Recently our Sears store went out of business, and they had all of their stock on sale for 30% off. While this sale was going on The Husband and I stopped in to look around. It had been quite a few years since I had a dishwasher, and I sure did miss it, as washing dishes is something I HATE to do.
We found a mid-priced one, and saved quite a bit on it, which was nice.
One thing that always bothered me was dirty dishes in the sink. You eat, rinse them off, then there they sit in the sink until there are enough to wash. To me no matter how clean and straightened the kitchen is, if there are dirty dishes sitting in the sink, the whole room looks messy.
Here's a simple little trick that I used to do before I had my new dishwasher.
I used my 'pretend' one.
What I did was go to Walmart (or Kmart or where ever), and I bought a plastic dish pan.
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Underneath my kitchen sink, I had one side cleaned out, and I kept the dishpan on that side.
Then when we had dishes, we would rinse them, then stack them in the dishpan.
Once it was almost full, or full enough that it wasn't too heavy to lift, I would take it out of the cabinet, put it in one side of my sink, fill it with hot soapy water and wash the dishes.
Then after I was done with the dishes, I wouldn't pour the water in the sink....I would bring it into the bathroom, and pour it in the toilet. That way I didn't have any dirty water or bits of soggy food to clean out of my kitchen sink.
Then I would just rinse and dry the dishpan, and put it back under the sink.
With 4 people living in the house, I of course had to do this twice, sometimes 3 times a day (compared to the one time I have to run my real dishwasher in a day), but it kept me from having to look at dirty dishes piling up in the sink, and made cleanup a lot easier.
:)
I do this a lot during the holidays when dishes really pile up. If we can find a space where they don't show, (like the back porch table) we line up more than one with soapy water-put the dishes in-and forget about until the nest day.
ReplyDeleteI've done this before. Now that it's just the Honey and I-- I just wash as I go.
ReplyDeleteI found out years ago...we don't have to put as much water in the dishpan as we used to. A dish cloth and a little hot soapy water goes a long way...no need for full submersion. The other thing-- I take my dish water out and water the flowers. I wait for the suds to dissipate and this saves on watering...here in TX...we're in a drought stage. every little bit helps.
I'm glad to see you posted this...because I thought I was the only one to do things this way.
Have a great week. Pat