Again With The Dishwashing

I’m still trying to figure out how to wash dishes! I’m not putting a dishwashing machine in our new home so I need to figure this out. I decided washing dishes by hand would be just as easy, and faster than washing them in a machine. Plus we would save energy and water which I like to do. I thought the problem with washing them by hand in our old house was that our sink wasn’t big enough. Well, this house we’re living in has bigger sinks so I’ve been washing the dishes by hand and I still don’t like it.

This is how I’ve been doing it: scrubbing and rinsing the dishes and piling them in one side of the sink until there is enough to wash, adding hot soapy water to the dishes and hot clean water to the other side, wash, rinse and stack to dry. Well, it occurs to me that I’m still handling each dish twice with the rinsing first and then washing, taking a lot of time and also using quite a bit of water.

Yesterday I thought, “Why don’t I just use a soapy brush in the first place when I’m rinsing the dishes, set them out to dry and I’m done”. That sounds easier, faster, and would save water. My last question is, is it going to bug me having clean dishes sitting out to dry? If I don’t like it then I can dry them and put them away. Or have the kids do it. That’s a bonus with this new system. Everyone can wash their own dishes instead of waiting for me to do it.

I’m going to have the kids start washing their dishes. I haven’t taught them yet because they waste so much water which drives me crazy. I’ll just have to get over while they’re learning or I’ll spend the rest of my life washing dishes myself!