Scrubbin' Time

[teaberryblue]

Just out of curiousity!

[Poll #1779027]

Comments

[batchix.livejournal.com]

there's two of us and we don't use disposable plates or silver ware... so we end up with a lot of dishes.

[zia-narratora.livejournal.com]

Yes but you do have twice as many people to wash them as I do!

[supertailz.livejournal.com]

I think you missed "my pets lick my dishes clean".

NOT THAT I DO. Oh god.

[zia-narratora.livejournal.com]

Pets, myself, pssh! Same difference!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_samalander/]

I was raised in a home where you washed your dished by want and THEN put them in the dishwasher. IDK why, it's kinda a waste, isn't it?

[zia-narratora.livejournal.com]

Well, we rinsed our dishes by hand and then put them in the dishwasher, but that was so large chunks of food didn't end up just getting spattered across all the dishes. We didn't, like, actually wash them with soap before putting them in the dishwasher or anything.

[liret.livejournal.com]

I think dishwashers were a lot less efficient back then. ( You know, in the old days, like the 1980s.)

[eschatologies.livejournal.com]

I guess it depends. We have a dishwasher but if I just had toast or something I'll wash the dish and put it away. Or, we only have one measuring pyrex thing, so I was that every time so it doesn't just sit in the dishwasher when I need it!

[zia-narratora.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's why I put in the "some" category. I had a dishwasher in one of my apartments but I found that it took so long to fill since I lived alone that it was often more useful to just suck it up and wash them.

[ariesathena.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of in between using dishes that require washing by hand and using disposable dishes. I've been using disposable plates more lately but I wouldn't say "most of the time" so... somewhere in between?

[zia-narratora.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I figure a lot of people use them sometimes, like if you're feeling sick or aren't going to be home enough in a given week to fill up a dishwasher or whatever, I assume unless you're using them primarily one of the other categories counts!

[goneril.livejournal.com]

I'm genuinely baffled by the idea of disposable plates at home. Do you mean that people have, like, a stack of paper plates that they use instead of real ones? Is this a common thing in the US?

[zia-narratora.livejournal.com]

Yes. I know people who only use disposable dishes. When I was suffering from severe clinical depression and living alone, I used disposable dishes only because it helped me avoid a breakdown, but now that I'm not clinically depressed anymore, I've stopped that. But I know a ton of people who only use "real" dishes when they have guests or something.

There's also the case of takeout-- if it comes in a box or something and you eat directly from that, I'd count that as a disposable dish?

[evil-laugher.livejournal.com]

I don't really understand dishwashers. Doing it by hand doesn't take that long, and it seems like you have to do it before using the dishwasher anyway.

I could understand it if you lived with a bunch of roommates, and they were all lazy shits who just left their dirty dishes laying around, so you could take care of all the washing with a button instead of cleaning them by hand for them.

[evil-laugher.livejournal.com]

Okay, I read your comment about chunks of food, so that answers that. Also, ewwww!

[cacophonesque.livejournal.com]

I've been fortunate to live in places with dishwashers for the past... 8-9 years. When there were only 2 of us, very few dishes, and eating at restaurants a lot, it seemed sometimes a bit silly to use the dishwasher. However, last year there were three of us in the house, and the dishwasher was very convenient. And now there are 4 of us at M's parents and the dishwasher is such a blessing. We do a lot of cooking and food prep at home, so it's nice to not have to wash everything by hand. Also, it has a power scrubber function, so we don't even really have to rinse much--just scrape the big food bits into the garbage or disposal.

[zia-narratora.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the one time I had a dishwasher while living alone it was a bit silly. But it can be really nice for baking or preparing food for a lot of people and that's mostly when I miss it.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

I have an increasing number of dishes that aren't dishwasher-safe (despite my best intentions), and also I have a big household and so there's often overflow that gets hand-washed.

[zia-narratora.livejournal.com]

My mom has a lot of non-dishwasher-safe stuff, too!

[yachiru]

Knowing my level of lazy.. if I put dishes in the washer they'd be there next Christmas, gasping for soap like fish out of water. I eventually get tired of seeing that same pot in the sink and wash it in a respectable amount of time. Mostly. >_>

[zia-narratora.livejournal.com]

Haha, yeah, when I lived alone I rarely amassed enough dishes to run a load.

