Cleaning sucks. I hate it so much, I make my girlfriend do my share of it. However, back in college I never had to clean---but my place was always pretty tidy. Why? Because an ouce of prevention is worth an hour of cleaning (or something).

If you follow these simple rules, your overall kitchen cleaning time will be drastically reduced:

1.) Always have aluminum foil on hand. Aluminum foil is like God's gift to laziness, and I love it. Before you bake anything (frozen pizza, cheese sticks, etc.), put a layer of aluminum foil on the pan you use. This way, the foil gets dirty instead of the pan. When you're finished, throw away the foil and put away the clean pan...no dishes!

2.) Always keep paper plates in the house. Why would you use real dishes, when paper plaes are just as good and they don't need to be washed? For saucy things, put a paper plate over your real plate. It works the same way that aluminum foil does for pans, it keeps the plate clean.

Paper plates are also great for covering items in the microwave. If your microwave never gets splattered with hot food, you never have to clean it out. Cover everything with a paper plate before you put it in the microwave.

3.) Red beer cups are your friend. Remember those red plastic cups that are left over from your last party? Use them instead of glasses. You can rinse 'em out and reuse them if you're feeling like a tree hugger, or you can just throw them away when you're finished. Disposable stuff means never having to wash dishes, which brings me to...

4.) Rob Wendy's. Well, not really rob. Not like, "hey, this is a robbery, give me all of your money and delicious baconators," but sort of similar. Maybe raid is a better word? Raid your local Wendy's. Their plasticware is amazingly solid, even though their condiment selection is crap. If you want condiments on the cheap, I suggest Chick-Fil-A, because they have honey and Tabasco sauce in little disposable packets.

Anyway, if you use disposable flatware, you don't ever have to clean the moldy week-old food that clings to forks.