil up a batch of eggs at the beginning of the week and have an egg and a banana for breakfast, whenever in the morning I fancy them.
I very occasionally have cereal as a light snack in the evening eg if I've had a big lunch and skipped dinner, kind of as a treat.
Ooh, another convenience trick I learned is poached scrambled eggs. http://food52.com/recipes/17328-daniel-patterson-s-poached-scrambled-eggs I don't bother with draining the eggs in the first step. While the eggs are cooking you quick rinse out the bowl you stirred them in. Now you have scrambled eggs without the hard to clean frying pan!
Ooh, thanks, I'll try that for a change when I'm at home.
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Agree. "Convenience" is always measured against the benefit for me. Really any type of inconvenience, even if minor, isn't really worth it for cereal IMO because it's basically sugar and simple carbs. I eat non-instant oats for breakfast a lot, and find the cost-benefit analysis favors that breakfast. It's harder to clean up (top of bowl oats have cemented to the side before I finish eating the bottom) and cook (boiling water, adding honey, nuts, and dried fruit). But it's significantly tastier, more nutritious, and cheaper than cereal, so the inconvenience is worth it.
Millennial here, Between my daughter and I, takes us about 2 weeks to go through 2 boxes of cereal and a gallon of milk. Wife doesnt eat breakfast usually. My box costs $5(quaker oats granola), and the kid's is generally $3.50. A gallon of milk is $2.69 from the local pharmacy. So $10-13 for 2 weeks, or roughly a dollar a day... or 50 cents for each of us. Thats expensive?! Pay attention to the portion size!
Well it's expensive per calorie/nutrient. I think that's what people mean. Personally I find eating cereal completely useless. I might as well skip breakfast. Not that I'm knocking it for you if it works for you.
If I have a bowl of processed cereal for breakfast I'm hungry again an hour later. I find it just as convenient to cook a bowl of rolled oats in the microwave with some almond milk and frozen fruit. Takes about 30 seconds to put everything in a bowl and 3 minutes to cook in the microwave (during which I can be doing something else). Lots of protein and other nutrients plus heart healthy fiber. Works out to about $1.40/day and keeps me satisfied until lunch.
oh, and I put the bowl and spoon in the dishwasher when I'm done
Yes, I'm in the oatmeal club as well. I make a canister of my own mix on the weekend with chia seeds, flax seeds, walnuts, and raisins, then throw in a pat of butter for extra amazingness.
But I do also sacrifice for convenience by using instant oats. I'd rather use non-instant but being able to just pour boiling water from the kettle to the bowl rather than also dirtying a pot is not worth it when I don't have a dishwasher.
Ooh, another convenience trick I learned is poached scrambled eggs. http://food52.com/recipes/17328-daniel-patterson-s-poached-scrambled-eggs I don't bother with draining the eggs in the first step. While the eggs are cooking you quick rinse out the bowl you stirred them in. Now you have scrambled eggs without the hard to clean frying pan!
Instead of buy instant oatmeal, we buy "quick" oats and I cook them by pouring boiling water over them and letting them cook in the bowl. They take longer (I allow about 20 min, by which time they're also cool enough to start eating), but they have a better texture than instant, and you can add whatever mix-ins that you want (I usually do brown sugar/salt/butter, but craisins have been tasty lately). You can also vary the texture by varying the oats/water ratio: more water cooks them more thoroughly so they're smoother and soupier, more oats makes them thicker and more textured. And buying plain oats is WAY cheaper than buying instant packets!
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But I do also sacrifice for convenience by using instant oats. I'd rather use non-instant but being able to just pour boiling water from the kettle to the bowl rather than also dirtying a pot is not worth it when I don't have a dishwasher.
Instead of buy instant oatmeal, we buy "quick" oats and I cook them by pouring boiling water over them and letting them cook in the bowl. They take longer (I allow about 20 min, by which time they're also cool enough to start eating), but they have a better texture than instant, and you can add whatever mix-ins that you want (I usually do brown sugar/salt/butter, but craisins have been tasty lately). You can also vary the texture by varying the oats/water ratio: more water cooks them more thoroughly so they're smoother and soupier, more oats makes them thicker and more textured. And buying plain oats is WAY cheaper than buying instant packets!
Oh maybe that's what I mean. I'm talking about the unflavored oats you can buy in a big bag and just pour boiling water on. All I know is they're not the 5-minute oats you need to boil with the water.
