How do you wash dishes?

[gallows_fodder]

@tdn

I just have one sink, so things tend to get done in a pretty inefficient manner. I’ll sponge off a dish with a soapy sponge, rinse it off, and put it on the dish rack. I then move onto the next dish. The water runs the entire time.

This is my way, too, and I’m so relieved. No joke – years of having my parents criticize my dishwashing technique has made me very uncomfortable washing the dishes in front of anyone for fear they’re judging me. It’s weird, it’s almost like a phobia. So I’m glad someone else does it my way, too (see, Mom, I’m not wrong!).

[Cunctator]

@Balthisar

@Cunctator

I don’t rinse anything, or leave stuff to drain/dry.

You don’t find that dish detergent causes, uh, bowel discomfort??

No

[hogarth]

My wife refuses to let us use our dishwasher for various reasons (it doesn’t always get off crusty bits, it takes too long for the two of us to fill up, she suspects it costs more money).

The usual technique we use is:
[ul][li]spray dishes with water to get large particles off; we have a wire strainer that fits over the drain[/li][li]put soap on sponge and lather it up[/li][li]scrub dishes with sudsy sponge[/li][li]rinse dishes thoroughly[/li]drip-dry in sink #2[/ul]

[Queen_Tonya]

Place cups, glasses and silverware in right side of sink, add soap and begin filling with hottest possible water.

While sink is filling, organize and stack bowls, plates, lids, pots and pans neatly nearby.

Once sink is full, grab clean bar-mop style dishcloth, give each cup and glass a thorough wipe and stack in left side of sink. Add plates to sudsy side to get started, rinse cups and glasses and stack to drain in strainer.

Return to sudsy side, wash each plate and flat tupperware-style lid and stack in empty side. Add bowls to sudsy side.

Repeat with bowls, pans, pots, ending with silverware that’s fairly soaked clean. My family considers my ability to stack a dish drainer my personal superpower. I can fit three days worth of dishes neatly, although large pans or pots wind up upside down on a clean tea towel.

[pulykamell]

My kitchen has no room for a dishwasher, unfortunately. So here’s what I do:

Fill up one side of a double bowled sink with hot water and dish soap. Stick dirty dishes in there and let soak for a few minutes. Scrub, and rinse over in the other side with cold water. The way I was taught in a restaurant was almost the same, except the rinse sink would be filled up with water, too. My sink isn’t deep enough for this to be an effective option, though, so I just use running water on that side.

[Mrs_Johnson]

@Sateryn76

Hate, hate, hate dishwashers.

For my family of four, in my double stainless steel sink:

1. Clean out the sink, put away any dry dishes, stack the dirty dishes to the left
2. Plug sink, add the hottest water I possible can stand and dish soap.
3. While sink is filling, add silverware to the bottom and then cups.
4. While sink is filling, begin washing cups
5. Wash and rinse all dishes in the following order: cups, silverware, bowls, tupperware, regular pans, plates, extra-dirty greasy pans
6. Put all rinsed dishes in the rack in the right sink, or on a towel on the counter to air dry

I think of myself as a well-organized and accomplished dishwasher - last night, I did a weekend’s worth of dishes in about 20 minutes.

I hand-wash my dishes because my dishwasher is… ancient. It has wood paneling on the front too. Family of 2, same washing method as above. I use the dishwasher as the drying rack.
I use dish gloves too. If I don’t, my hands hate me.

[CanvasShoes]

@Leaffan

Dishwasher. Everything into the dishwasher. This is my preferred method that works wonderfully when no one is around to notice that:

a) I didn’t rinse!
b) I put the plastic thingies that aren’t supposed to go in there, in there!
c) It might not even be a full load!

There’s a reason that dishwashers were invented: to wash dishes. I’ll be damned if I’m doing ANY of the work.

This! Except I do presoak. My condo has a rather crappy dishwasher. I don’t know if the dishwasher here in my apartment is any better, but I’m guessing not, they usually don’t splurge. So I’ll probably presoak here as well. Since the only dishes I have at this point are one saucepan, one spatula and the rest are throwaways until I actually find a new set I like, I doubt if I’ll be washing anything other than the pot and spatula either (yes, with only two, I do handwash those…for now. Sheesh, I work hard ENOUGH in the rest of my life, walk half a mile to the damned lightrail and back…I’ll be damned if I’m spending anymore time on my poor sore feet than I have to.

