Kafka experts are familiar with the concept of backpressure, but they may not be very good at keeping their house in order. This post is for them.

A house is a series of buffers. In a smoothly run house, the following cycle of buffers exist:

1. The cupboard is a buffer for clean plates.
2. The counter is a buffer for plates with leftover food in them.
3. The dishwasher is a buffer for empty but unclean plates.

After the dishwasher runs, it now contains clean plates. Ideally, one would promptly move the clean plates to the cupboard, but if that fails to happen, it creates backpressure on the counter. Even if a plate no longer has any leftover chunks of food in it, it cannot graduate from counter to dishwasher, since the dishwasher is full of clean plates.

Alternatively, a strategy which is popular among college students is to use the dishwasher as the buffer for clean plates, the counter for everything else, and the cupboard to gather dust. This is functionally acceptable, albeit less aesthetically pleasing.

As an exercise to the reader: describe the cycle of buffers for laundry, and how backpressure may occur. Consult XKCD 1066 if stuck.