Oh, here we go, the bag I have says "1-minute quick cooking oats." Wouldja look at that. I just start eating whenever it's cool enough so it didn't occur to me there was a difference from instant oats--because how could it be quicker without scalding your mouth off.
Okay I've googled it now and apparently the difference is you're supposed to microwave instant oats. I don't have a microwave so I've always made both the same way.
I am super happy to have learned something new about oatmeal today.
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List of reasons I don't eat cereal for breakfast:
- I'd rather sleep in than spend that much time eating before leaving the house
- I can't eat it while driving or while walking between the car and train / train and office
- It takes about 3 bowls to feel full
- Even after those 3 bowls, I'm hungry an hour later
There's probably more. I'd way rather eat something with eggs or peanut butter or some other decent quantity of protein! Since I picked up a 5-pack of Pillsbury crescent roll tubes at Costco this week (they were like $3 off), I made mini quiches (http://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/breakfast-quiches-to-go/2360eb0a-6cd3-48e9-af48-56a0f4aa8718) last night and had two for breakfast today. Just popped them in the microwave for 1 minute. They're good! Even my anti-spinach husband likes them.
Or, as one of my friends put it:
If we wanted to eat rice, sugar, and milk for breakfast, we'd have rice pudding.
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My family of four doesn't use dishes. We just dump everything on the table and use our hands. Then we just have to set the dog on the table when we are done... everything clean... still have not figured out how to effectively get the hair of the table without wiping thought.
My 2 years old nephew drops the cheerios on the floor then laps them up, imitating the family dog.
Filthy & disgusting when your own kid does it, but do funny when it's someone else's.
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My 2 years old nephew drops the cheerios on the floor then laps them up, imitating the family dog.
Filthy & disgusting when your own kid does it, but do funny when it's someone else's.
Nope, still disgusting. :-)
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I will fully admit to being completely loathe to do dishes.
I like to cook and I like to find ways to be efficient with reusing my bowls/knives/cutting boards/etc. during prep. Once I eat though? Anything still dirty that doesn't fit in the dishwasher could stay dirty until the next nuclear apocalypse for all I care, or at least until I have to use it again.
This seems polar opposite to my wife, who apparently loves to make every dish in the entire house dirty while making dinner and then ask me to clean it up because she cooked.
All that said, I love cereal but I lump it in with Coca-Cola. Things I love but I really don't buy because none of it is really good for me and I'd eat an entire box in the coarse of a couple weekend breakfasts. So if my choice was to blame cereal for being inconvenient and creating too many dishes in some stupid survey I might pick that answer. But damn, even I can rinse out a bowl and spoon in about 5 seconds worth of hot water and be willing to use it again the next day.
Then again, I'm kind of an elderly millennial. I feel like I missed the boat on being a super-entitled shitheel millennial by about 5 year, yet still not old quite enough to legitimately claim the apathy of Gen X. Sucks to be me.
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Then again, I'm kind of an elderly millennial. I feel like I missed the boat on being a super-entitled shitheel millennial by about 5 year, yet still not old quite enough to legitimately claim the apathy of Gen X. Sucks to be me.
Best early-millennial description ever. I too am in that awkward position of being a millennial--yet my childhood house still used a rotary phone, and I learned to type on a typewriter.
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When I was in college, I would go months without doing dishes. It got to the point where I would use the same solo cup for about a week before forgetting to rinse it out at the end of the day and it getting funky. The wife (girlfriend at the time) and I even ate cereal and spaghetti out of solo cups, then we would rinse them out and use them to drink out of. We maybe spent $5 every two or three months on cups because we reused them so much. Calculated out, my time not spent doing dishes was definitely worth more than the expense of solo cups. We would do something similar with cheap store-brand paper plates.
Now that we are "mature" adults, we own a home with a dishwasher. The cost of water/detergent to run the dishwasher is cheaper than it used to be to use solo cups/cheap paper plates so we don't even keep them in the house any more. Don't have any clean plates? Load and turn on the dishwasher. It takes 5 minutes.
But in an actual reply to the OP, we don't eat cereal any more because we don't regularly eat breakfast and as a result, don't keep milk in the house because it always ends up going bad before we finish it, even if we only buy a half gallon.
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Then again, I'm kind of an elderly millennial. I feel like I missed the boat on being a super-entitled shitheel millennial by about 5 year, yet still not old quite enough to legitimately claim the apathy of Gen X. Sucks to be me.
