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)?

AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH

TILLY why? Why put the things on the side when the things could so easily go IN the sodding dishwasher with all of the other things????????

DH TheRealYillyMinto

That's Ok cos I spit in your coffee.

Toodles

I have to wash up this way as the thought of a soggy bit of food making contact with my hand makes me feel sick.

Vivi, I hate to break it to you but you're definitely married to someone very like my dad ....

The sight of a used peanut-butter knife can drive my mum into speechless irritation because dad thoughtfully leaves one balanced on the edge of the sink for her every morning before he goes to work.

Fred, I find the bubbles drip down the plates and there's no residue, or none that I can taste
With "complicated" items (like toddler beakers) I always rinse after washing, because the bubbles get stuck in the grooves.
To clarify: I rinse plates then shove in bowl. Use copious hot water & Fairy. Use a sponge (replaced weekly). Lift out onto drainer. Only beakers are rinsed.
All left to air dry.
Ideally you should squirt Fairy and mush into your cloth / sponge after washing up, prevents germ build up - another boring fact

Is steeping them in bleach any good?

Oh yes the thoughtfully balanced items. Or the porridge spoon that he plops on the worktop mid-stir then forgets about, so its welded on by the time I come along.

DP thinks that baking dishes with burned-on food just need to be filled to the brim with tepid water and left next to the sink and that will be enough to clean them. Its not even as though he's expecting me to come along and do it. He really isn't.

I wouldn't mind if all this were in the context of a slovenly, lazy partner, but he'd generally really good at doing his fair share, he just has some weird ideas.

when i was....just....a little....girl...

i realised that my mum did all the shit stuff & my dad chose to be blind to it...

so i decided to not see the things i dont want to do. i have 3 decades of practice at this so i am very bad good at it.

waiting for the fairies take to them away.... is easier than loading the dishwasher.

its just like sticking your finger in your ear going lala la i cannot hear you!

DP thinks that baking dishes with burned-on food just need to be filled to the brim with tepid water and left next to the sink and that will be enough to clean them.

yes - you just need to leave them to 'steep' long enough...

ok sometime i put used things in water in the sink & wait for magic cleaning to happen.....

Baking dishes with burnt on food are best with persil and boiling water left to steep.

What I do is wait until I've run out of anything even vaguely cleanish, then invite my mum/ sister/ more hygenic friend round, and they wash up while tutting. I find I can cope with the tutting with equanimity, on the grounds that I am not doing the dishes.

I have not observed the method, but I believe there is some kind of water/ crockery/ soap interaction. Friend goes on about carcinogens in fairy liquid, but I suspect poor science.

I have 2 roombas.

One for upstairs, one for downstairs.

They need to invent one to do the actual stairs now

Katie, no, bleach won't rid yourself of food residue. Also, bleach shouldn't be used on items used with food as they will be tiny crack in plates etc and the bleach penetrates and can transfer onto your food.
Never bleach tea cups - Fairy and a scrubber will do a better and safer job

DM is my Roomba. God love her

Bleach was for dishcloths

fairy and a scrubber

scrubber

can i swap my mother for a spare roomba or is that just plain wrong?

Mine comes with her own attachments

This is a particular favourite of mine.
There is no other way!

1. Rinse ALL items under hot running water
2. Sink of hot soapy water, wash everything.
3. Stack on drainer to air dry.

Simples!
Cleanest dishes you ever had

I am with HippyMum.

All major residue scraped off, then rinsed off with hot water.. mugs and plates go into the dishwasher, along with any glass ovenware... and the cutlery.

Glasses washed one at a time in a bowl of washing up liquid and water as hot as you can bear, left to drain.. then the pans.

My mother who had asbestos hands taught me that if your hands were not burning, you didnt have the water hot enough!

My friends all thought I was bonkers, they do the whole slimy, foody plate in water thing [shudder]

But my best friend only tonight admitted she has converted to my way

Exactly as I do it Hippymum (apart from rinsing beaker lids, that's my only addition)

Referring to you post before this one you've done about you slimey friends

One othe thing. Could someone please enlighten me as to the correct procedure for loading wine glasses into the dishwasher? I've dropped my top rack down to the lowest runner so they do fit height-wise, but they topple over and don't clean properly...