Obviously, if you live alone, it’s all up to you. But this is mostly a question for couples, or those with kids too young to do the dishes unsupervised.
My husband and I have very different viewpoints on this one particular household chore. I won’t specify who’s on what team, but one of us is adamant that dishes should be a two-person task, because it’s time we can talk and chat and it makes things go faster. The other is just as adamant that one person can get it done more efficiently alone (and leave the other one free to watch the toddler). (Our son is 21 months old, but he can play by himself just fine for 15 -20 minutes at a time, and we’ve got doorknob locks and gates to keep him out of restricted areas, so even if we’re not directly staring at him, he’s OK for a short time.)
A large part of the difference of opinion comes from childhood experience - one of us had bad experiences with a parent insisting that nothing was ever washed well enough (or washed “right”), rinsed thoroughly, dried enough, etc. The other’s experiences were much more casual and pleasant - so long as nothing was visibly left stuck on and the suds were gone, it was OK.
So how does it work in your house? Any particular reasons why? And any suggestions how how to compromise on this?
I would prefer to have my wife help me by drying the dishes while I am washing them, as it does cut some time off the job and of course we can talk and stuff while we are doing it. But usually, I just do both the washing and drying myself. She does do most of the cooking though, so I don’t mind doing the dishes.
Not only is it a one-person job in my house (my job, in fact), but I wish I could make the kitchen off-limits while I’m washing dishes! By the time I get up in the morning, my youngest (8YO) is up, and when I go to bed at night, my oldest kid who’s still living at home (16YO) is still up. I don’t have much “private time”, especially on weekends when there’s no school. I value the dishwashing time as time to think, reflect, pray, let my mind wander, sing as loud as I want, etc.
As for drying, we don’t. The washed dishes go into the drainer, where they stay until I empty the drainer in preparation for washing the next load.
I do all the kitchen duties - cooking, cleaning the pots and pans, and loading the dishwasher - so it’s obviously a one-woman job. Even if I had someone helping, the hand washing part would still be a one person job, since I don’t bother drying anything. It all just air dries and I put it away later.
Most of the time, I rinse the dishes and load the dishwasher. I wash the pots and whatever else does not go through the dishwasher. Generally, my wife will help empty the dishwasher, but I do the bulk of it.
People dry dishes? I just wash them and stick them in the dishwasher and let them dry. I don’t see the point in drying them. Every so often we’ll run the dishwasher, but I would say I do the dishes 90% of the time. I’m an odd one though, I like to do dishes.
The way our kitchen is laid out if two of us were actively working on the dishes we’d be crashing into eachother. We have a dishwasher and the 10 year old scrapes the plates and puts them in the dishwasher. The pattern my husband and I have fallen into is that he stays at the table and talks to me while I wash the pots and pans (unless there’s ANOTHER debate starting up on TV). He does the washing up sometimes, but that’s how it happens most often.
It’s a one-person job in our house. There’s only two of us so we don’t generate much in the way of dishes and the job rarely takes me more than about 10mins. Dishes are left overnight on the drainer to dry and I put them away in the morning as I’m the first one downstairs.
It’s a one-person job in my household - usually mine. I generally do it while my husband is putting our toddler to sleep or while he’s on the couch or doing something else (preferably contributing the the cleanliness of our house). I have a set amount of time I require myself to devote to cleaning each day to make sure the house doesn’t look like a total train wreck. It’ just about 30 minutes, but you can get a ton done in 30 minutes.
I kind of prefer dish washing as a one-person job. After all, all I do is wash and set the dishes on a towel to dry. I like it as a one-person job because I also get very little time to myself and it’s nice to be able to do a task without constantly answering questions or directing traffic. My husband is very competent at household tasks, but when we’re in the kitchen, I feel like I’m constantly answering questions. “Where does this go?” “Is this clean?” “What about this?” “Why did you do that that way?” “What should little overly be eating?” “What are we having?”
I used to get mad when I was younger and, after asking my mom similar questions to the above, she would say, “Stop! I’m tired of making decisions for today.” I figured that they were simple enough questions - what was the big deal? But as a mother and wife, I can definitely see her point now.
Are you me? This is my approach also. I do the dishes. I kindof like it, and besides, my wife loads the dishwasher all wrong.* I spend more time rearranging the dishwasher if she does the dishes.
*I’m not just talking about arrangement, but spacing. She can get maybe 5 items in the lower rack, while I can get 20. And she puts containers in upside down so all that happens is that they get filled with water.
More often than not it’s a no-person job - we tend to let the dishes pile up a bit.
Still, when one of us finally breaks and does the dishes, it’s always alone. In fact, I prefer to do them alone in the house, with music pumped up to the nth volume, me siging along.
Oh, and stripped naked. I like doing dishes in the nude - why get my clothing wet?
