Poll! Dirty dishes in the sink? On the counter? Straight to the dishwasher always?

[Melissa in Australia]

other.

I put things in the dishwasher straight away. Not all the children do the same :glare: :glare: :glare: .

which means that if I am not in the kitchen, the sink could be piled high as Mount Everest and be that way for a few hours.

We run our dishwasher at night when the electricity is cheaper.

[Slipper]

I can't cook if there are a lot of dishes around but we seem to grow dishes throughout the day.

 

I bought a small plastic tub. Dishes are scraped and then placed in the tub until I have time to deal with them. Either while cooking or after dinner, I fill up the sink with warm, soapy water and let them soak. Then I move them into the dishwasher. In the morning, either DH or one of the girls will unload.

[nd293]

I voted other - things that can go in the dishwasher go in immediately, or go in when I find them on the counter or in the sink and yell loudly about it. But we have plenty of items rhat do not go in the dishwasher at all - large pots, wine glasses and plastic storage containers and lunch boxes stack up and are washed by hand every 24-48 hours. The dishwasher is only ever run once a day, and only when it is full.

[edelweiss]

We have two dishwashers, so usually they go straight into the dishwasher. If one is full and running, the other one is available, so I really have no excuse (unless we are entertaining and both dishwashers are full) not to. So, typically I do load them in the dishwasher right away, but I have to admit that there are occasions that I just don't get to them right away. I try not to do that too much. Like I said, I really have no excuse not to load right away.

[Heather in Neverland]

We don't own a dishwasher (almost no one does in this country) so everything is washed by hand.

 

Mon through Fri our amah is here and a dirty dish barely touches the sink before it is washed, dried and put away. Really. She is FAST.

 

Saturday and Sunday she is off and we wash our own dishes. So dirty dishes go in the sink during meal prep and eating but then we wash them right away. Too many bugs here to let dirty dishes sit. We also eat out a lot on the weekends and use paper plates so there isn't much dish washing to do.

[amo_mea_filiis.]

We ride the dish rollercoaster. It starts with a pile of dishes in the sink and clean in the dishwasher. I have the kids unload the dishwasher and i rise and make a pile to go in the dishwasher and wash the others by hand.

 

Then for just under a week, we all wash our dishes as we use them. Ds has recently declared it fun.

 

Then one day we have something to do and things pile. I'm not in the mood to deal so they go another day or so. We have very few dishes, so I'll wash and use (IOW, the pile of dirty doesnt sit with original mess for days). After washing to use for a while, I'll break down and wash them all and the cycle repeats.

 

I wish i could break the cycle.

[KarenC]

My oldest dd loads they dishwasher. She lets them pile up until she thinks there is enough for a load, then loads the dishwasher.

 

Karen

[Paige]

With our division of labor, DH empties the dishwasher and I load it. When things are going smoothly, dishes either go straight in the dishwasher or they go on the counter for a few hours until I get to it before bed. If somebody does not do his job, the dishes may pile up for a while because someone else is being immature and refusing to do the job for him.

[Scarlett]

I suck. I have no dishwasher. I work full time. I have 3 kids. I am a college student. My kids are known to ask me to wash a bowl in the mornings so that they can have cereal. I'm horrible.

 

No you are not. Stop that.

[Scarlett]

I currently, for the first time in over 20 years, have no working dishwasher. Well it would work if connected, but there is a remodel going on so yeah no dishwasher. Teaching my son to do dishes......but I wash them at least twice a day. I wash while I cook because it makes after dinner clean up so much easier.

[amo_mea_filiis.]

I suck. I have no dishwasher. I work full time. I have 3 kids. I am a college student. My kids are known to ask me to wash a bowl in the mornings so that they can have cereal. I'm horrible.

 

Nope, not horrible at all. My dd once ate pancakes out of a bowl with chopsticks because we had no clean forks or plates.

 

I've also told ds more than once to wash himself a bowl/plate, etc.

 

Almost every single week i have to make space at the table for the behavior therapists. It's not like i have notice or anything, they only text me a week in advance! Lol.

[Ellie]

I had to vote "other" on the first part of the poll: dirty dishes never pile up because they go straight into the dishwasher, but I only have one dishwasher. One of the things I like most about the dishwasher is that I never have dirty dishes in the sink or the counter. Use a dish or a spoon or a glass, put it in the dishwasher, run the dishwasher when it's full, whatever time of day that is, and empty it.

 

And there wasn't a choice on the second part that I could really answer, other than being silly and picking the last one.

 

Before I had a dishwasher, random dirty dishes were handwashed and set in the drainer right away, never piling up in the sink or on the counter. I put them away as soon as they were dry (which in California doesn't usually take long because there's little humidity). I wash while I'm cooking--the kitchen is pretty clean when we sit down to eat--and after we finish eating, I wash dishes right away.

 

The few things I have to handwash now are washed right away and set on an acrylic drainer for a few minutes, then dried and put away.

 

I'm just OCD like that, lol.

[Laurie4b]

If the dishwasher has been run and emptied, then they are supposed to go straight into the dishwasher. If the dishwasher is running, or has run and hasn't been emptied, then if I'm in a rush to get out of the house or the boys ,frankly, don't feel like emptying the dishwasher, they get piled on the counter. We use the counter rather than the sink because 1) the area next to the sink is in front of our microwave and if it gets clogged, we can't open the microwave and 2) if the sink gets filled with dishes, one has to empty it first before doing the pots and pans, which adds an extra step of work and invites the build-up of bacteria in puddles of water with food in them.. (We don't put pots, pans, and heavily crusted cooking utensils in the dishwasher because they don't get clean that way. )