Hand Washing our Dishes ~ Intentional Simplicity

We use our dishwasher as a "holding tank" for dishes so that we can minimize water usage. We soak the really gross dishes and get them mostly clean and then place them in the dishwasher. It never gets turned on, but it is a place to hold them. The next day, the mostly clean dishes get washed first and the water doesn't get nasty. As the water gets dirtier, the really gross dishes of that day go in to soak last. It means we don't have to change our dishwater and then Jules doesn't have to see the dishes.

We do one load of dishwasher dishes every 10-15 days to get our over-sized glass jars of bulk good clean. I can never seem to get them clean hand washing.

I'm one of the readers who asked you to please write more on this because I can't wait for the day I'll finally own a dishwasher. It does feel to me that since having a family I've spent most of my time in the kitchen, handwashing dishes (and hanging laundry, but at least laundry is clean!!) . Although I've never used a dishwasher, it seems to me one of those appliances that just makes daily life a little easier. I've greatly simplified our meals on most days, but we still eat 3 times a day (plus a snack for at least 2 of the kids) and produce lots of dirty dishes. As you say, the crucial step in the whole handwashing dishes is to have the whole family involved in it for it to work, and for a variety of little impracticalities (I'd have to go into how our kitchen is made), I can't see that happening in my family quite yet. Very soon, though. And, almost certainly, well before I finally get that dishwasher:) PS Disclaimer: I do use a friend's dishwasher once a year, when I take all our jam jars to be washed properly before jaming season - it's really hard to get all the jam washed away from the mouth(?) of the jars - no matter what scrub you use! PPS I totally see how well intentionally doing without a dishwasher is working for your family!

hehe. No dishwasher usage. Interesting concept. There's 3 in my family...one who can't yet reach the sink. I am the chef, busgal, dishwasher loader! I am looking forward to the day my little girl can help out with this dreaded chore.

I had a dishwasher once before I had kids.... I wouldn't mind having one now, for when teams are here, but the teams do the dishes when they are here. It takes only 20 minutes to wash the dishes for five people, if you move quickly... That's not that bad!! We don't have hot water in the sinks in CR, which is weird, but they do sell dish soap that is for cold water use and the water doesn't freeze your hands like in Maine. Simplifying is a good thing. Our women's retreat was on simplifying, both physically and spiritually. It was wonderful.

We got rid of our dishwasher several years back after it tore up. It was the second one to tear up in 2 years time and we couldn't afford another one and quite honestly, we were sick of them! So we started washing by hand. I love the idea of everyone having one of everything and washing it as soon as they use it. We don't always do that and the dishes will pile up throughout the day and we'll usually do them once a day, sometimes twice a day. I have down-sized all of our dishes to just enough for us (with a few extra) I could do even more down-sizing and they would have no choice but to do theirs when it's dirty. Thanks for making me think about this even more! :0)

I have never owned a dishwasher, and I agree that dishes I hand wash are cleaner than those washed in a dishwasher. This chore usually gets put off until the end of the day in our family of seven, and is usually a fairly involved task, because I cook a lot! My husband or I usually wash and one our kids dries some items so that what is left will fit in the dish drainer. My oldest child is starting to wash sometimes too. I'm intrigued by the idea of downsizing my dish collection and washing after every meal. We might have to give that a trial run this summer!

Oh my, I feel quite lazy after reading everyone's comments. I am quite a dishwasher gal. As a matter of fact, anything that cannot fit/shouldn't be in the dishwasher often sits for, um, 3 or 4 days. (My homekeeping skills leave something to be desired). That said, I have almost made the transition to being "dryer-free". Just like your dishes, I reduced our wardrobes significantly. This means that I have to wash more frequently than when I used to let a huge mountain of laundry build-up. Once there was a mountain, I felt it was too much effort to conquer with our limited amount of drying space, and would succumb to the convenience of the dryer. I don't think I'm quite ready to reconsider the dishwasher, though.

I hand wash all of our dishes as well. We don't own a dishwasher, and truth be told we may not even have running water within a year's time. So this is a necessity. I've never really liked washing dishes, but I do find that it is good thinking time if I do them by myself.

We are also working towards getting rid of pretty much anything that we don't absolutely need for every day life. So I may have to part with a few of my pots and pans and just keep a soup pot and my trusty cast iron griddle. Oh and bye bye to everything electric - mixer, food processor, toaster, etc. Though I will try to keep a stick blender for smoothies if we have enough solar electricity.

