Please forgive the mundane post, but I spend so much time doing this, that I’d like to know a better way, if there is one.
I have a two basin sink. What I do now is simply leave the water running, grab a dish, glass, or what have you, lather up, scrub if necessary, rinse, then set upside-down on the drying rack. Difficult stuff gets left in the bottom of one of the basins under the running water to “soak”, and be tried again later.
What do you all do? Is there a better way that might save time and/or water and/or soap?
Yes. It’s called a dishwasher.
Seriously though, back in the day when I actually did wash the dishes by hand, I always filled up one side of the sink with hot, soapy water and put the stuff that needed to soak in the bottom, to be washed last. After that point, I only turned the water on again to rinse. Don’t know if this actually saves water or not, but I’d guess it does.
Well, I grew up washing dishes, and for the past ten years haven’t had a dishwasher, so I consider myself a pro. I won’t let mrs bughunter wash dishes by hand, so thank god we just bought a Kitchenaid Pro Series dishwasher.
Except that I find myself struggling to develop a system with a dishwasher. It’s been decades since I used one regularly.
Anyway, here’s bughunter’s scientific dishwashing system optimized for time efficiency and minimal hot water consumption:
Use a two-basin sink, or a single basin with a dishpan. In a pinch, a large pot can sub for a dishpan. Also have a dish drainer, a scrubbie-sponge, a clean dish towel, and some dish soap. For really, really stubborn pots, you may want some Bon Ami or Barkeeper’s Friend.
Scrape off and rinse off food and grease from plates and stack them near the sink.
Stopper the side of the sink without the disposal and load it as follows: silverware and cooking utensils on the bottom; flat dishes and plates on top of that; bowls around the sides, on their sides; especially soiled mugs or plastic cups, also on their sides. If you run out of space in the basin before getting to the end of that list, then the rest goes in after you wash the contents of the basin.
Don’t stack the following in the sink: glasses and stemware; crystal and fine china; large pots and pans; large bowls; wooden items; and, of course, sharp items. Basically, nothing you can’t afford to break, nor anything that will cut you, nor (duh) anything too big to fit. If any of these are soiled or caked, give them a quick dunk in hot soapy water as the basin fills and set them aside. It’s amazing how well only five minutes of standing around wet will work for loosening dried on food.
For really, really soiled pots and pans, fill them with hot soapy water and let soak for now…
Fill the sink with straight hot water, giving a good squirt or two from the soap bottle. Make sure the soap goes somewhere that the running water can get to, dissolve and distribute around the basin. When the basin fills enough, dunk any items in the hot soapy water that are especially soiled but don’t go in the sink. Now is also a good time to clean the sink… it’s important that the rinsing side of the basin be clean.
The water in the basin will be too hot to immerse your hands into, so while it cools some, start scrubbing the pots and pans. Use the sponge to slosh a little soapy water from the filled basin and transfer to the pot or pan. Don’t rinse, just stack. When all the pots are scrubbed, then turn on some warm water and use the veggie sprayer to quickly rinse the pots in one step, and stack on the drainer. Towel dry and put away.
The water in the basin should be cool enough to work with, if not, it will cool quickly as you work. Wash the items in the basin and set them in the bottom of the other side of the sink. When you run out of space there, rinse the items and stack in the drainer.
The key here is not to run the water constantly, and to minimize the number of times you turn the water on and off. The more items you can “batch” together in a step, the faster the washing will go, so rinse as many items at the same time as you can. The sink sprayer helps speed things, too.
After you empty the basin, start with the next items, cleaning clear glasses and crystal first, then plastic items, then metal items and pots and pans.
Don’t put cups and glasses in the drainer, lay out another clean towel and place them there, upside down.
When you fill the drainer, towel dry and put away those dishes. Most meals, you can wash everything and only fill the drainer once, especially if you’re the master at drainer stacking, like me.
Clean any pots and pans you let soak. Dry and put away.
Before you empty the dishwater basin, use that water to clean up the counters and cook surfaces. Kitchens harbor more bacteria than any other place in the house, including the bathrooms. Cleaning your sink thoroughly every time you wash up helps reduce the bacterial count. This means using the scrubby side, and hot soapy water, and going over every square inch of porcelain and countertop.
As you drain the dishwater, clean out the sink again.
When you’re done, rinse the soap out of the sink, and out of the sponge. Wring the sponge well, and set aside to dry. And for krissake, change your dish sponge monthly! Or at least throw it in the laundry with your dishtowels.
I admit, I am a freak about dishwashing, so bear that in mind.
I absolutely cannot stand to wash dishes in a sinkful of soapy water; that same water is dirty from washing plate #1, so I require clean water for each dish/utensil/pan. I buy these dish scrubber things where you put the soap in the handle of a sponge/scrubber wand sort of doohickey, and then wash each thing under hot running water, rinsing and setting into dish drainer immediately afterward. My good pans get the gentle treatment with a non-abrasive sponge.
I don’t dry dishes because dish towels are a breeding ground for bacteria (I read about 20 years ago, I think). I scrub the dish drainer at least once a day, to eliminate any deposits from hard water that might contaminate my flatware or plates.
I also keep baby bottle brushes around for those pesky little areas that the spongy scrubber thing won’t reach. I actually have four different dishwashing implements hanging by my sink, currently.
Sure, it’s compulsive. But I am not putting my hands or my dishes into some bath of half-dirty water. Must say, my dishes are nicely shiny, and my glasses bear no water spots.
I don’t have a dishwasher (very small kitchen) and I wash my dishes pretty much like MissGypsy. I use one of those double-sided sponges that is a regular sponge one one side and a scrubby thing on the other.
