| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| therusticcottage |
Posted - Jun 29 2005 : 11:30:38 PM
Question for a new discussion -- do you wash your dishes by hand or do you use a dishwasher?
I didn't get my first dishwasher until 1977 -- at least my first mechanical one! Everything was done by hand until then.
I've come to hate my dishwasher. I get tired of running out of dishes in the cupboard because they're in the dishwasher waiting until I have a full load. Then when they're done there's an argument over who is going to empty the thing (it's usually me). Not to mention the water and electricity it uses.
So now I'm doing dishes by hand and loving it. I bought a wonderful earth friendly dish soap at Trader Joe's -- lavender and tea tree. Now I wash, my daughter or husband dries, and we have nice conversations while we're doing the dishes.
One of the older ladies from our church told me that when she does dishes by hand she prays for people. She said she's shed many tears in her dishpan while praying. What a wonderful thought!
Kay
Proud Member of North Clark County Farmgirls |
| 25 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| beachaubergine |
Posted - Dec 08 2005 : 11:20:20 AM
I hate my dishwasher sometimes too because it is not functioning properly and so we get bits of food baked on and have to wash things by hand anyway. we also hate emptying it too! but i wanted to say that i thought i had heard that it is actually more energy efficient to wash things in a dishwasher, at least in terms of water. dishwashers use less water than handwashing. i am sure it could vary, some people just let the water run in the sink instead of filling it up to do lots of dishes at once. i imagine if you are heating your water too, you could be saving fuel since the dishwasher uses less (hot) water also? |
| mustbeteatime |
Posted - Oct 31 2005 : 1:04:04 PM
Just want to share some thoughts/concerns about a recipe for automatic dishwasher detergent posted in Home Safe Home – Home Care. It calls for ½ washing soda and ½ borax. I did try it, but it seems quite caustic (washing soda is caustic) and I’m pretty sure that with continued use, I would notice etching on my dishes. I also have concerns about this formula due to the borax, which MaryJane notes in her book as being not-so-good for soil quality. After just one use, I found that my glass measuring cup had noticeably faded markings. So for now, I will stick with commercial detergent – probably Shaklee (yes, it is expensive, but you only use a couple of teaspoons, so a box lasts a very long time, and my mother insists that it will not etch glassware, and Shaklee products are environmently responsible) or when I can’t readily get Shaklee, I will try Seventh Generation which I have now found in my grocery store.
Just wanted to share my experience in case you were going to try that formula.
Enjoy the good things in life! |
| hapyhrt |
Posted - Oct 07 2005 : 02:51:55 AM
What a fun thread!  I don't mind washing dishes and sometimes even enjoy it! That being said, the system in our house (just hubby and me here) is that whoever cooks doesn't do the dishes since we're both home now. This seems to be a fair trade as I don't enjoy cooking (shame, I know) but can tolerate it when I know that I'm not stuck in the kitchen doing the clean up too!
My system is to wash silverware first (to get it over with!) and then glasses, dishes and pots in that order. Getting the utensils out of the way seems to make the entire job go alot quicker for some reason.
Hubby grew up with a mom who would not allow her boys to wash dishes at home though they both worked as dishwashers during high school! Go figure,eh! My Mom always sings while doing dishes and that's how I do them to this day, always a song on my lips and a memory in my heart of simpler childhood days. 
Oh, and why is it that even if the rest of the house is messy it still looks fine as long as the dishes are done up, put away and the floor is swept? Maybe because company almost always enters into the kitchen and doesn't often go beyond it!  I love this little saying:
quote:
"No matter where I serve my guest, they seem to like my kitchen best!"
"Think happy thoughts...any others aren't worth your time!" Ü |
| mdotterer |
Posted - Oct 06 2005 : 12:27:13 PM
I have a dishwasher. It's a great drying rack.
I love to do dishes by hand. It's such a simple and satisfying job, I guess. You get started and soon, the kitchen is clean. It's about the only thing I like in the housework department. I love to pause and gaze out the big kitchen window at the redwoods or watch our dog chase a squirrel back up the tree. I especially like to watch the sky. It's great in winter when the storm clouds move in and when the wind is up the trees go crazy and the lovely bass wind chime sounds it's very low C. Sigh.
However, I hated the dish drain. The ugly thing sat there year after year, taking up needed counter space and giving me one more thing to clean. And, when we used the dishwasher, I hated running out of dishes we needed because we were waiting for a full load (it's just me and my husband). So, screw the dishwasher! I tossed the dish drain (yea!), wash the dishes by hand and let them dry in the dishwasher, which is more sanitary than towel drying them. I do use the dishwasher when we have lots of company, or I'll run it occasionally because it starts to smell strange. That's it.
One funny thing I do: After years of using a dishwasher, I find that I always put the dishes in there the "right" way - plastic stuff on top, plates lined up according to size, nothing blocking the whirling thing... old habits die hard, I guess.
