Do you wash your bowl after you eat?

It will be interesting to see the answers on this Q.

Not everyone can be at the sink at once. So, I think you will have a problem there. Also, possibly, the meals that you prepare as a family might involve more dirty pans and cutting boards than when you were single. People tend to make less complex meals when they are single.

I try to have a rule that my dishwasher is ready to receive dirty dishes before dinner preparation starts. That can mean one dirty dish in the machine, to a half full dirty dishwasher, or a completely empty one.

So, my suggestion is someone’s chore is to check the dishwasher before 4:00pm. It can be first thing in the morning, or after school, whatever is practical. Can be a kid that is responsible or an adult, whatever you decide. Then it is easy to load after dinner.

As far as pots and pans used for cooking, I would have the adults decide between them who cleans them depending on who cooks and other chores.

The best is to have two dishwashers, one that is dirty and the other just washed, and never have to completely unload a dishwasher. Unloading the dishwasher is my least favorite thing to do in terms of household chores.

Ha ha. Dirty dishes in my house are a constant battle.

I believe “I cooked dinner, you should do the cleanup”
He believes “You cooked dinner, so you’re responsible for making the dishes dirty, so you do the cleanup”
So I stopped cooking. So he’d make stuff, and leave his dishes in the sink. I told him I was not responsible for using any of the dishes, so he should wash them.
He says “no”.

So there they sit.

My mother-in-law did that. Cleaning the kitchen after every meal. We are only two so we just run the dishwasher once a day before bed.

Would a compromise be that the dishwasher has to be emptied immediately and everyone has to rinse their dishes and place them in the diswasher?

@JLeslie: “Not everyone can be at the sink at once.”

Good point. Another traffic jam opportunity.

@JLeslie: “The best is to have two dishwashers, one that is dirty and the other just washed, and never have to completely unload a dishwasher.”

…and a third dishwasher to clean the piles of money I have~.

@Seek_Kolinahr: “So there they sit.”

See, I have a very difficult time with dirty dishes in the sink. Some people (the other 4 people in my house) can tolerate it. But we only have one sink. How can you wash vegetables and cook with dishes in the sink?

@marinelife: “Would a compromise be that the dishwasher has to be emptied immediately and everyone has to rinse their dishes and place them in the diswasher?”

We have tried. But it always seems that we can’t get the dishes in there because it’s running or full and needs to be run. I have given up hope that the dishwasher alone will solve our dish problem.

We use a rota system wherby every second Thursday in June i’ll don a pair of marigolds & relieve the wife of sink detail…it’s a gift I know.
We usually follow the “wait to my belly settles” method before washing-up, usually around half an hour or so after eating.

@tom_g The two dishwashers is a half serious, sort of rant about what my ideal would be. I know two people with that set up. They bought houses that previously were owned by orthodox Jews, so they had two separate washers for meat and dairy. I didn’t expect you could or would add one.

I hope you let us know what you decide to try and how it goes.

It’s really a matter of finding out what works best for the household, isn’t it? Here are a few options.

Scheduling: Each member is assigned to a day or meal for dish duty. A calendar helps in holding accountability. We did this when 15 family members shared a beach house and all meals were made on site. There was never a fuss over the duties.

Preference: One person may enjoy doing the dishes more than other tasks. Find out what each person prefers to do (dishes, vacuuming, laundry, etc.) and assign the tasks.

Ability: A young child can be capable of clearing the table but not washing.

Teamwork: Mom would cook our meals, and we children were responsible for washing up, putting leftovers away, etc. The grandchildren now do it at family gatherings. It’s nice to see them helping out, and it gives the adults time to talk over coffee.

The SO and I don’t have a dishwasher or disposal, and the majority of our meals are prepared in house. In general, I do the cooking and he cleans up. What works is that he cleans as I dirty them. Anything left after a meal is typically cleaned together while playing music that we both enjoy. Most of our dancing takes place in the kitchen. :)

Dishes are rinsed and put in the dishwasher immediately after eating. They never sit out until the next meal or overnight. One good mouse infestation 25 years ago and everyone learned to never leave food or dishes out.

Back in the days (BK) before kids I discovered that If I washed when she cooked we could hit the sack sooner – for an evening romp. I have been trained well.
That bulge twixt my thighs is a Pavlovian response to the aroma of dish washing liquid.

@tom_g Do you ask for help? Do you suggest not turning on the TV until the dishes are put away? Have you tried not allowing meals to begin unless the dishwasher is emptied?

Can you do something “drastic” like canceling cable until you get compliance? Obviously if they don’t have time to put away the dishes they do not have time to watch TV.

This is a family problem and needs a family solution. But since you are the weak point you have to initiate it.
What is the penalty for non-compliance? How about if someone leaves their dishes behind you put them on their chair – or on their bed? You will only have to do it once.

(I can send you some field mice.)

@LuckyGuy – We don’t watch TV (or have cable). And the kids do a great job loading and unloading the dishwasher. It just seems that 5 people + 1 dishwasher = we invariably have a backup somewhere in the process. This means that we’re dropping 3 dishes in the dishwasher so we can start it, only to then have a ton of dishes as a result of the last meal while the dishwasher is running.

@tom_g Just a thought. If you are the type of person who loathes running a dishwasher unless it is completely fully for energy reasons, you might consider giving up that rigid rule if you can afford the extra money it costs per month to run the dishwasher a little more often. This would be part of my proposal to make sure the dishwasher is empty enough to receive dishes by dinner time.

