To think my moher in law does not know how to do the washing up...

[sea74]

Ok, i dont know if it's only her or not. A friend of mine told me that this is quite common in uk but, to me, it makes me sick. (i am not British)

My MIL does not rinse the plates, glasses or saucepans under running water but she puts them to drain covered in foam. Very often these are still greasy (also because she tends to wash the glasses as last thing when the water is already dirty) and then she dries them with a cloth instead of letting them dry in the air.

I repeat a friend of mine told me this is the british way (i am not british) but i dont believe her because i have seen other friends that instead rinse and dont dry with cloth.
I dont want to offend anyone, but could u tell me if this is very common? Thanks

I am so laid back about housework as to be almost horizontal and am absolutely not in any way shape or form paranoid about germs, but I always rinse any items that have been handwashed - as opposed to dishwasher - in very hot water and leave to airdry.

I have always rinsed. I don't like the idea of ingesting minute traces of washing up liquid, its a chemical.

Diswashers rinse, washing machines rinse, ergo. I rinse the glasses, knives and pans that I wash by hand.

At first I thought OMG are people actually discussing how others wash up?
Then i thought of my DH, he washes up (badly), stacks everything all higgeldy piggeldy then worst of all empties the bowl but doesn't get rid of all the gunk and bits of food, just leaves it all there lurking in the sink.
Aaa feel better for getting that off my chest.

i wash everything (not going in the dishwasher) under running water, with a dishwashing sponge, and don't own a wash bowl.
I wipe the counters with a sponge I change every week.
I don't understand the soak and dry approach, and I also don't understand scuzzy dishcloths used to wipe down dishes and/or surfaces.

I don't rinse . Not as bad as my mum though, who puts the dirty things in the drainer. Then washes them, and puts them straight back in the (now dirty) drainer. I don't think that drainer ever gets cleaned!

I wash the "cleanest" things fist & have been known to change the water.

I don´t rinse after washing though.

PlanetEarth I feel your pain. My draining board is for clean stuff only, yet MIL will put dirty stuff there and take anything clean off and just shove it anywhere
aaaaargh

Droves guide to dishwashing.

1. scrapeall foodstuffs off plates/bowls/pots/cooking trays
2. rince under water is very saucey
3. stack neatly on worktop
4. fill washing up bowl with very hot water and washing up liquid 5)place washing up bowl beside sink , not in sink. 6)wash ( each piece of) cutlery first , pay special attention to forks as food can trap in the prongs.rince under hot water tap.
5. Put handle side down in cutlery drainer
6. repeat with all cooking utensils
7. wash plates according to size ...side plates first , dinner plates , then serving platters
8. rince under hot water
9. leave to drain on drainer , in order .(side plates first, ect)
10. wash and rince bowls as before.
11. change water in washing up bowl
12. wash glasses , rince & drain
13. wash cups& mugs . rince & drain 16)wash pots accordinf to size , smallest first ...largest last.
14. Rince and drain , in order as before
15. wash , rince and drain cooking trays .
16. Empty washing up bowl, clean and turn upside down in sink to drain. 20)put dry dishes cutlery away.
17. clean sink , taps and worktops.Polish dry so no watermarks.
18. clean cooker and rest of kitchen.
19. soak washing up brushes in mild solution of disenfectant/milton
20. put all dishclothes used in washing machine.

You non-rinsers are scummy feckers. Seriously. All the reasoning that it's fine is deeply weird. I am in no way super-anal about housework, but rinsing the residue off your dishes is so incredibly fucking basic! you are FREAKS

"You rinse your hands after washing them, you rinse after soaping up in the shower - on the basis that leaving detergent on your skins is not healthy.

Why on earth would you leave eat off and prepare food on dishes that are covered in dried detergent."

Well, quite.

"You non-rinsers are scummy feckers."

Is draining & drying with a tea towel not enough then?

Is there more illness amongst non rinsers or something?

Are all the non rincers are trying to fart bubbles ?.
Cant think of a reason why you wouldnt rince your dishes.

Worst thing ever is being given a cup of tea , thats tastes of soap or bitrex

Jesus... just one more thing to add to the list of inadequacies then? I'll put it on the tab.

For the record I have a dishwasher. But if washing by hand I suppose I might sometimes give the pan (or whatever it is) a cursory swill under running water if it needs it after washing. No idea if it is hot or cold water though and frankly couldn't give a FF.

If you haven't rinsed off the soap residue and food particles suspended therein, you haven't actually cleaned the dishes. I alternate between amusement and despair at the seeming British cultural blindness to this. It's so bizarre. Soap, old food particles, bacteria are still there unless you rinse them away.

Will it kill you? Doubtful, not that I keep figures handy on this stuff. Is it grim as feck? Yes, yes it is. It IS!!!!!

Draining them, letting the moisture drip and evaporate off them, is fine if they're actually clean first obv, but if they aren't then the method of drying you choose is kind of beside the point, surely.

