# Washing dishes - shower or bathe? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 2, 2008, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-dishes-shower-or-bathe/475396 "2008-12-02T21:15:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-dishes-shower-or-bathe/475396/41 "2008-12-04T15:36:39Z")
> [@melodyharmonius](#): > > okay, really? I’m the only one going to comment on this? What’s to comment on? The toilet is perfectly clean. He pees in the kitchen sink. One hopes the disposal is working also, or I don’t want to think about where he poops! 😉 Besides - check the username. It **says** you shouldn’t comment! ---
**Author:** ![stereomike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@stereomike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stereomike)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-dishes-shower-or-bathe/475396/42 "2012-05-02T05:50:45Z")
Although this an old topic, I thought I should comment. I hate doing dishes, but I like showering. So when my dishes get piled up I move them to my bathtub. Then when I shower I usually do about 5 dishes, and all the other dishes get blasted with shower water. After a week of showering my dishes are done and I can be lazy and not do dishes for another week or two. Obviously I’m a bachelor, and likely will be forever. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-dishes-shower-or-bathe/475396/43 "2012-05-02T06:02:21Z")
Dish-showering is an inferior method for removing every bit of oil and grease. I scrape and rinse dishes assiduously before the crap gets dried on (a habit I got into about 17 years ago, when I became my family’s full-time dishwasher). So when it comes time to wash dishes, I can bathe them and get them \*completely \*clean without the water getting gunky. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-dishes-shower-or-bathe/475396/44 "2012-05-02T12:54:57Z")
> [@Queen\_Tonya](#): > > Bathe. > > I fail to understand how scrubbing dried on egg yolk off each plate under a continuous shower of water isn’t wasting a metric assload more water than letting 4 plates with dried egg yolk soak in hot sudsy water for five minutes first. > > Especially because while they’re soaking (and before the water changes from hot clean sudsy water to cold bacteria-ridden pond scum) I’ve already washed the four juice glasses, four knives and forks and two mugs and quickly rinsed them. I fill the empty rinsing side of the sink with the freshly washed dishes, stacking until it’s full or until all of the cups/silverware are done, then the plates and pots and pans. Rinse dishcloth out under hot running water while sink is draining, wipe down table, counter and stove and finish up by rinsing out both sinks. 10 minutes, tops. > > Soaking in hot soapy water does 90% of the work by itself, scrubbing under running water is much more labor intensive and seems to waste a lot more soap and water. If a dish sits is going to sit in the sink, we do a quick rinse on of it first, then just a squirt of water on it so nothing dries hard so this isn’t an issue. We have a dishwasher, but for those things I hand wash, it’s always shower. ---
**Author:** ![Dereknocue67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6de8d8/32.png) [@Dereknocue67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dereknocue67)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-dishes-shower-or-bathe/475396/45 "2012-05-03T08:36:23Z")
Shower or bathe? What are you talking about? Don’t any of you have a dog? It’s one step dish cleaning. Oh, wait a minute. You’re probably referring to glasses and flatware. Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-dishes-shower-or-bathe/475396/46 "2012-05-03T08:46:59Z")
> [@Elret](#): > > My confession - I am a dish showerer. > > My mama brought me up right, I know that the “proper” way to wash dishes is to fill the sink with hot soapy water and submerge them, and if I have guests or am washing dishes at someone else’s house that’s how I do it. But when there are no witnesses, I just run hot water, put some soap on my scrub brush, wash away under the running water, then rinse. That is not the proper way where I come from: neither my mother, nor either of my grandmothers, nor the immense majority of the friends (of varying generations) in whose houses I’ve washed dishes or witnessed dishes being washed in Spain do it like that for most of the washing. Dishes and pots are left to soak in/with soap or soapy water only if they’ve got hardened crud. Otherwise, the procedure consists of “shower them ASAP, in two steps” (first step soap up with the scrubber, second step rinse; only the rinse needs to have the water running). If you clean fast, you shouldn’t need to soak the immense majority of dishes. Since the kitchen is one of the two rooms which should be _kept_ at surgical standards of cleanliness, there simply shouldn’t be dirty dishes in it. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-dishes-shower-or-bathe/475396/47 "2012-05-03T10:10:47Z")