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| john |
Posted - Oct 05 2005 : 11:18:02 PM
I always wash by hand .It means that the job is done more to my satisfaction. Why am I so fussy
I like the rest of you like to lay down dish towels |
| BlueApple |
Posted - Oct 02 2005 : 10:04:08 AM
Oh Jenny - I hope your husband is able to fix it. I don't know what I would do without my dishwasher. I do child care and have 8 little ones I care for, plus my own family of five - with all those dishes I still feel like I wash as much as I use my dishwasher! LOL Plus, my dishwasher just doesn't seem to do a very good job so I practically have to wash them before they go in anyway - but I do feel like it at least sterilizes them a bit so I still use it.
Julia
BlueApple Farm |
| lonestargal |
Posted - Oct 02 2005 : 09:36:05 AM
Oh man that stinks Aunt Jenny. How rude of it to quit on you during canning season!!! I'm getting really frustrated with my dishwasher and thinking of just handwashing everything. It seems I take stuff out and some of it's still dirty!!! What is the point in that??? |
| Aunt Jenny |
Posted - Oct 01 2005 : 9:34:12 PM
My dishwasher is on the fritz!! I am back to handwashing which is fine I guess. I was getting spoiled..haha
I wish it would have happened AFTER canning season but I am getting by..and I will have nice wrinkly hands!!
My husband says he may be able to fix it but isn't sure. It was used when we got it. (full size portable) but fairly new. We have had it two years maybe..I can't remember tonight.
I better go wash more jars...applesauce tonight~!~
Jenny in Utah
Put all your eggs in one basket..and then watch that basket!! Mark Twain |
| 4girlsandaguy |
Posted - Oct 01 2005 : 6:09:44 PM
You guys have such fun answers. I have a dishwasher and would not live without one. I do wash pots and pans etc. by hand. I love standing at my kitchen window when washing dishes. My window looks out to the goat house. I just love watching those kids both mine and the goats running around and climbing the tree. Its better than a movie! |
| lonestargal |
Posted - Sep 11 2005 : 4:28:18 PM
Yup that's me too. I hate trying to sterilize in boiling water or something. Just so much easier in the dishwasher. I really don't mind handwashing it's just with everything else going on the dishwasher just gives me that much more time with my family. |
| Aunt Jenny |
Posted - Sep 11 2005 : 3:14:54 PM
Gosh that sounds like me..I have those same exact rules...so I usually have a dishtowell on the counter with a few things I hand washed on it. Some of my favorite things I don't like to put in the dishwasher anyhow, and I agree about the dry cycle..never use that! I LOOOVVVEEEE it for the canning jars...my favorite thing about having a dishwasher is washing the jars there.
Jenny in Utah
The best things in life arn't things |
| lonestargal |
Posted - Sep 11 2005 : 2:26:38 PM
I never use a drying rack when I handwash. Seems more trouble than it's worth to me. I just lay towels down just like Alee. I have a dishwasher that I use for most of my dishes but I have rules that (1)it is only ran once a day (unless for canning jars) anything else gets washed by hand and (2) we never use the drying cycle (unless for canning jars). |
| Alee |
Posted - Sep 11 2005 : 1:12:14 PM
I never used a drying rack until I was given one- and even then I felt it was more work than necessary(water spilling and/or mineral deposits looking bad after a while). I just would lay out some cotton towels on the counter and we put the dishes there to dry. Now I have a dishwasher that and with 4 adults in the house we use that more often.
Ciao
Alee |
| owwlady |
Posted - Sep 11 2005 : 12:35:37 PM
I have a dishwasher, but the dishes never come out clean. I only use it now for a dish drying rack. I live alone so doing dishes by hand isn't such a chore. I only do them once a day in the evening. I also use the same order of washing. It just makes sense. |
| Whimsy_girl |
Posted - Sep 01 2005 : 9:05:36 PM
I love my dishwasher. It's older than any we have ever bought and it came with our house, it does a better job than any new model I have ever used. I hate to do dishes by hand, I am a total butter fingers with fragile things and have been known to stab myself with knives that I don't see through the bubbles and break glasses in the water against other items.
you can be oh so smart, or you can be oh so positive. I wasted a lot of time being smart I prefer being positive. |
| Elizabethq |
Posted - Sep 01 2005 : 07:12:53 AM
My sweet hubbie does the dishes. :)
Elizabeth |
| Julia |
Posted - Aug 24 2005 : 10:03:34 PM
We just bought a house this past December, it came with a dishwasher, my girls were thrilled. It has always been their job to do clean up the dinner dishes. Just yesterday, I actually missed washing dishes by hand. So now I want to go by a dish rack . I figure they can still use the dish washer and I can get prunny hands. I too, have a preferred order to wash dishes. I was taught a certian way in home-ec and I still do it that way. Isn't it great to have some place to go to talk about washing dishes and no one thinks your crazy? Simply, Julia
"The gloom of the world is but a shadow; behind it, yet within our reach is joy. Take joy!" Fr.Giovanni |
| Susie Q |
Posted - Aug 22 2005 : 10:51:10 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Anne
I actually remember being taught in high school home economics that you are supposed to wash your dishes in the order you're saying (glasses, silverware, plates, pots n' pans) because that way your getting the things that have most contact with your mouth washed with the cleanest dishwater and best sanitized. So maybe you all aren't fussy, just right!