I know, I know, you all think I'm the freak and you're the normal ones. Three words for that: only in Britain

As to whether non rinsers have more illnesses, I have no idea but I am sure there is some govt quango somewhere that has probably ploughed a few hundred thou into finding out.

I'm a big one for not worrying about this kind of thing, it kind of reminds me of the the Baz Luhrmann song -

"The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday."

One thing I know for certain is that when I am standing at the pearly gates and get asked by St Peter (or whoever) what my regrets in life are, one of them WON'T be... "damn, I should have spent more time rinsing"

Does anyone really give a fuck?
Seriously?

PMSL at the MNer who even has to have a shower before getting into the bath - what the heck is the world coming to!!

does she dry herself on a clean towel in between I wonder, thereby using 2 towels - which then are put to wash despite her being nice and clean and them just being a bit damp

for the record, i rinse glasses and anything that has been really soapy, most stuff the water/suds drains straight off

never use a tea towel to dry

i use ecover and don't bother rinsing, but will if stuff looks like it needs it. i do tend to take eco measures to extremems so am mainly not rinsing to save water, and time. have never had food poisoning or tummy bugs caught at home, neither has dh or the kids so can't see anything wrong with the way i do things.

am happy my stuff is far cleaner than mil's dishes - if there's only a few things like breakfast plate and tea cups they just get rinsed under a tap then put away once dry. rubbing a tea cup under cold water with your fingers does not count as washing the dishes in my house.

i do have a lazy habit of wiping dc's hands and faces with the dish cloth tho poor mites.

I'm a scuzzy non-rinser. I always start with the cleanest/least greasy stuff. And I drain, not dry, more out of laziness than anything though, if that helps any??
I figure it all then goes into cupboards / other non-sterile places, so lifes too short.
I do (gulp) have a quick shower after I have a bath though. Thinking about it, that is unjustifiably wierd behaviour. I don't have baths often though - I do shower daily, before anyones lunch makes a re-appearance.

I gave a fuck when I lived in flatshares with people who left all the dishes half-washed and greasy. Could either eat their scum or re-wash what I needed. PITA.

I give a partial fuck at MIL's house because it's just one element of the bacteriafest that is her kitchen. (The number of times she has given people food poisoning is legendary. She just thinks it's funny. I'm not saying it's down to not rinsing but it's part of her whole lazy grubby kitchen thing)

Also, along with the numerous French and Spanish staff at my old office, I gave a small (quick?) fuck on principle when we used to find all the cups dripping soapy scum after they'd been washed by the Brits. The number of times I have had this conversation with a person with a lovely mellifulous accent :) -- have lost count. (I am Brit/American btw, but my British parent is a rinser)

So yeah , I do if I have to use the stuff.

Washing up gloves. Water so hot that even with the Marigolds on, you have to take your hands out every so often and wave them about a bit to cool.

Some things get rinsed under the hot tap if they're really foamy (especially glasses) but unless I've used too much Fairy Liquid, generally a last quick dip rinses them off enough.

Air dry on drainer rack.

But it isn't about being sterile, I don't think any sane person expects their dishes to be (or at least stay) sterile as a matter of course It's about basic cleanliness.

Would you really all be totally fine with the notion that, say, restaurants you ate at didn't rinse their dishes? If so, fair enough

"One thing I know for certain is that when I am standing at the pearly gates and get asked by St Peter (or whoever) what my regrets in life are, one of them WON'T be... "damn, I should have spent more time rinsing" "

Unless you died of poisoning from chemical residues on your dishes

I hear what you're saying though. I am the same about ironing. And hoovering. And dusting on top of doors or whatever the hell else some people spend their time on. I'm just quite hot on kitchen/food-based issues.

MIL is much much cleaner and tidier than me, yet her standards for washing wine glasses seem appalling to me. She washes them in lukewarm greasy bubbly water, leaves them upside down then wipes with a cloth. So all you can see is smears and bits of cloth dust. I

Do we have the same MIL?

Yes, it is common. In both senses of the word.

It's disgusting and dangerous. Especially if, like my MIL, you first wash the plate upon which you defrosted raw meat all night, thus contaminating rather than cleaning all subsequent items.

And...who wants to eat soap?

It's vile.

YANBU. Unfortunately I think it is quite a British thing - and my MIL also doesn't rinse anything so I have to do it all again.

It's not the hygiene issue for me - I don't mind too much whether the items are left to air dry or dried with a tea towel (so long as tea towels are washed regularly). It's the idea of ingesting washing up liquid.

For one thing it tastes unpleasant, and for another it could be harmful, especially in the long term (my sister read some research years ago which suggested it could damage the myelin sheath around nerve fibres).

I don't see why you wouldn't want your crockery/cutlery rinsed any more than you would want your clothes washed in detergent but not rinsed.

Well I survived childhood in a house where no rinsing, and drying with a teatowel, was the norm. Leaving things festering overnight in a pool of water doesn't seem much better to me. I never tasted soap...

(My first boyfriend had low standards for washing up. "If it doesn't come of in the wash, it'll come off in the dry. )