to be pretty sure this is the wrong way around?! Washing-up scuzziness/cleanliness

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Disclaimer: Yes, I have a full and exciting life, but I don't want to make you feel jealous, so instead of telling you all about it, I shall instead make up a totally banal and boring problem so that you may feel patronizing towards me instead. Or, alternatively, so you may judge me and my extended family as scuzzy dirtbags.

Anyway:

My parents wash up by running a bowl of hot soapy water and washing everything in there. DH and I wash up by putting soap on a cloth and washing each item under hot running water, then rising the soap off. When mum say me do it my way (out of habit) she wrinkled her nose and commented 'I don't know how you think you get things clean like that!'. Mate came over today and commented the same thing, although she runs a bowl of hot soapy water and rinses each item in hot water after it has been washed in the bowl.

Which of us is right, O wise and slightly bored ones? Is there some kind of lurgy you can get by never fully immersing your crockery in hot water, as my mum obviously believes? Or is everything she washes going to taste of fairy (not that I've actually noticed this, but I want moral high ground, please)?

pixie that is truly revolting.

I am so, so glad I no longer have flatmates (apart from DH but that's another story).

Having said, DH and I and some of his mates went to stay in a rented holiday cottage a while back, and it was fairly posh and the owners (on a farm, so right there) seemed nice and clean and civilized ... they didn't provide any tea towels and when we asked, they told us to look in the cupboard in the bathroom ... and use bath towels.

mummynic, bea - I feel certainly there's some anti-feminist point to be made here, I'm just not sure what it is ...

Oh I really sympathise, Pixie. You paint such an accurate picture of washing-up misdeeds.

You wouldn't continue to scrub your clothes on rocks down at the brook knowing you could have a washing machine, so why we persist with this labour intensive, ineffectual practise of hand-washing up glass and crockery is a mystery.

And yes I have lived in a shoebox where you'd struggle to install one, I was of the opinion that a cupboard could be sacrificed. DP disagreed. Guess who does the most washing up

(Speaking of, some A Level physics students at my school won a national prize for a project on pressure ... which they demonstrated by studying high heels. )

Bowl of hot soapy water.

Put everything in.

Leave for 15 mins.

Come back and it's pretty much washed itself.

Quick wipe / rinse if needed.

Leave to dry.

No worries LRD - it was a very tongue-in-cheek presentation

Oh yes, washing up liquid and the protective properties of rubber gloves...
I'm strangely excited

You people must have very small dishes/pans/utensils/glasses if you can submerge it all in ONE bowl of hot soapy water

Hot soapy water, wash with sponge, rinse and air dry

Sorry, I was taking the piss out of the sort of anti-feminist comments I imagined ...

Oh and i use a scourer sponge which gets renewed about once a week. (and a different sponge to wipe benches and table down)

LRD your way must be right, because they make those brushes that you fill with fairy liquid.

You do need a dishwasher though.

Vivi

Maybe they just clean as they go so there are very small amounts of dishes.

My house is tiny AND I can't afford a dishwasher - down to the babbling brook for me and my dishes....

Oh, yes, you have to have a different sponge for the benches and table!

Scourer sponge with washing up liquid on it

Running water

Dishwasher is my fave method, although some items can't go in it. So for the rest, v hot, soapy water, drain and dry.

DP thinks putting the cat bowls in the dishwasher (with other stuff) is more unhygienic than washing them with the sponge scourer in the sink (with other stuff) then drying them with the teatowel, he will then re-use both breeding grounds sponge and teatowel.

I am the only one in this house who can change a teatowel, I do make it very difficult for the men though, by hiding all the clean ones in a drawer, in the kitchen, just under the knife drawer, which do have to be washed by hand.

nagoo - they do? Are they any good? I have not seen these brushes.

The dishwasher isn't going to happen, btw - rented flat with a teeny kitchen/living room arrangement. One day ...

My dishwasher is poorly! I want it well again... SOB.

Can I ask - serious for just a moment.

I use dish clothes/pads that I was with my towels in the washing machine.

That's ok isn't it?

I have one for dishes, one for worktops and a separate cloth for the pets dishes (kept in pet food cupboard)/

What are your thoughts oh wise and wonderful dish-washers of MN?

Big bowls, ViviPru. ;)

I usually do soap on a sponge, rinse under hot water. If I can be bothered, I,ll have a basin of hot soapy water and another of clean water (changed a couple of times mid-wash), but always always rinse!

I,m with those who say that towel-drying is too much like work unhygenic.

You are right and I do the same BUT it costs a bomb in water!

Bowl?

I have a mesh thingy like a big chip pan fryer basket.

Rhonda if you wash them at 60 or higher it is fine.

I use your friend's method and glasses/sports bottles first then cups, bowls, plates, cutlery, pyrex, saucepans and baking tins. I use a spongey scourer thing, but a dishbrush on the pans and tins and anything really dirty. [saddo]

DH on the other hand will wash things in any old order and use the little sponge to scrub lasagne off a dish, then give glasses a quick sloosh with the soapy water and not rinse, so glasses he has 'washed up' have orange juice bits stuck to them or a smear of milk at the bottom. Yuk

Bowl of hot soapy water, leave things to soak for a bit and then wipe and usually rinse under the tap as I lift them out. Glasses always get rinsed and I rarely dry anything.

Glasses first, then cutlery, then plates, then pots. Water changed in the bowl as required.

Dh never changes the water so ends up washing some of the dishes in what eventually becomes lukewarm soup . I try not to think about it too much.