Best early-millennial description ever. I too am in that awkward position of being a millennial--yet my childhood house still used a rotary phone, and I learned to type on a typewriter.
My childhood house still has a rotary phone. My grandfather built it for Art Rooney in Steelers colors, and when Rooney died, it came back to the family. It's in dad's game room along side the other sports memorabilia, hooked up.
I got my first typewriter at age 4 or 5 and learned to type back then.
I'm nowhere near Gen X, though. I'm so young I once had this conversation on a date:
Me: Is this David Bowie? (pronounced first syllable like a dog's bow wow)
Him: Bowie. Where were you in the 80s?
Me: Not born yet?
There wasn't a second date. (I was born in the 80s, but I was potty training when they ended)
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I quit eating oatmeal for breakfast and switched to muesli because I couldn't deal with the dishes. It's morning, I'm sleepy, and not only do I have to heat something up before I can eat it but I actually have to put effort into washing it up afterwards.
Dishes are the bane of my life right now. We both work mostly from home so are in for all meals and cook from scratch. Tiny kitchen so not only no dishwasher but also the dirty dishes from one meal seem to take up the entire counter. The dish rack can only hold so much at a time and I have never been able to find a dishcloth that is absorbent enough to actually DRY dishes, so we air dry them. We just never seem to catch up! There are two loads waiting for me right now.
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Then again, I'm kind of an elderly millennial. I feel like I missed the boat on being a super-entitled shitheel millennial by about 5 year, yet still not old quite enough to legitimately claim the apathy of Gen X. Sucks to be me.
Best early-millennial description ever. I too am in that awkward position of being a millennial--yet my childhood house still used a rotary phone, and I learned to type on a typewriter.
My childhood house still has a rotary phone. My grandfather built it for Art Rooney in Steelers colors, and when Rooney died, it came back to the family. It's in dad's game room along side the other sports memorabilia, hooked up.
I got my first typewriter at age 4 or 5 and learned to type back then.
I'm nowhere near Gen X, though. I'm so young I once had this conversation on a date:
Me: Is this David Bowie? (pronounced first syllable like a dog's bow wow)
Him: Bowie. Where were you in the 80s?
Me: Not born yet?
There wasn't a second date. (I was born in the 80s, but I was potty training when they ended)
Haha. I was also potty training at the end of the 80s. Or had possibly just completed potty training.
I think some signs of a generation are really based on class. Like, we had a rotary phone until I started college (in 2004), but I remember more middle-class friends not know what it was, even in 1995.
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I quit eating oatmeal for breakfast and switched to muesli because I couldn't deal with the dishes. It's morning, I'm sleepy, and not only do I have to heat something up before I can eat it but I actually have to put effort into washing it up afterwards.
Dishes are the bane of my life right now. We both work mostly from home so are in for all meals and cook from scratch. Tiny kitchen so not only no dishwasher but also the dirty dishes from one meal seem to take up the entire counter. The dish rack can only hold so much at a time and I have never been able to find a dishcloth that is absorbent enough to actually DRY dishes, so we air dry them. We just never seem to catch up! There are two loads waiting for me right now.
You want something like this. I realize you aren't in the US, maybe Amazon?
http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/1/1/166973-calphalon-kitchen-towel-mandarin-plaid.html
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Now if I could get my kids to REUSE THEIR DAMN CUPS (I feel your pain zolotiyeruki) instead of filling a fresh cup for a drink of water EVERY DAMN TIME then dropping it in the sink 6x/day.... I swear at the end of some days (weekends especially) there are 30 cups piled up in the sink/dishwasher, and it was empty that morning.
Have you tried getting your children "their very own cup"? When my son was little his regular friends all had their own personal cups too. We kept the personal cups on a shelf over the sink (low enough for the kids to reach) and they were expected to use that cup -and that cup only- for water or soda.
+1
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I quit eating oatmeal for breakfast and switched to muesli because I couldn't deal with the dishes. It's morning, I'm sleepy, and not only do I have to heat something up before I can eat it but I actually have to put effort into washing it up afterwards.
Dishes are the bane of my life right now. We both work mostly from home so are in for all meals and cook from scratch. Tiny kitchen so not only no dishwasher but also the dirty dishes from one meal seem to take up the entire counter. The dish rack can only hold so much at a time and I have never been able to find a dishcloth that is absorbent enough to actually DRY dishes, so we air dry them. We just never seem to catch up! There are two loads waiting for me right now.