@tom_g A dishwadsher takes 46 minutes to run and about 10 minutes to air dry.
Start it well before you begin your meal so everyone has time to put them away and it is ready to receive the dishes.
Big pots and pans should be washed by hand. If there are only one or two dishes they get washed by hand and they dry in the drying rack. At night the dishwasher should never be left more than half full and not run. Go ahead… live a little.
Besides, what would happen if there was a storm or power failure? Have everything clean and ready just in case.
I don’t mean to derail but do you have the same issue with laundry?

@LuckyGuy – No. Laundry is good. We have a pretty good system. Same with floors. I’ll try running the dishwasher less-than-full. Thanks @JLeslie and @LuckyGuy..

Course, the best way to avoid this altogether is to eat out or order takeaway, nowt like a family sit down dinner though.

I tend to wait it out. Usually I will clean my dishes the next day, when I am going to use them again. Except I always clean the blender right away (I use it almost daily) because that’s a pain to clean if things get caked on. When it comes to glasses, I use the same glass repeatedly for water and milk each day. If I just drank milk and want water, then I’ll quickly rinse it out.
[addition]: Oh, and in regards to other people at home, my dishes are my dishes and theirs are theirs. Theirs usually pile up like a mess for days on end, so if I’m feeling generous, I’ll wash some of them.

We basically rinse everything in hot water as we go and cram them into the dishwasher. Once the dishwasher is packed full (about two-three times/week), we run it before bed.

Next day, whoever is cooking dinner empties it before they start cooking.

If anything doesn’t fit in the dishwasher (or is not dishwasher safe), we wash it by hand immediately after we eat and put it away. This is a few items at most.

I loathe dirty dishes piled in the sink. I was invited to my cousin’s for dinner years ago to find a mound of dirty dishes rotting away in their sink. I never ate at his house again.

Oh, another trick I do, is if the dishwasher is clean and I have a few dirty dishes in the sink, sometimes I just take out three dishes from the dishwasher pop them in the cupboard, wash the dirty ones and put them in the dishwasher to dry, but that is not really a good system for a family with kids probably? Another cheat is if the diswasher is clean at the time dinner is served, but still not unloaded, then make sure to use dishes and flatware from the dishwasher for dinner, so there is less to put away.

Those both are cheats though. Cheats when a system has slacked a little.

For me, it is overload on my brain and body to have to unload the dishwasher, cook, clean, and eat all in an hour or so at the end of the day. That’s why @LuckyGuy‘s comment to have the dishwasher clean and ready to unload before dinner, is close to dinner time for me. Bit, that’s me. Everything else he wrote I like. Especially the part about helping clean up the dishes so he has more time with his wife having fun. But, it sounds to me that everyone is willing to help in your family.

If you expect your kids to have a role, have you asked the kids for ideas? So they can take ownership in the process.

@cookieman: “If anything doesn’t fit in the dishwasher (or is not dishwasher safe), we wash it by hand immediately after we eat and put it away.”

This is a simple yet great idea that I should implement immediately.

@cookieman: “I loathe dirty dishes piled in the sink.”

As neurotic and strange as this may sound, I don’t feel as though I have a kitchen if there are dishes in the sink. The sink feels like the heart of the kitchen in some way, and dirty dishes in a sink seem to turn a sink into a not-sink. In a way, I am thinking that the dishwasher might be more of a problem than a time-saver.

I’m like you, I can’t stand dirty dishes in a sink. When our kids were at home, we rarely used the dishwasher except on holidays. One kid’s job was to clear the table and the other one’s to wash; they alternated nights. (We had a magnet on the fridge with each kid’s anme on it that we reversed until the younger one played a trick and reversed it himself.) Now that I live alone, I load the dirty dishes in the diswahser and run it every few days. Pots, etc. if need be are washed after the meal.

Don’t know how old your kids are, but if they are old enough, maybe one kid could empty the dishwasher after school or before dinner and the other load it.

I just rinse them and put them in the dishwasher or sink and do it later. I don’t have kids, though, so my dish rarely gets actually full.

@tom_g I didn’t say it works. This is WAR, I’m not giving up now.

Since my home consists of just my husband, myself, a small terrier and two birds, I spend more time cleaning up after the pets than humans.

To simplify the ‘dishes’ issue (we both work full time), my husband and I packed up all our dishes except a few for daily use, and one of my china sets is always ready for special events or company.

It works for us because we are forced to keep the few we use clean if we want to use them/ eat. We do not own a dishwasher and don’t want one.

I used to consider cooking, eating and cleaning to be an ongoing event to be completed – mostly – within the same week.

I’ve since modified my habits, and it’s now more often than not an event to be completed within the same 24-hour period, unless something more important comes up. I get to decide on the relative importance of things, too.

I’m probably not the guy you meant to ask this question.

Note to self: Never invite @tom_g or @cookieman over for dinner. I fear they will pass out!

We are both really bad about this. Our sink is usually at least half full of dirty dishes, and the dishwasher half full of clean dishes (because we tend to use the clean dishes straight out of the dishwasher.) Whoever it bothers most or has the most free time ends up doing the dishes. One thing you might want to consider is getting a big double sink. One side can always be clear for prep.

@augustlan: S’okay darlin’. We can meet at a restaurant. My treat.