[thirdwarning]

I put all the dishes into the plastic dishpan. (I hate doing them in the plain sink.) the plates line up on the left side, the bowls stack toward the front, and the flatware is down on the bottom. Anything loose or gooey gets scraped off into the garbage with a rubber scraper before the dish goes into the dishpan. Then I fill the dishpan with water as hot as the faucet will give me, with a squirt of dishsoap. (Ivory. Everything else tears up my hands.) As it fills I start to wash the plates with the sponge (with the scrubber side on the back) and put them into the rack which is in the lefthand sink. If there aren’t too many dishes I have them about half done by the time the dishpan is full. The plates line up from the back of the rack, then the bowls from the front, standing up so they can drain. Glasses and mugs fit in along the spaces, and everything else goes in where it can. Flatware and small knives goes into the holder, which stands on the right side of the sink. Pans sit on top of the pile if they can. Otherwise they wait until later. Everything airdries and I put it away later.

[Eyebrows_0f_Doom]

@tdn

I’ll sponge off a dish with a soapy sponge, rinse it off, and put it on the dish rack. I then move onto the next dish. The water runs the entire time.

Ditto. Well, for the few things that don’t make it into the dishwasher.

[Baron_Greenback]

Just got a large main sink in kitchen, and a half-arsed small one right next to it that has a larger diameter pipe (I think), it certainly has a larger plug hole. There’s a movable mixer tap.

1. If it’s just a plate with leftovers on it, scrape lumps into bin, and then rinse plate till clean in small sink. Doesn’t need detergent usually, but something stubborn might need a tiny squirt and the water turned to full heat. To be honest I just use my hand for this, if stubborn use a scrubbing brush thing. Rinse in main sink, if detergent used. Let plates dry on rack.

2. Pots and pans that have more stubborn stains. They get cleaned in the main sink with hot water flowing and some detergent, and I use elbow grease or whatever to get them clean. These are bigger, so they get put aside, and rinsed out in the main sink once everything is washed. These just get left on top of the cooker until dry.

3. Something I’ve accidentally burned sits in the main sink, in hot water and a load of detergent, until it’s easier to clean. Again these dishes (from past history a frying pan, or a casserole dish) will be rinsed out fresh in the main sink, and dried with a towel and just put away.

We’re lucky here that water is unmetered, and is likely to remain so, and hot water boilers tend to be large.

[missred]

I cook most of my meals for just me. Unless I’m entertaining, dirty dishes go into the left side of the double tub sink, where I wash them under running water with a dish wand (the kind with the soap in the handle), rinse and leave air dry in the fits-in-the-tub drying rack on the right side. Takes all of about two minutes.

When I have guests, I’ll usually draw a basin of soapy water in the left side, wash, place in the drying rack on the right, then rinse with the sprayer.

I’ve lived so few places with a dishwasher that I’ve grown accustomed to washing up by hand.

[tumbleddown]

[ol]
[li]Fill one sink basin (double-basin sink) 1/3 of the way with the hottest possible water and 1/2 tablespoon of Costco’s house brand dishsoap.[/li][li]Put in silverware & cooking utensils and any glassware.[/li][li]Let sit until the water isn’t going to burn my hands (roughly five minutes).[/li][li]Scrub glasses with scrubby sponge, rinse in hot running water in second basin, place in drying rack.[/li][li]Fill sink to about 1/2 full with additional super-hot water.[/li][li]Put dirty plates, bowls and serving items in water, let sit again for soaking/cooling time.[/li][li]Scrub plates with scrubby sponge, rinse in hot running water, place in drying rack.[/li][li]Scrub silverware and utensils with scrubby sponge, each piece individually. Rinse in hot running water, place in drying rack.[/li][li]Drain sink back to 1/3 full and refill back to 1/2 full with hottest water and put in pots and pans. Let sit a little longer this time because by now the hot water heater has refilled and the water is even hotter. Come back, scrub, rinse, etc.[/li][/ol]