We take turns in our family, washing the dishes. Our 3 kids are older now, but I think they all started having their own dish washing day when they were around 8. So, I have one day, the next day is our son, then my husband, then the oldest daughter and then the youngest daughter. After every meal, we all do our own plates, glasses and knives and forks. Then, in the evening, the one who washes the dishes that day takes care of whatever is left from the day. It may be pots and sallad bowls or things that have been used while cooking or baking. We never dry by hand (unless we have visitors and there's a lot more things). Then the next morning, the person who washed the dishes the previous evening, take everything away and also set the table for breakfast. We have used this system for many years now, and it works really well. We also have a photography we found many years ago above our sink. It's from the time when some of the kids were into Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson, and it's of the two of them washing the dishes together. It sits there as a reminder that actually everybody has to wash the dishes (as we have told the kids many times:))

Renee - I have to say, I love the idea of reducing the amount of dishes one uses. When we bought our dishes seven years ago, they were a place setting of 12. YIKES! I loved it at the time, thinking of Christmas' with family all having the same plates and bowls and mugs. But it hasn't served us so well. Given that our house is 900 sq feet, we don't host Christmas that often - and haven't need 12 place settings. A few have broken...but we still have a lot of them. I'm definitely going to use your method of reducing the dishes we use - so that my dishes don't pile up. (Because they really do pile up. It's quite embarassing. We use our dishwasher, but I'd like to get away from it. Especially after reading some of your points about how this has worked for you. (We could really use an extra $400.00 a month; especially now that we are looking to buy a "new to us" car.) Thanks for this post. Oh...and are you selling your dishwashing soap? Would love to buy some. :)

We are hand washers too around here! My hubby gets the credit, he grew up in a family where they did not have a dishwasher and he thought it was very wasteful to run an entire dishwasher for only 2 people when we got married. It just always stuck, and we operate very similarly to how your family does it (except I don't make my own soap!). Although we often have had a dishwasher in the different homes we've lived in, we only use it when we have company. It's just become a habit to hand wash and I usually am disappointed as well in the cleanliness when I use the machine. Most of the time the dishwasher itself is filled with recycling (that's prime real estate in the center of the kitchen!) which other people find SO strange when they come and visit, ha!

I have gone round and round on the idea of going back to hand-washing our dishes. I am curious as to how that would reduce our electric bill, and when I clean as I go while cooking, it really doesn't take all that long. But I am still building "team effort" with the kids in other areas, and with all the other transition coming and going in our life right now, this one keeps getting put off to "later." Someday, maybe! (When the kids are gone, at least! LOL!)

Well, we are a family that has gone the other direction, by choice, and for now, it is the right place to be for us. We used to wash everything by hand. As you say, with little ones, I would be in the kitchen all the time (or more importantly, have absolutely no "me" time, which I think is extremely extremely important) if we still hand washed all our dishes. My daughter could help at this age, but it isn't one of the things we have required of her (yet). Oh, and I do still have to wash large pots, good knives, etc. by hand. For the dishwasher, we use a simple homemade dish/laundry powder. I have more to say on this, but I will leave it at that due to waking children! Nicola

These are great ideas to think about! I have slowly been trying to incorporate more frugal and natural habits into our home. I have been sooo frustrated lately with the dishwashing detergent that I have thought about handwashing. Our state is one of states that recently outlawed the use of phosphates in detergents and that has made a huge difference in the quality of cleaning. But the thought of so many dishes pilling up has prevented me from wanting to to it. However, I love how you have made it work. I set each and every helps! My kids are 8 & 6, so they could totally help. I'll have to put more thought into it.

Thanks for the great idea.

I'm a student living in an apartment with my sister, and we wash all the dishes by hand once a day. I suppose that if we had a bigger household we'd do it more often! And uhm, I'm just checking, but are you all filling up the sink to wash the dishes? Maria's comment and the original post gave me an image of everyone just running the tap water when they go to clean their own cutlery, glasses and plates. We are lucky to have a double sink, and we just fill up one of them with soapy water to clean, then the second one with clear water to rinse (you just dip the dishes in there after cleaning with the soapy water). If the soapy water is getting too dirty, we'll change and then finish with the last dishes. But to avoid this, we have this whole strategy of cleaning the cleaner things first (glasses, mugs), then going on to the slightly dirty things (breakfast plates and cutlery) on to the dirtier things (dinner plates and cutlery) and finally the most dirty things (pots and pans). Do you do something similar?