'Course, I'm just lucky if I get them done! Lately, I've been bribing myself to do the dishes with new discloths!
mmm....I didn't even think about mouth contact. I just did all the glass stuff first because I didn't want streaks. Thanks for the info. |
| CityCat |
Posted - Aug 22 2005 : 10:13:33 PM
In the last place I lived, we had a dishwasher. It was an older model, and we didn't know how to use it. And it looked dodgey. A while later our landlady came by inquiring after the house and if were were settled. She came into the kitchen, and asked, "So, have you used the dishwasher?" We said, no. "Why not? It works, you know." "We use it to store tupperware." She didn't believe us until she opened the dishwasher.
Cat
ps. I never realized there was a pattern to dishwashing. Now I understand what my Mom was doing! |
| Clare |
Posted - Aug 22 2005 : 3:52:40 PM
I was taught to do dishes in the same order. And from right to left.. just because that's how the kitchen was set up with the most counter space on the left. Growing up, as I got old enough to be trusted, first I dried while Mom washed, then she turned the washing over to me and my younger brothers had to take turns drying. There were some infamous scuttles during dishwashing time. Of course, we'd all have rather been outside doing something else, but the boys just acted out more about it. Consquently, we did not have many matching dishes from their slips and blips! And wouldn't ya know, after I left home and it was just Mom and the boys on dishwashing brigade, Dad bought Mom a portable dishwasher that saw them through the rest of the boy's years at home.
I personally don't have a dishwasher now and I kinda like the methodical pace of dishwashing and the instant results. I let mine air dry in a rack. BUT, sometimes I put it off until I have to do them and get them out of the way to be able to cook. It's never terribly groudy, but a day's worth of dishes in the sink is common. I guess when it's just me at home I can "hang loose" like that. Nobody but the cat to complain!
**** Love is the great work - though every heart is first an apprentice. - Hafiz
Set a high value on spontaneous kindness. - Samuel Johnson****
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| Anne |
Posted - Aug 22 2005 : 3:41:31 PM
I actually remember being taught in high school home economics that you are supposed to wash your dishes in the order you're saying (glasses, silverware, plates, pots n' pans) because that way your getting the things that have most contact with your mouth washed with the cleanest dishwater and best sanitized. So maybe you all aren't fussy, just right!
'Course, I'm just lucky if I get them done! Lately, I've been bribing myself to do the dishes with new discloths!
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| rebecca |
Posted - Aug 22 2005 : 02:52:04 AM
quote:
Originally posted by sleepless reader
My neighbor called one day and said her dishwasher died. I told her if I ever called saying my dishwasher had died to send flowers! My husband has been doing the dishes for years (on nights when he's home). Other times it's me or the kids. I took care of the breakage problem by using tin dishes and canning jars for glasses! One of those breaks and you just grab another out of the canning stuff:) They're much sturdier than most drinking glasses too. They sort of fit our lifestylebetter than nice stemware. As much as these household tasks can be a bother, they can be sort of cathartic too.And I hate to think of how much water is used to run a dishwasher! At least I can water the plants outside the kitchen door with the rinse water!
Sharon
Rebecca of RebeccaJoysFarm |
| Susie Q |
Posted - Aug 21 2005 : 2:41:13 PM
quote:
Originally posted by sleepless reader
Jenny, I go from right(dirty) to left(clean) too. I also get very picky about the order of washing...first glasses, then flatware, plates, and last the pans. The rest of the family just thinks I'm nuts.
Sharon
I wash dishes the same way except I do glasses first then the rest of the glass items, then silverware and finally metalware. I wash from left to right. I'm left handed.
I hate doing dishes. I'd rather do 5 hampers of laundry and ironing than a sink full of dishes. Thank God for dish drainers and air drying. |
| JoyIowa |
Posted - Jul 17 2005 : 11:56:18 AM
Sharon and Kay!!! I can't believe I'm not the only one who was taught to do them in that order! At potluck functions, people rush to beat me to the dishes so they don't have to be "Fussy". I get a lot of kidding about being picky and fussy and they're just dishes and they've all got to be washed. I'm so glad there are other people who learned the "right" way to do dishes. By the way, when I could look out my kitchen window and see my garden or the fields, or woods I loved doing dishes. The house we now live in has a gray Morten building about 6 feet from the window. I've always thought about putting up a variety of trellises and viny things, but haven't done it. All I know is now I'd trade anyone anything for not having to do it.
Peace to all and Happy washing however you do it.
Joy
By
To live without farm life is merely existing, to live with farm life is living life to it very last experience. |
| Kim |
Posted - Jul 17 2005 : 10:36:39 AM
I go from left to right, too. Sharon I agree with your method. Least dirty to dirtiest basically! I know a lot of women who do it that way. You should give a dishwashing seminar at the local extension!!! I have a dishwasher too, here at home, but at our place in Wisconsin, no dishwasher other than me. If we have company and they want to help, I let them, but I prefer to wash vs dry.
farmgirl@heart
Be at peace with yourself and the rest will follow |
