When I am home, which is not as often as I would like, I have complete
responsibility for
all things dishes.
Rather than do them right after dinner, which is the time for the little ones' homework and the littler one's bath right there in the sink, I get up an hour earlier in the morning and do them then before the sun rises. While the dog sleeps on his big dirty dog bed, I hunch over the sink in a cone of rushing-water-white-noise and attempt to finish all the dishes in the sink.
Usually, I end up leaving a few dirty cups (I hate washing cups--my hand doesn't fit inside and I'm forever scrubbing dried milk out of them) to populate the sink on the left. I try to tell myself it's so the sink won't get lonely, but lets face it, it has a sink right next to it, so I'm really just making excuses.