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

If there is washing up liquid residue-so much that you could taste it-aren´t you using too much washing up liquid?

I don't care how un-environmentally friendly it is, I always wash things individually under a running tap with hot water. Anything washed in a bowl of grease cannot be right!

I once lived in a houseshare where the girl I lived with had a cat. She used to fill up the sink with hot water, throw in all the dishes including the cats used food bowl and then leave them to dry. It was enough to make any grown person hurl.

I have come to the conclusion that since all dishes are apparently very unhygienic, from this point onwards I will seat DC's next to the cooker and drop the food directly into their mouths like baby birds.

Sorted.

My MIL and other relatives of Indian / Asian extraction will not let me wash up in their houses as they are convinced that I will live up to the reputation of not rinsing. But as it happens I have always rinsed - hot water for glasses as hot water evaporates more quickly and leaves fewer tide marks, and cold water for everything else.

I have encountered many people from another country / culture who also consider British washing up habits to be rank on account of the no-rinsing.

But my ILs would shower before using a bath, or else sit on a little stool in the bath and scrub and rinse rather than sit in own dirty bath water - also considered rank.

hystericalmum - so did my mum. I bet I could bear you for stories of rank filth!

We don't have a dishwasher and we wash, rinse and leave to drain.

I just start off with a little bit of very hot, soapy water in the big sink and keep the hot tap running in at a dribble. Wash and rinse each item as I go. By the time I get to the pots and pans I generally have a full sink of water so don't waste loads.

Grew up not rinsing but now things don't feel clean unless I do.

"Although it may be a generational thing as both my mum and MIL are of the opnion that chucking food-caked crockery into an overflowing bowl of tepid water, swishing it all about and drying up with a damp cloth that doubles up as a hand towel is just as good!"

Well my parents & ILs have never washed up like that

And although don´t rinse after washing up, I do scape off food into bin & rinse if necessary before washing up!

Those who rinse religiously-do you do it because parents did?

(Obv not asking GiddyPickle)

"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."

OMG -- this is my MIL too. I think you were talking to someone else when you asked "do we have the same MIL" but it appears that we DO

I once saw FIL take a wet raggy cloth from beside their kitchen sink, wipe up fresh dog vomit from their stair carpet with it, then give it a cursory shoosh under the kitchen tap before returning it to its spot alongside the Fairy Liquid.

I did my food hygiene safety cert last year and we were advised that we should rinse all hand-washed items in the hottest water we could bear and leave to air dry, as that was the most likely way to eliminate bacteria.

Dirtymartini - boak! SIL insists on using a cloth to wash her dishes and never puts it through a hot wash itself - it's sooo minging!

No; I do it for the same reason I rinse anything that I've washed.

Only, if anything, more carefully because food & kitchen hygiene seems more important to me than most other aspects of housework.

My mum and dad also did rinse, but then again, so does pretty much everyone I ever met growing up in the USA, so it's not their influence alone.

While we are on the subject why do people have a plastic bowl instead of using the sink as God intended.

I have dishwasher too but also do a lot of handwashing. Those of you who have a dishwasher do you not hand wash the stuff that can't go in the dishwasher?

Sorry, that last was to diddl.

I have a plastic bowl because I do not have a double sink, and I wash in the bowl and then hold under the running water at the side which runs into the sink, not into the bowl.

Not having a bowl (if no double sink) is a sure sign of a non-rinser

I also have a bowl so that anything particulalry mucky, sticky or greasy can be rinsed off down the side and into the sink BEFORE putting it in the washing up water.

EURGH at washing defrosted blood directly into the washing up water! I wash any raw flesh contaminated items separately, first, and then wash again.

And yes, Marigolds are not about sensitive 'hands that do dishes'...they are about being able to use properly hot water.

My friend's Mum was a non-rinsing washer-upper, and she only used to wash the top of plates. So the underside of one that had been stacked on a dirty plate stayed yuk.

I don't have double sink and don't use bowl and I DO rince. Like poster below I wash and rince under a slow flow hot tap. When the sink is full it is usually time to soak things.

I see your logic though. It make a kind of sense.

"EURGH at washing defrosted blood directly into the washing up water!"

Even I wouldn´t do that!

Right so the people who say if you don't rinse the dirt stays on - how do you clean your kitchen counter tops? I wipe with a hot, soapy cloth. Am I also leaving dirt all over them?

I agree with the OP. I am american, so may be somewhat of a germaphobe, and saw many suds on hand washed plates this holiday. Gross! But after dealing with the inlaws for 10 days in the US complaining about every single thing, soapy dishes are the least of my worries.

Other strange british habits from PIL's that drive me up the wall:

• Insisting the dishwasher is pointless, and wastes too much water, and you can wash a whole load by hand faster....okay

• Tumble driers are a waste of money (all $2 of it) and crunchy, stiff clothing from the line smell better.

• Meat can be safely defrosted on the counter for 24 hrs (or more)

• Used coffee/tea mugs only need a quick rinse in water, no soap needed and back in cupboard they go. Black marks in mugs are just "what happens"

• For toast, use only one dish for 2 people. Saves on the washing up! (but not on all the crumbs all over the place)

• The only seasoning you need on food is salt

• Your evening meal is always tea, not dinner...GRRRRR. And lunch is dinner.

Sorry, I had to get these off my chest. Its be a trying few weeks....

"Your evening meal is always tea, not dinner...GRRRRR. And lunch is dinner"

My evening meal is tea-but that´s because it´s not a cooked meal.[wink)

Why is a cooked meal at school always dinner-or isn´t it any more?

Diddl - I always rinse (and if I have people staying who offer to help and don't rinse, I re-rinse after they have finished) so I never taste liquid on my own dishes etc. I don't think I do use too much washing up liquid. But I think some other people do, and then don't rinse, and you can certainly taste it then. This morning I was helping in ds's school, and made myself a cup of tea in the staff room. The cup obviously hadn't been rinsed, as I could taste the washing up liquid. I had to throw the tea out, rinse the cup thoroughly and start again.

Blu with regard to the bath thing, if I have a bath, I always have a quick shower to rinse afterwards, otherwise I feel my skin still has bubble bath etc on it (as well as washed-off skin cells etc....)

Stealth I wipe my counter tops down with soapy cloth - then rinse cloth thoroughly and wipe again, thus "rinsing" the counter.

Rinse your fucking dishes! For God's sake. Please. Please. I beg you. This should be a Mumsnet campaign. I'm serious. The madness must stop.

"Rinse your fucking dishes! For God's sake. Please. Please. I beg you."

Is drying with a cloth really not enough to getoffany residue?

Erm, sure.

Here's a coffee. The mug was 'washed' in a nasty bowl of foul suds and lukewarm sinkwater, including a bit of E Coli from meat prep board and some Herpes Simplex from my fork. But don't worry, I've smeared it all over dried it with a cloth.

Enjoy!

Have I offended you somehow?