KAT's Kreation

Often heard in our home:  "Is the dishwasher clean or dirty?"  The answer sometimes comes quickly and sometimes it takes a bit to remember.  "Has the dishwasher been run yet?" or "Have the dishes been put away yet?"
Enter a simple solution- the Dirty/Clean sign.
I cut two small pieces of cardstock of differing colors and glued them back to back.  On one side I wrote CLEAN.  On the other I wrote DIRTY.  I laminated the sign with clear con-tact paper.  I left enough room where the words weren't to put poster tack on each side to stick it to the dishwasher.

Simple.  If the dishwasher is empty or has dirty dishes in it, the DIRTY side is displayed.  As soon as it is filled and turned on, we flip the sign over to the CLEAN side.  As soon as it has been emptied we flip the sign to the DIRTY side again.
My 3-year old loves to look at the sign and point out if it's clean or dirty.  He can recognize which color represents "dirty" and which color represents "clean."