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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU not to want a dishwasher?

450 replies

ChloeCC · 19/03/2021 21:22

My DP and I are currently planning our kitchen. We don't have dishwasher in our current kitchen and I'm not too bothered. He thinks it's an essential, and it'll become more essential as our kids grow - they're tiny atm. The new kitchen doesn't have a huge amount of cupboard space so I think we should save the space and go without. What do people with slightly older kids think? Is it something that would put you off buying a place if there wasn't a dishwasher? We might sell the house in a few years. I'm a bit torn - I don't mind washing up - sometimes it feels like a break!

OP posts:
MintyMabel · 20/03/2021 16:20

A dishwasher is an essential item.

Not relevant to the OP at all, but actually, according to Domestic and General Insurers, at least as far Covid goes, dishwashers are NOT considered essential and they aren’t allowed to enter your home to fix them during lockdown. Tumble driers and washing machines are deemed essential but dishwashers are not.

Which, frankly, is ridiculous, as my mother told the woman on the phone who refused to send an engineer to fix hers!

tigger1001 · 20/03/2021 16:20

We had a slimline dishwasher and didn't replace it when it broke. Don't miss it at all to be honest. We are a family of 4 - one teen and one pre teen

happysunr1se · 20/03/2021 16:26

I dont have a dishwasher. When I moved into my house (from my parents house that had a dishwasher) there was a slim line one but I got rid of it for extra cupboard space.

I loathe dishwashers.
You have to rinse the items with sauce or lumps on before you put them in.

Then you have to load the thing without getting food cack all over your hands, then every time you want to add something dirty the scent of binjuice wafts around.

When it's finished you have to mop up the water left on the tops of the upside down mugs/bowls etc or it splashes everywhere, then you've got to stack all the clean stuff away.

Plus it damages the surface of some items. Thumbs down from me.

hellomom · 20/03/2021 16:47

@happysunr1se things have changed. I never rinse any of my dishes. I scrape the leftover food off, which I would do even if I was hand washing, bowls are to be placed slanted so water isn't collected at the top. Loading a dishwasher isn't hard work, if you put it correctly to begin with, you wouldn't be moving things about just before starting the machine, mine certainly doesn't smell like the bin when dirty dishes are in. They come out dry, so all I have to do is put it away.
With children, it's such a chore, hand washing several times a day, then drying like mad to get rid of all water and then put away. I hate leaving dishes at the side to rinse water off, it looks a mess and knowing me things will get knocked off accidentally

hellomom · 20/03/2021 16:49

@MintyMabel that's interesting because I had a engineer come to have a look at my dishwasher during lockdown, I didn't pay for it as it's within my warranty

Bythemillpond · 20/03/2021 17:45

My dishwasher was also repaired during lock down

happysunr1se
Never come any of the things you say you have to do when loading my dishwasher and it doesn’t smell when you open it.
Think of all the stuff you have to do when washing up. You have to do a lot more than rinse some sauce off a plate or dry a mug bottom. The time it takes to wash up you could be doing so much stuff.

frazzledasarock · 20/03/2021 17:57

Why would your dishwasher smell of ‘bin juice’?
We run ours end of the day and unload it in the morning and start restacking after breakfast.

Certainly not enough time for food to be decaying so much that it smells of bins.

And we’re a house where everyone washes their hands, so again not a problem, everyone puts their own dishes in the dishwasher or eldest dc does it as it’s their chore. We usually wash hands before and after eating anyway.

HarkAVagrant · 20/03/2021 18:38

@skippy67 My parents had one. Got it when I was 11. I’ve never had one, although I have helped other people load theirs. And it did take just as long stacking and unloading as washing up took.

skippy67 · 20/03/2021 18:45

Maybe because there were two of you doing a one person job.

Roselilly36 · 20/03/2021 19:04

I love my dishwasher, lost count of how many I have had over the years, couldn’t be without one, I definitely consider a DW as essential, I would be miserable without one.

Pineapplemonkey · 20/03/2021 19:24

@Marble2302

I don't like them. I don't understand all the comments about forever washing up with kids either.

I imagine the people with dishwashers are the ones who don't iron either 🤣

Don’t want to blow your mind but not only do I have a dishwasher, I also have a tumble dryer and microwave, I don’t own an iron (or an ironing board obviously) and I have a cleaner. All of this AND I live on my own!

Definitely would not ever buy a house without space for a dishwasher!