You want something like this. I realize you aren't in the US, maybe Amazon?
http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/1/1/166973-calphalon-kitchen-towel-mandarin-plaid.html
Do they really, really work? I have been recommended dishcloths before that might as well have had a waterproof coating. But if these actually pick water up off the plates and don't put it back immediately...
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I quit eating oatmeal for breakfast and switched to muesli because I couldn't deal with the dishes. It's morning, I'm sleepy, and not only do I have to heat something up before I can eat it but I actually have to put effort into washing it up afterwards.
Dishes are the bane of my life right now. We both work mostly from home so are in for all meals and cook from scratch. Tiny kitchen so not only no dishwasher but also the dirty dishes from one meal seem to take up the entire counter. The dish rack can only hold so much at a time and I have never been able to find a dishcloth that is absorbent enough to actually DRY dishes, so we air dry them. We just never seem to catch up! There are two loads waiting for me right now.
You want something like this. I realize you aren't in the US, maybe Amazon?
http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/1/1/166973-calphalon-kitchen-towel-mandarin-plaid.html
Do they really, really work? I have been recommended dishcloths before that might as well have had a waterproof coating. But if these actually pick water up off the plates and don't put it back immediately...
Brand new, most dish cloths do have a waterproof coating. It's called sizing and is used during the weaving process. That's why the first thing you do with brand new towels is wash them on HOT, or even better: boil them on the stove.
In any case, I'm a fan of flour sack towels. Skip the terry cloth and go for fine cotton (or linen, if you can find it). The finer the threads, the more absorbent the fabric, because the surface area to volume ratio of each thread is better. More loosely spun threads are more absorbent too, but they're also less durable, so that's a balancing act. And (and now I'm getting into "your friend the hand weaver" territory) longer floats (think twill) expose more of the thread's surface area to allow for more absorption than plain weave.
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I quit eating oatmeal for breakfast and switched to muesli because I couldn't deal with the dishes. It's morning, I'm sleepy, and not only do I have to heat something up before I can eat it but I actually have to put effort into washing it up afterwards.
Dishes are the bane of my life right now. We both work mostly from home so are in for all meals and cook from scratch. Tiny kitchen so not only no dishwasher but also the dirty dishes from one meal seem to take up the entire counter. The dish rack can only hold so much at a time and I have never been able to find a dishcloth that is absorbent enough to actually DRY dishes, so we air dry them. We just never seem to catch up! There are two loads waiting for me right now.
You want something like this. I realize you aren't in the US, maybe Amazon?
http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/1/1/166973-calphalon-kitchen-towel-mandarin-plaid.html
Do they really, really work? I have been recommended dishcloths before that might as well have had a waterproof coating. But if these actually pick water up off the plates and don't put it back immediately...
Brand new, most dish cloths do have a waterproof coating. It's called sizing and is used during the weaving process. That's why the first thing you do with brand new towels is wash them on HOT, or even better: boil them on the stove.
In any case, I'm a fan of flour sack towels. Skip the terry cloth and go for fine cotton (or linen, if you can find it). The finer the threads, the more absorbent the fabric, because the surface area to volume ratio of each thread is better. More loosely spun threads are more absorbent too, but they're also less durable, so that's a balancing act. And (and now I'm getting into "your friend the hand weaver" territory) longer floats (think twill) expose more of the thread's surface area to allow for more absorption than plain weave.
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-New-Towels-More-Absorbent
Boil them in vinegar!
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Getting a dish-rack (obviously setting it up so it drains into the sink) and just putting clean wet dishes into it is sanitary.
Before I had a house with a dishwasher I installed cheap wire shelf over my sink. I would wash dishes and put them on the wire shelf to drain dry. No need to put them away when they were dry, they were already on their shelf. Fast and easy.
I can't believe I never thought of this! Genius.
Now I am privileged enough to have a dishwasher, and a husband to put dirty dishes in that dishwasher, so I don't care anymore.
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I've heard waffle weave is very absorbent. Also, never ever use fabric softener on towels (none of us here would do that anyway, right?). It blocks absorbency. I've visited people who had lovely fluffy bath towels that had zero absorbency.
maco, are you a hand-weaver? Floats and thinking about thread diameter and fiber composition and twist tightness?
In any case, I'm a fan of flour sack towels. Skip the terry cloth and go for fine cotton (or linen, if you can find it). The finer the threads, the more absorbent the fabric, because the surface area to volume ratio of each thread is better. More loosely spun threads are more absorbent too, but they're also less durable, so that's a balancing act. And (and now I'm getting into "your friend the hand weaver" territory) longer floats (think twill) expose more of the thread's surface area to allow for more absorption than plain weave.