Our dishwasher broke down, so I’m now actually dealing with this. I generally shower unless I have to do otherwise. This is mostly because I either do the dishes right after they have been used or right before needing to use them again. I do feel wasteful though, as you use a lot more soap that way. I love it more when there are some dishes that had needed to be soaked, because then I can just use the same soapy water. After rinsing the dish with piping hot water, of course. And, Nava, the whole “using less soap” is why it’s proper, I assume. As other European Dopers have been fond of saying on here: you don’t need very much soap to do dishes. Though even I can’t figure out how to do the thing where you can soak the dishes and not have to rinse them, as some claim. The soap over there must be different, or they must be more tolerant of soapy tastes. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-dishes-shower-or-bathe/475396/48 "2012-05-03T12:42:00Z")
What I don’t get is when people rinse there dishes in a sink full of water instead of ‘shower’ them off. They’re rinsing them in soapy water. ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-dishes-shower-or-bathe/475396/49 "2012-05-03T15:07:01Z")
As long as you rinse them, unlike those filthy [British](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=341595) and [Aussies](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=580588). ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Tyger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Silver\_Tyger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Tyger)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-dishes-shower-or-bathe/475396/50 "2012-05-03T15:21:13Z")
Bathe to wash, shower to rinse, more or less. My dishes usually aren’t very dirty when I wash them. I hate floating crud so I rinse my dishes really well before hand if they need it. (And now I don’t have a garbage disposal, so double that). Run a sink full of hot soapy water, start washing while the rinse sink fills. I usually only fill it two or so inches, then rinse things with the tap. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-dishes-shower-or-bathe/475396/51 "2012-05-03T15:36:49Z")
Combination - stoppper in the sink, dishes in the sink, start water, add soap. Start washing and rinsing in the main sink, and put in other sink to drain/dry. Depending on how full the sink is, turn off the water while scrubbing. Things that need a bit of soaking get it while other things are being washed. ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-dishes-shower-or-bathe/475396/52 "2012-05-03T23:36:43Z")
Even with a dishwasher, I rinse everything first. Part is habit, I admit. However— I’ve put gunky dishes in the dishwasher (old, new, fancy, plain) and I’ve used damned near every kind of dishwasher detergent and the dishes DON’T come clean. Plastics do not lose the greasy feel, so along with a rinse, I rub a bit of liquid dishwashing soap inside plastic containers before putting them in the dishwasher. I even use the hot water boost setting! For the mongo pots that don’t fit in the dishwasher, they get soap on a sponge and shower method of cleaning. If the dishwasher is busted or I’m at a place with no dishwasher (HORRORS!) I scrape and rinse, and then use the hot soapy water bath, with shower rinse. ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2012, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-dishes-shower-or-bathe/475396/53 "2012-05-04T04:27:09Z")
We rinse everything, and anything stuck gets a bath. But only the inside of the pot, pan, whatever. Just to keep it all loose until the dishwasher. If we are out of plates and need one, and the dishwasher hasn’t been run yet, we’ll pull one out, and shower it very quickly, usually with whatever soap is left on the sponge from the last time we cleaned the cutting board (which we always hand wash). Reminds me of a joke. Guy visits his uncle, is served food, the plate seems kind of funky. He asks if it’s clean. “Clean as Cold Water can get it,” is the reply, every time. When he finally goes to leave, he finds the uncle’s dog lying in front of the door. Uncle says, “Cold Water, get out of the way!” And actually, our dog is a good cleaner. He gets almost everything off the plate before we put it in the dishwasher. We just don’t give him leftovers of things that are poisonous to dogs (onions, etc.). But you almost can’t tell it was licked clean; that’s how thorough he is. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-dishes-shower-or-bathe/475396.md?page=2)