Doing Dishes

[belfastboy]

I’ll never win any Good Housekeeping awards, but I can’t abide piles of dirty dishes left for any length of time in the sink and on the counters and table or anywhere except where dishes belong, which is clean and in the cupboards and drawers.

I recoil at the sight of dried-on food on dishes and cookware. That failure to expend a little effort in rinsing off that stuff right away makes for much more work later. My dog generally does a pretty good job of it, and I have yet to hear a good reason why he shouldn’t. Whatever food residue remaining on those dishes that might be harmful to a dog is so minimal as to be of no real concern.

Our dishwasher is run almost daily. It uses less water than is typically used washing dishes by hand. Knives and pots and pans I wash by hand, especially those with wooden handles.

I take a similar approach to laundry. Don’t let it pile up. Dirty clothes go in the baskets and I rarely let more than a couple loads accumulate.

Dishes and laundry are the first matters that must to addressed in keeping any semblance of a clean and orderly home. I’ve known people who habitually don’t. Every horizontal surface is covered. They can’t effectively vacuum for all the clothing and bedding and whatnot on the floors. Counters and tabletops can’t be truly cleaned with all the dishes and cookware in the way. They have to wash the cookware and dishes BEFORE using it.

Some of these people have some pretty nice stuff, but it can’t be appreciated because it’s buried under all their other stuff.

My wife and I have been very good for each other. She has done much work in civilizing me and my barbarian inclinations.

We now do the dishes after each meal and tidy the kitchen ready for me to mess it up again at the next meal prep. I, on the other hand, have lessened my wife's tendency to being too rigid in her practice and she now accepts the world will not end if she does not vacuum on schedule.
It amazes me at the end of each meal I look over at my wife's plate and it is so clean that I sometimes wonder if she actually ate off it. While my plate is a mess as is the place mat and sometimes the floor surrounding me.

 

[tonyb]

We just bought a house (4 months go) that has a dish washer and a single sink. It has been the hardest thing to get used to. It seems that there are always dirty dishes in the sink waiting to go in the washer. I still prefer washing in one sink, rinsing in another and drying in a rack.

I can’t imagine why anyone would prefer a single sink over a double sink. We have two kitchens here, both with stainless steel double sinks. During the remo-lite we did in the upstairs kitchen a few years back we replaced a tacky faux-stone fiberglass sink with a new stainless double sink, which was in fact among the least costly options. It was only about a hundred bucks, as I recall.

 

[tonyb]

I also find dishwashing therapeutic. Not to over think it, but I get a sense of having accomplished something when I whip through a sink full of dirty dishes and they are all now sparkling in the drying rack. Beginning, middle, END. A tangible task has been completed! Well done! So unlike my nine-to-five duties that are never truly done, are always threatening to bounce back onto my desk, and which require multiple sign-offs from multiple idiots colleagues. In comparison, doing dishes is therapy that does my soul good.

Unlike so many of the efforts so many of us expend in our daily lives, these “menial” tasks leave us with little doubt that we actually accomplished something.

 

[belfastboy]

I also find dishwashing therapeutic. Not to over think it, but I get a sense of having accomplished something when I whip through a sink full of dirty dishes and they are all now sparkling in the drying rack. Beginning, middle, END. A tangible task has been completed! Well done! So unlike my nine-to-five duties that are never truly done, are always threatening to bounce back onto my desk, and which require multiple sign-offs from multiple idiots colleagues. In comparison, doing dishes is therapy that does my soul good.

It is just my wife and I so the dishes/pots from any given meal never amount to much. Doing the dishes after a meal is very quick and to me it feels good to get it done and then the thought of doing dishes doesn't take up band width.

We refurbished our kitchen a few years back and put in a new fancy dishwasher as we feared not having it as a selling feature when that time comes. We never use it and once every 6 months or so we force ourselves to load it up over a few days and give it a run so the gaskets etc don't all dry up.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I can’t imagine why anyone would prefer a single sink over a double sink. We have two kitchens here, both with stainless steel double sinks. During the remo-lite we did in the upstairs kitchen a few years back we replaced a tacky faux-stone fiberglass sink with a new stainless double sink, which was in fact among the least costly options. It was only about a hundred bucks, as I recall.

I much prefer a larger single sink than a double one, if for no other reason that you can actually fit a large pot and the cutting board in the single basin variety. Nothing is more frustrating while doing the dishes than trying to wrangle something too large for the sink. Messy.

 

[Doctor Damage]

Unlike so many of the efforts so many of us expend in our daily lives, these “menial” tasks leave us with little doubt that we actually accomplished something.

This is an extremely important point and I'm glad you made it. I think it's good for everyone to have accomplished something every day, no matter how small a thing, or how routine a thing.