At some point I learned to clean as I cook, washing each item immediately as I'm done with the step that uses it. If you can get in the habit, it's so much easier. Never a huge stack to clean and nothing sits there getting stuck on the pot/plate/whatever. Dishes are done before sitting down to eat and there's only a couple when you're done eating.
You don't need any more than 2 cooking vessels be that a pot and pan or 2 pots. If you use more stop it! Also do the bloody dishes I ain't your mother! How can 1 person use 4 plates and 12 forks before dinner in 1 day!?! How!
What are you on about? Just the other night I had a pan for roasting seeds, a pot for building a sauce, a pan for cooking protein and another pot for cooking my starch. And that's just a Tuesday meal. If I made a dedicated effort to be minimal with vessels, I'd still have to wait for them to cool for cleaning.
Also, to all the clean while you cook advocates on here, that's easier to do with a known preparation. When you've Just downloaded a new recipe and you have no idea what you are doing, your often don't have the bandwidth to leave the project and start cleaning.
What really baffles me is how people that have dishwashers manage to do this. Like, use bowl/whisk/cutting board/whatever > put in dishwasher. That way, all you have to do is wash your knives while everything else cooks.
This is my gf in the Kitchen. Well, this is her in any room in the flat. Somewhat frustrating because she sure as shit didn't treat the flat she lived in with her mates like that...