I let the water run and squirt a dab of dishwashing soap in each thing to start. I scrub everything inside and out, rinse it, and set it in the dish drainer on the edge of the sink.
I have a big old-fashioned one-piece cast-iron sink and drain board thing that extends out on both sides of the sink. The dish drainer is on one side and dirty dishes sit in the sink and on other other side. I have a single bowl sink that’s kind of shallow. The water runs the whole time I’m washing. I know it’s wasteful, but it’s just how I do it.
I also don’t dry anything, for the very reason MissGypsy mentioned, except for my good Circulon cookware. I do dry that with a clean towel, which then gets tossed down in the laundry.
I turn on the ceiling fan, and stuff gets dried pretty quickly.
When I did dishes by hand (and I still have a sneaking guilty feeling about using a dishwasher, but convince my wife…), I tried to avoid wasting water – I live in California, and the great drought cast a pall on my early adult years. Even now, I wash a few dishes that don’t fit in the washer. I do not let the water run for ANY reason unless there’s something under it, and I do not fill the sink.
Rinse everything with water; during this, the water is heating up, so I start with the “not really that dirty” dishes, and leave the “crusty because I forgot it was in my office” dishes until the water is hot.
Using a relatively not-dirty pot or bowl as a reservoir, I make a fairly concentrated soap solution in hot water. I wet my sponge in this and go to town on the dishes: glasses first, then dishes and other ceramics, then silverware, then pots, pans, and bakeware. I start with one sink full of dirty dishes, and fill the other sink with soapy dishes. Breakables, sharps, and such go on the counter.
Between dishes, or when the sponge gets dirty, I squeeze it out, rinse briefly with hot water, and dip in for fresh soapy water.
When all of the dishes are done, I rinse with hot water. (By “hot water,” I mean that I open the hot tap. I like to run my water heater at about 130ºF, but I have to run it lower because of the kid.) I will use a sponge or dishrag to make sure that the dishes are well-rinsed and definitely clean – if rinsing reveals a dirty dish, I put it back in the other sink for further cleaning. If interrupted, I turn off the water.
Rinsed dishes go in the dish rack; large items and overflow get dried off and put away.
With all respect I suggest you change the way you do it, it is wasteful to just let the water run and run. Many resevoirs in the US are below normal, please shut off the tap!
washing by hand I fill up the sink put in dishes, wash a few dishes put in rack and rinse. Move clean dishes to sideboard, wash a few more dishes, put in rack and rinse. Repeat until all dishes are done.
"Using a relatively not-dirty pot or bowl as a reservoir, I make a fairly concentrated soap solution in hot water. "
Yep.
I have a small (1/2 gallon) pan that I fill with water and dump baby bottles and implementia in, and scrub them that away. Then I put everything in my handy-dandy microwave oven sterilizer and sterlize them before putting them up.
Everything else gets scraped or wiped and put into the dishwasher to await a full load.
[ul]
Do you think you read it at all?
[li] or do you think it was 20 years ago that you read it?[/ul][/li]
I personally don’t dry the dishes (that don’t go into the dishwasher) because I’m too lazy! :eek:
Well, I don’t have a double sink, and don’t have a sink big enough to hold a separate dishpan. Basically, I get the water running over top of the dirty items, not really full speed, but enough to wet everything down. I’ll also ‘scrub’ the things with my fingers to knock off any extra heavy dirt. I don’t like big blobs of ketchup or spaghetti sauce getting into the sponge.
Wet the sponge and add a dollop of soap to the sponge, lather it up. Scrub each piece in turn, rinsing immediately then putting up on the rack. If the soap runs out on the sponge, just rinse out and add more.
I don’t add soap directly to the dishes, cause it just runs straight down the drain.
Bughunter, I’m a little surprised that you use the dirty dishwater to wash down your counters in an effort to reduce bacteria, that water is full of food particles :eek: Why not just clean the sponge out and use a drop of fresh soap? I personally prefer to just use a spray soap (I mix my own with Dr Bronner’s and water, or plain ammonia and water) and a paper towel. Dish sponges are filled with bacteria, I figure they just spread the germs around more than cleaning them off.
I have a dishwasher but washed dishes by hand for so many years they go into the machine pretty clean already.
My best advice to ease the chore? Get into the habit of quick-scrubbing things off as you use them while cooking. Finished w/ a mixing bowl, spatula, spoon, pan? Immediately give it a swish-and-wipe so food doesn’t set. A double sink is great for this. Use one side for smaller items, saving the other for dumping large, particularly crusty pans. Just pop in a smidge of soap and fill w/ hot water to soak the pans while you’re eating.
When you’re ready to wash, do a quick swish of everything, then put them onto the counter next to the sink, the largest pans holding the smaller stuff. Give the sinks a quick swish to clean them out.
Plug one side, then squirt in some soap. Start with glasses, and use the hot water filling the sink to rinse the glasses. The sink’s probably full by now, so use the empty sink to rinse the rest. Next wash plates and silverware. (Use a scrubber to get food from the between the fork tines.) Put a small finished stack in the empty sink, then turn on the water to rinse each item of individually. They should be clean, so you’re only sloughing off the soap residue.
Then tackle any mixing bowls, cooking implements and pans; stuff that may require a bit more scrubbing. I usually stack them in the other sink, then empty out the soapy water from the other sink, using it to rinse the big items. That way the sink gets rinsed at the same time as the dishes.
Wipe out sink with scrubber. Spray dishcloth and scrubber with disinfectant. (I use a cheapo bottle filled with water and a bit of bleach.) Wipe down counters with dishcloth. Re-rinse dishcloth with hot water and then spray again with bleach water. Hang it up to dry then, all flushed with virtue, go have a refreshing libation.
FWIW, I never dry dishes with towels either.