VanGoghsDog · 20/03/2021 20:14

Don’t want to blow your mind but not only do I have a dishwasher, I also have a tumble dryer and microwave, I don’t own an iron (or an ironing board obviously) and I have a cleaner. All of this AND I live on my own!

Very similar. I do own an iron though, legacy! And a mini ironing board which only guests have ever used.
Sadly no cleaner currently, she left and as I'm wfh I don't want one here while I'm working anyway, but I've had one in the past.

greeneyedlulu · 20/03/2021 20:18

5 years ago I redecorated my kitchen with no dishwasher but back then it was just my ds and I. Fast forward 5 years, as a family of four, a year of WFH, homeschooling and 3 square meals a day for 3 people and baby stuff, coffee mugs, snack plates etc I really wish I had a dishwasher instead of a cupboard for tupperware!

Jeeperscreeper · 20/03/2021 20:45

We just got one. Its amazing .we did not have room and it is acrually in utilty so we have to take on tray .. but my goodness they are fab . Why did we wait so long .. never again without . Love the tidyness .

DaisyWaldron · 20/03/2021 20:46

My favourite thing about my dishwasher is no longer having eczema on my hands and wrists.

notmethenwho · 20/03/2021 20:56

I have two in the house I'm in now and I must admit if I was to redo any kitchen I would be doing the most to make sure I have space for two again Grin

LST · 20/03/2021 22:21

@RMRM

You'll spend your life washing up if you don't get one when you have children. Absolutely non negotiable here.
No you really don't. It takes minutes
RedcurrantPuff · 20/03/2021 22:22

I would never not have one.

RedcurrantPuff · 20/03/2021 22:24

My dishwasher has never ever smelled of bin juice

OrangeSamphire · 20/03/2021 23:01

We have just had a new kitchen fitted and didn’t bother with a dishwasher although we have set up a cupboard with the electrics and plumbing should any future owner really want to put one in.

I hate dishwashers. The smell of them. The sound of them. The loading and unloading of them. The cleaning out of the drain. Those hideous chemically stinking dishwasher tabs. Ugh. Washing up is just so much quicker and easier (even with a family of four all cooking different things) and glassware and pans and crockery don’t get ruined either.

Waxonwaxoff0 · 20/03/2021 23:21

@Bythemillpond

A dishwasher is an essential item. Think of the time you save each day instead of standing at a kitchen sink washing up. I have a small kitchen and have traded cupboard space for a dishwasher. Even if we stay in a holiday let it has to have a dishwasher.

Especially as children get older and they start getting their own food and drinks it is so easy to put cups and plates into the machine and it doesn’t leave a mess on the side

No it isn't. Many people get by without one, so it's not an essential item.
Waxonwaxoff0 · 20/03/2021 23:23

I actually have a dishwasher for the first time in my life as the house I bought came with one. I've never used it.

BiBabbles · 20/03/2021 23:41

I didn't even consider it when I was house hunting last year, but I haven't had one as a an adult and rarely had (and can't recall actually using) one when I was younger and most of the places I looked at were the kind where it's kinda expected you're going to modernize the kitchen.

I'm not sure why an older child is a reason for a dishwasher -- I can get some people's argument with tiny ones, but now that my children are older, they can be the dishwashers Grin. My 11-16 year olds do dinner dishes on rotation, they and the 9 year old clean up after their own breakfasts, it's not been an issue for us though I imagine that is in part from it having not been an option. I also went over a decade without a dryer, but bought one a couple years back to help deal with the turnover of secondary uniforms and it has made things easier.

I haven't really had much desire for a dishwasher, though I might if the opportunity arises. My main focus for updating the kitchen is a dish drainer for wall cabinet, I just think they look really neat and functional & a better way to handle plate storage for us.

BashfulClam · 20/03/2021 23:41

I despise washing up. I was forced to do it as a teenager and there were always teabags and peelings in the sink tgat I had to clear first. It made me heave and i still hate washing up.

There us just two of us but we put the machine on every days. I don’t understand the comments about having to fill it as we just fill it up all day as we go and then at about 9pm it goes on. We then empty it in the morning ready for the day again. We don’t rinse anything first and just run a cleaner through every month. Our combi boiler isn’t great and hot water takes forever even then it turns cold quickly, so I often have to resort to using the kettle each time I need to hand wash...fuck.that.shit!

Nanalisa60 · 20/03/2021 23:47

If you have room for a dishwasher get one!! They are
Life changing!! I really would not want to live without one!!

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