[applespicy.livejournal.com]

I do so many dishes! Mostly in the dishwasher, because I LOATHE DOING DISHES. I don't know why I hate it so much, but it is my least favorite chore for sure. Chris likes to get all obsessive with the dishes whenever he's around to help, but I just want to give them a quick rinse and toss 'em in the washer. The longer I have to touch them the more I hate the chore.

[zia-narratora.livejournal.com]

It's my least favorite chore, too, but I don't have a dishwasher!

[phreakphantasia.livejournal.com]

I'm one of the oddballs that washes them by hand and then washes them in the dishwasher. :)

[zia-narratora.livejournal.com]

I had never heard of anyone doing this!

[ecosopher.livejournal.com]

Everyday, I am thankful for my dishwasher. Every. Single. Day.

I was so reluctant to get it, too. I thought I should be able to do it all myself, being as this is my 'job' and all. But let's face it, I'm not a natural 'housewife', and I'd much rather sit down and play with blocks.

[cheshire23.livejournal.com]

Our household has a dishwasher, but it's one of those portable ones and it...doesn't always actually wash the dishes completely clean. So sometimes one of us ends up re-doing dishes by hand. Sometimes we just cross our fingers and run 'em through the dishwasher again. Sometimes that works but sometimes it doesn't.

[torsui.livejournal.com]

had one in the last place, never accumulated enough dirty dishes on my lonesome that i needed to use it. i don't think i even had any appropriate soap, which may have come in handy when my brother was there and i ended up with a sink FULL of plates.

current place, we have one but we haven't used it yet. mostly it's in service as a drying rack because counterspace is at a premium again.

[rosefox]

I would love to have a dishwasher, because dishwashing kills my arms, but our landlord won't allow it.

[zia-narratora.livejournal.com]

I would really like a small one, a big one is too big for me to fill regularly, but same here-- I even offered to pay more rent, but it's not so much a "not allowed" thing as a "boiler can't produce enough hot water" thing.

[henpecked.livejournal.com]

We have a dishwasher, but because I hate unloading it so much, I'd actually prefer to just do the dishes by hand.

[zia-narratora.livejournal.com]

Haha, I would trade with you. I don't mind unloading the dishwasher, but I hate washing dishes.

[coldwriter.livejournal.com]

We got a dishwasher but I hate loading and unloading it so I usually wash them by hand. Plus we don't have too many people so that means less dishes/not needing washer as much.

[zia-narratora.livejournal.com]

It's amazing to hear that people like washing dishes more than they like unloading the dishwasher, but I guess this is a popular thing. I just don't like having old food on/near my hands so washing dishes is a bit gross to me.

[justatailor.livejournal.com]

I didn't live without a dishwasher until moving to NYC and now the concept of having one is almost foreign to me. Though, the one thing I absolutely miss is a garbage disposal.

[zia-narratora.livejournal.com]

I had a garbage disposal in one of my apartments in Boston and I was utterly confused as to what to do with it.

[everywordiwrite.livejournal.com]

My parents' dish-doing habits are definitely influenced by keeping kosher. They have separate sets of dishes for milk and meat (and a few that are parve - neither milk nor meat - mainly for cooking, like a couple of bowls and spoons and a cutting board). Plates get washed before going into the dishwasher in part so that you don't end up getting milk on the meat plates or vice versa by accident, and there are separate sponges for washing the milk/parve/meat dishes. They use paper plates for things whose kosherness is iffy, so to speak - takeaway is never allowed to touch normal dishes.

...it is kind of strange to talk about my parents' traditions as "they" instead of "we" now. In a good way.

Anyway, it's my impression that not having a dishwasher is commoner in the UK than in the US. I don't think any of the houses and flats I viewed last month had dishwashers (though the very very nicest one had plumbing set up for a dishwasher, but didn't come with one). So, washing by hand it is! Right now I'm really appreciating the fact that we can then let the plates drip dry (when there were lots of roommates there just wasn't enough space for everyone's dishes to drip dry so we always dried by hand).

Who knew dishwashing could be so interesting? :-)