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I've heard waffle weave is very absorbent.
maco, are you a hand-weaver? Floats and thinking about thread diameter and fiber composition and twist tightness?
In any case, I'm a fan of flour sack towels. Skip the terry cloth and go for fine cotton (or linen, if you can find it). The finer the threads, the more absorbent the fabric, because the surface area to volume ratio of each thread is better. More loosely spun threads are more absorbent too, but they're also less durable, so that's a balancing act. And (and now I'm getting into "your friend the hand weaver" territory) longer floats (think twill) expose more of the thread's surface area to allow for more absorption than plain weave.
Yes, indeed. I'm still rather a newbie, but I've been a string-person my whole life, so already used to thinking about "the right yarn for the job." I think it was the September 2014 issue of Handwoven that had empirical testing of different weave structures and setts for absorbency. And waffle weave is definitely high up, but it's easy for fork tines to catch on those floats...which is why I'm making waffle weave bath towels.
(Waffle weave is a point twill threading (http://leighsfiberjournal.blogspot.com/2008/07/waffle-weave.html), btw)
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I just got started too - down the rabbit hole for sure. I have been knitting since I was little, and started spinning a few years ago, now that there are such wonderful fibres out there. I got a rigid heddle loom for Christmas and did my first scarf, now I want to try using a pickup stick for the next scarf, which will be Illusion fingering from KnitPicks for the warp, and Misti Alpaca for the weft, yum. I know someone who does dish towels for craft fairs, I think she uses a linen/cotton blend in a balanced plain weave. And yes, floats would not be good with tines ;-) But waffle looks so neat. I am just learning terms, and they differ for regular looms versus rigid heddle, a bit.
Sorry, I got a bit carried away there.
I've heard waffle weave is very absorbent.
maco, are you a hand-weaver? Floats and thinking about thread diameter and fiber composition and twist tightness?
Yes, indeed. I'm still rather a newbie, but I've been a string-person my whole life, so already used to thinking about "the right yarn for the job." I think it was the September 2014 issue of Handwoven that had empirical testing of different weave structures and setts for absorbency. And waffle weave is definitely high up, but it's easy for fork tines to catch on those floats...which is why I'm making waffle weave bath towels.
(Waffle weave is a point twill threading (http://leighsfiberjournal.blogspot.com/2008/07/waffle-weave.html), btw)
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Cereal was the lazy option. Glad cereal is in candy bar form now.
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Cereal was the lazy option. Glad cereal is in candy bar form now.
I think the old saying "necessity is the mother of invention" needs a second part: "and laziness is the father."
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I picked up a dish rack for my boyfriend a couple of weeks ago, and he loves it - he's always dried everything by hand until now. So that takes a good chunk of the "challenge" off for him, which is good.
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Cereal was the lazy option. Glad cereal is in candy bar form now.
I think the old saying "necessity is the mother of invention" needs a second part: "and laziness is the father."
I wish there was a way to up-vote this.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deDlrkhLsTw
Has this been posted yet? Save the planet, don't wash dishes?
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deDlrkhLsTw
Has this been posted yet? Save the planet, don't wash dishes?
That's a damn good way to get vitamins into kids, too. I remember eating hard candy spoons with ice cream as a kid, but they were apparently too expensive. If we can make sugar and rice into a fortified breakfast cereal for kids, I can't imagine why hard bread spoons can't replace the plastic spork. The chopsticks are pretty cool, too.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deDlrkhLsTw
Has this been posted yet? Save the planet, don't wash dishes?
That's a damn good way to get vitamins into kids, too. I remember eating hard candy spoons with ice cream as a kid, but they were apparently too expensive. If we can make sugar and rice into a fortified breakfast cereal for kids, I can't imagine why hard bread spoons can't replace the plastic spork. The chopsticks are pretty cool, too.
We've already got bread bowls for soup; why not?
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So GQ contacted the research firm who actually conducted research, and their response was that the NYT/Washington Post analysis is a load of crap: http://www.gq.com/story/the-real-reason-millennials-arent-eating-cereal-for-breakfast. TL;DR, Millennials aren't eating cereal for breakfast because either 1) we're eating breakfast on the go (cereal isn't a portable option), and/or 2) we realize that cereal isn't healthy. But we still occasionally eat it for snacks.