After a meal, do you put unused cutlery & crockery back in the cupboard or does it get washed anyway?

[TheKitchenWitch]

Just that. It hasn’t been used, but it might have been touched. Does it go in the dishwasher or get put away?
It’s driving me crazy!

I don’t think we ever have any unused, i only get out what we need

I tend to just put it away I normally only touch it using the handles so it doesn't worry me too much.

I put it away

Why would you wash unused crockery and cutlery? Waste of hot water.

I would say back in the drawer.

Jeez no wonder our environment is in meltdown

Put in back in the cupboard FFS

Put it back in the drawer.

Obviously it gets lit back in the drawer. It’s not exactly sterile when you take it out of the drawer in the first place. A few germs really isn’t a proven

I'd never wash unused crockery! Sometimes the odd bit of clean cutlery gets washed because the sink is nearer to the table than the cutlery drawer is so it's easier to chuck it all in.

So what if it's been touched I also touch it when I move it from the drying rack to the drawer, and from the drawer to the table..?

Back in the drawer.

I DO put it back but sometimes I think it should be getting washed, henceforth the question.
There’s no extra environmental impact Tafetta as it would go in the dishwasher, which uses the same amount of water and detergent for every cycle, whether there’s twenty forks in there or only one.

My gran used to call them 'blessings'. When she cleared the table she would ask if you'd used that plate or was it a 'blessing'.

They're called 'thank goodnesses' in my family!

Throw it into the dish washer tray

Of course there’s an environmental impact as I trust you’re not running a half empty dishwasher.

I put it away

Anything unused is put away. We used to call them "blessings" when I was growing up (before we had a dishwasher).

I put it back in the cupboard.

I love ‘blessings’! That’s lovely. Never heard that before

I tend to put them in the dishwasher anyway...my husband tuts...he just puts them back.

I am not a particularly 'clean' person but the one habit of my mother's that's stuck is that all cutlery that's been out needs to be washed. I don't know why. Maybe ghosts lick it?

I'm not concerned about the environmental impact as I don't have a cutlery quota that I have to meet before I switch the dishwasher on. Generally it goes on when it's full of cups, plates and pans - I don't tend to hold off on a day's worth of stuff because it could really do with one more butter knife.

I put it away.

But then if it's just one knife for example on the worktop in the kitchen I'd wash it just in case. But clean on the table? Deffo straight back in the drawer!!

I put cutlery in the dishwasher. DH puts it back in the drawer. I reckon as the dishwasher will be running anyway, might as well put it in there.

No there's really no enviromental impact, a couple of knives or forks more or less doesn't affect whether the dishwasher goes on or not, so if it's full, it goes on. It's not an exact science.

I'd never heard of "blessings" before either. I suppose if you're washing by hand then it's one less thing to have to wash and dry? Hence being a blessing?

But it seems to be split between back-in-cupboard or into-dishwasher, so not one of those things that I've been doing WRONG all these years :)

It might have been touched

Oh for heaven’s sake.