Oh where has this post been all my life!!! I firmly believe that living takes time - we eventually got a dishwasher after child number se7en was born and I just don't enjoy it that much... it has incorporated so many more chores into our day... We used to go from the table to the sink, wash your dish, stack your dish and pack your dish... Now someone loads the dishwasher and once a day when it's full somebody else forgets to turn it on and then eventually it finishes washing and then you have to open it up and dry nearly everything (my kids eat off plastic plates)... and then start over... Whenever we need something it is "in the dishwasher" and there is no longer a lingering and a closure to meals there is just a dash unless you are called to do the dishes. We hang out our laundry, make our bread and pasta, grow some vegetables and I think after reading this I have the strength to going back to washing dishes. Many a child has opened up their hearts and told me things over a sink of sudsy dishes - never happens over a dishwasher - promise!!! Thanks again for a great post.

We handwash ours too! I'm not the best maid in the world so they sometimes stack up for a day (or two, or three) but I've had BAD experiences with dishwashers in my childhood and knew I never wanted to get one for myself. I find that even if you do have one you'll probably still have a pile of dishes in the sink anyway. Plus, there is nothing like washing dishes with your kids ;0)

Since I moved into the duplex that I've lived at for 19 years, I never had an automatic dishwasher....besides I have no room for one to be installed, or a portable for that matter. I enjoy doing the dishes. I accumulated an easy, no fuss way to get the job done. First I put nice hot,soapy water in the sink, then I put the dishes in and let them soak before tackling the washing part....then once they are washed, and dipped into bleach water for the rinse, I put them on a drainboard to dry. I hate drying dishes almost as much as ironing, mowing the lawn and vacuuming....but these jobs have to be done regardless how I feel that day. But inspite of it all, I do enjoy keeping my house in an orderly fashion.

I hope you enjoyed reading my comment.

I just found your blog, and am enjoying it immensely.
We don't have a dishwasher, though I had one until a couple months ago. My kids are seven and ten, and I am a single mom.
I wish I could rely on the kids more, just as a way to make them feel more self-sufficient, but truth be told I am not thrilled with their skills yet. We are working on it. But do you know what I have found? I had forgotten that I love to wash dishes by hand. I really, really do. The warm water, the time....I can totally be in the present.
But I do have a routine: I cannot abide dishes with stuck-on food. What a waste of time and energy to scrub something. In the morning, I fill a dishpan with hot water and soap. As we finish eating, our dishes go right into the pan. Same with items used to pack lunches (knives for spreading, etc.).
When I get home from work, all they need is a swish and rinse and into the drainer they go. I refill the dishpan with hot water and soap, and any item used while cooking goes straight in. Pans are immediately scraped/rinsed, and set to soak if needed. After dinner, all that is left are a few plates and silver, and cups. Easy.

Handwashing all the way! The truth is that I hate spending 15 minutes unloading the dishwasher. I'd rather spend five minutes three times a day drying them by hand. :) I finally chucked the dishrack a few years ago, too. If it's there, we will just keep piling the dishes on. Self-knowledge, that's what it was about for us!

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This is a nice blog! My first time here. I had a dishwasher for 2 years. We have a tiny house (650 sq ft) and the noise drove me crazy although it did give me an extra hour a day. After tearing the rotator cuff in my right shoulder, I found washing dishes was the best exercise--far better than the exercises given to me by the physiotherapist,so we sold the dishwasher. That was 10 years ago and dish washing keeps my shoulder working and strong; even a few days away from it and i can tell the difference. Our electric bill did go down when we got rid of it. My neighbour's electric bill is almost double ours and the only real difference between our households is that she has a dishwasher and clothes dryer and i have neither. I would also say i use less water washing by hand, even though it was a very efficient (Bosch) dishwasher.

I made your "Simple Soap" A added lemon and litsea essential oils, just because I had them. I LOVE this saop and method! I keep a bar at the sink and use to wash my hands and dishes. My sisters have all recieved some soap, along with a demonstration on rubbing the soap on a cloth/scrubbie for dishes. It does really work. I make my own bathing soap with shea and a high superfat, but had not thought of a cleaning soap like yours for dishes and such. Thanks so much

One of the most important benefits of hand washing is that we use the dirty water on our garden & compost. If you use biodegradable soap & vary where you pour the water the plants & compost benefits. Water is a precious resource that is wasted with a dishwasher!