So… last week I asked my dear husband to haul our dishwasher out to the road. He obliged. I’m pretty sure someone took it before the garage men came.
It wasn’t broken. Okay, it did have a hiccup where it didn’t always run water when the element got hot so I only used it when I was home, just in case it decided to go dry and start smoking. That’s not why I wanted it gone though.
Truthfully, after being so happy to get that thing, I hardly used it. I can say with confidence that it hadn’t been used more than half a dozen times since I went down to part-time at work… so for well over a year. I found myself running it from time to time just so it didn’t start to smell, and we used it when we had guests for Thanksgiving. Other than that it just sat there taking up valuable space.
So, do we have piles of dishes sitting everywhere? Do we constantly bicker over who’s turn it is to wash them? Nope and nope. Our sink is usually shiny, clean, and empty! Here’s a warning in case I never told you: if you happen to drop in for a visit and there are dirty dishes in the sink – run! It’s a sure sign of a bad or crazy day around here!
What do we do? We use a dish wand. It’s always loaded with soap and sits right behind the faucet.
Have a dirty dish or cup? Run a bit of water over it. Grab dish wand. Scrub. Flip. Repeat. Run a bit of water over it. Place in drying rack. Whoa, like 5 seconds went by.
Now I know what you’re thinking… what about hot water. Our tap gets hot pretty fast so if we have a few dishes to wash in a row, even over several minutes, we still get some hot in there. If it’s just one random cup the water is mostly cold. It still cleans well and is not a big deal. We soak anything that’s seriously stuck on anyway.
There is a trick to making this system work. It all starts with a butter knife, thus the title. It is very tempting to just drop that thing in the sink and walk away. I’ll catch it the next time. Riiiight. Except guess what happens? I come back with a cup and think, oh, there’s already a knife to wash and Kent is mad and I really don’t have time to wash two things so I’ll do it later. Or, Brian comes along and sees the knife and figures I’ll be back to wash it so he’ll leave his cup there, too.
Really, it’s amazing. I’ve tried it both ways. No one wants to be the first one to put a dirty dish in a nice clean sink! Usually for something as small as a knife the dish wand is wet enough to just scrub it and then use a little trickle of cold water to rinse it.
On baking day I make an exception and fill the sink with soapy water so I can drop the measuring cups and things in as I go and scrub them while things rise or bake. Other than that we each just wash our plates and things as we go.
This is what works for us. How do you handle dishes in your house?
This post is linked to:
Thankful Homemaker’s Weekly Link-Up
Homestead Barn Hop
DIY Accomplished Link-Up
