The Dishes: Dance or Disastor

The dishes are one of the biggest problems, in my experience and observation, for keeping a clean house. At least three times a day they are being added to. And if you don't do them in a reasonable time, they start to get nasty. Yuck.


I have discovered, though, there are some simple things you can do to make this job much easier.

I don't have a dishwasher, but these days most Americans do. I have learned that for most families the two habits that will keep the dishes done are:

1. Turn the dishwasher on before you go to bed. and
2. Empty the dishwasher first thing in the morning.

This keeps you house clean because:

1. The dishes in the dishwasher are ALWAYS dirty. No one has to ask. No one has to guess. No one has an excuse to set dishes on the counter instead of putting them in the machine. "A place for everything and everything in its place" and dirty dishes belong in the dishwasher.
2. You actually HIDE the dirty dishes in the dishwasher all day long. No one can see them :-) 

And if your dishes are stacked up when you start this habit? You will evnetually catch up! Teh average family uses less than one dishwasher load a day worth of dishes. So if you wash a full load each night...walla! ...you magicly catch up!

And stay caught up!

Once you are all caught up, Run that washer whether you have a full load or not! 

It's worth the extra few cents.  

Non Dishwasher Safe Dishes 

Some things just can't go in the dishwasher. These are best handled jsut washing, rinsing, drying and putting them up as soon as you are done with them.

Cutting veggies for supper? When you finish, put the veggies in their serving container, take the knife and board to the sink, wash them both, dry them both, put them up, and hang the towel. 

This way you don't have to handle- or even look at!- them again until you need to use them. 

Certainly, your meal is not over until all the dishes are either in the machine or washed, dried, and put up.

No Dishwasher At All

1)   Gather up all the dishes from the whole house. Check every room, since dishes like to run away and hide in the oddest places.

2)   Take everything out of the sink.

3)   Fill one side of the sink with hot water and put a squirt or two of dish soap in. Dish soap dissolves grease and loosens stuck-on food.

4)   Scrape the plates and stack them in the hot, soapy water.

5)   Wipe each plate with your choice of scrubbers. Some prefer to use a rag because they can be better sanitized in the laundry. Others like the absorbency of some type of sponge. If you use a sponge with a scrubbing surface, one with a white plastic (i.e. Dobie) won’t scratch your dishes. Even microscopic scratches leave places for dirt to collect making the dish less sanitary and harder to clean next time.

6)   When all the food is removed from the plate, stack it in the side of the sink with no water.

7)   When all the plates are out of the water, stack all the bowls in the water from the biggest to the smallest, making sure each bowl has soapy water in it.

8)   Rinse the plates, front and back, making sure all the soap has been washed away. This also washes germs away. Use the hottest water you can stand in order to kill more germs (the three biggest germ killers in the world are sunshine, water, and heat).

9)   Lean the plates on the wall or in a dish rack so all the water runs off.

10)       Wash all the bowls, stacking them in the rinse side of the sink.

11)       Fill the soak side with more dishes, working from smallest to biggest and dirtiest.

12)       Continue rinsing, washing, and soaking until you have washed everything or you run out of room on the drain board (place you put the dishes to let the water drain off).

13)       Make sure everything is stacked in the way that will allow the most water to drain off.

14)       Using a clean towel, dry each dish inside and out.

15)       Put the dishes up where they belong. Put like with like (all the glasses in the same place, for example) and put everything closest to where it will be used (pots and pans by the stove, microwave dishes by the microwave, baking dishes by the baking supplies, glasses and cups by wherever drinks are usually made, plates and silverware by the table).

16)       When the drainboard is clear, go back to rinsing what is in the rinse sink, wash what is in the wash sink, soak more dishes, etc. until all the dishes are done.

17)       Put all the towels in the dirty laundry or hang them up to dry (they did just remove clean water from clean dishes), dish racks under the sink, wipe the counter, walls, appliances, and sink clean, polish the faucet, sweep the floor.

If you do this after each meal, you need fewer dishes, have neater cupboards, can find what you need when you need it, grow fewer germs, have to work less to get the dishes clean, and have a much more pleasant house.

Keep as few things on the counter as possible. It makes it easier to clean them, keeps splatters from landing on small appliances and decorations, and makes the kitchen feel cleaner and bigger.

Large families often find that the volume of dishes we generate at each meal make it easier and faster to do dishes by hand than with a machine.Once it takes more than one machine load a day, the machine isn't very useful.

We divide the eight children who are old enough to help (about four and up) into four teams of two people each; one older person (adult or teenager) and one younger.

We divide the eating and food prep areas into four zones: Table, Counters, Dry and Wash.

Each zone has two main jobs:

•  Table- Clear the table (taking the dishes to the sink) and put up leftovers. Wash the table and chairs. Sweep the kitchen and dinning room floors and after breakfast, mop the floors.
• Counter- Put up any food on the counters. Throw away any trash. Take all the dirty dishes to the sink. Wash the counters, small appliances and microwave. Gather up the dishes from the rest of the house.
• Dry- Dry each dish and put them up where they belong. If a cupboard or drawer needs it, wipe it clean and neaten it up.
• Wash- Wash all the dishes using the steps above. Rinse all the dishes and stack them on the counter.

Each team decides for itself how to divide up the jobs for each zone.

We rotate the zones after every meal. So Child #1 might wash the breakfast dishes while her partner rinses them. After lunch, she might clear the table while the other sweeps. After supper, she washes the big counter (which includes the stove) and #1 washes the little counter, microwave and it's counter, and gathers up the stray dishes. The next morning, she dries and #1 puts dishes up after breakfast.

By following this method, we get the entire dinning room and kitchen cleaned up in less than fifteen minutes except when we have mashed potatoes for supper or we forget to clean up after lunch; then it takes about twenty minutes. Not bad for dishes for eleven people!

Whichever method works best for your household, this job of dishes is important to get control of. Yet, it's not that hard once you get in the habit, once you learn the dance.