Thanks all!! And thanks for telling me I'm not a failure- you made me feel all warm and fuzzy

I am in the process of devising my own system. By complete accident, I discovered something that worked as far as my kitchen. One night after dinner I was harping on DH about the dishes (the ones that don't go into the dishwasher) even though there wasn't that many and we had already done the dishes once that day. He gave a very long-suffering sigh and then picked up the dishes and put them on top of the dishwasher (which is the laundry) and shut the door and said "is that better?". And it was! As long as I can't see them and they are not cluttering up my kitchen, I can just do them once a day and its great. Now I have this nice clean looking kitchen.....just don't open the laundry door