What is a washing up bowl for?

[UniquelyBoring]

I've never used a washing up bowl in my house but when I go away at Airbnb there's often one there and I don't understand their purpose. Please can you break it down for me.

Thanks.

I’ve always had a single sink and never used one for washing up. We have one but only use it for DP to shave into instead of clogging up the sink with hair. I’ve always found them a bit grimy like @YeahNahWhal and I’m from the UK! I just rinse/empty stuff before starting to wash up so no need to tip stuff away, and nothing has ever broken (and I’m not careful!)

How does it allow you to use less water?...Just because it's a slightly smaller space or something else?

Well of course you use less water. It's pretty obvious.

It really isn't faux naivety.
I've never had a washing up bowl, even as a kid my parents and grandparents didn't have them.
Because it's such a boring as hell subject, if you've had one you probably haven't sat and considered the benefits of one.

The bowl within a bowl mystery. I don’t have one and everytime I visit DM and I go to wash out the cups I find myself wondering what the point of it is. The bowl itself needs washing out and gets stood on its side to prevent gunge building up underneath. Why not just use the sink?

I have a wonderful but humungous Belfast sink. It takes a lot of water to even fill to an inch or so. Then there is nowhere to empty the coffee cup that I forgot to check for dregs. Washing up bowl solves all of that.

Why not just use the sink?

Sinks are really dirty, and drains and plugholes especially.
It's possible to wash up without a WUB but you'd need to have the tap running all the time. We're supposed to be saving water right now.

to make it easier when you have a hose ban or are concerned with wasting water. You can take the bowl and pour it over you plants/veg to water them. Saves a lot of wasted water.

They're no different to the actual sink, in that respect. Both have to be cleaned in order to stay clean.

And do people not rinse the washing up water off their dishes?

Have you tried washing up with the bowl? The amount of times you need to empty it (the water goes in the bowl and not down the drain), really makes you realise how much water you waste. You can then tip the bowl of water onto your plants.

Of course they do, but I never have.

"Plus it's also handy to have for when your kids want to throw up. A proper bucket is far too big for a toddler to hold."

I realise loads of people do this but I feel quite strongly that there should be seperate receptacles for vomit and dishes 🙁

Handwashing or soaking clothes normally. Don’t use it for washing up despite having a single sink. Any residual stuff from cups gets thrown in the dishwasher!

We do have a second washing up bowl that lives upstairs, especially for dirty jobs.

OMG. Yes. DH is from UK, insists on using it and always leaves a bit of grimy water and other flotsam and jetsam after he doed washing up. If I haven't done any washing up for a few days and it's just been him, when I lift out the bowl it's got bits of food and grease stuck to it and a scurf of gunge in the bottom of the sink. It's absolutely disgusting. I've never broken a glass in a stainless steel sink and we've got a 1.5 bowl sink but he insists on using it. To those who say it's to protect the sink, why? Who cares if there's a few scratches? It's better than a manky plastic bowl in the sink. I can see the practicality of it when there's a massive deep ceramic butler sink, but then, I'd never have one of those. Utterly impractical.

Rant over. Sorry, its a very emotive subject in our house....

On top of the 1.5 double sink, dreg tipping out reason there is also the fact that originally most kitchen sinks were heavy duty ceramic, and items like tea cups or thin china could potentially chip or break against the ceramic, so people started using washing up bowls. Then came the metal sinks, but even then your thin china tea cups could take a chilling or two so the washing up bowl stayed.

They are just a common home staple now. Everyone generally just has one because it's the done thing.

New kitchens with composite sinks the introduction of double or 1.5 sinks probably don't need one.

But it is what it is. I have a single metal sink, so I have one because I don't want chips in my China and I can deposit dregs down the side.

I disinfect the sink and the bowl though after every use. So they don't get "manky" in my house.

Are you serious? The clue is in the name

Rubbish

I have two. One for soaking saucepans and stuff in the utility room and also used in the kitchen as protection for the sink and delicate dishes. The other is used for soaking clothes and feet soaking. I put it in the dishwasher occasionally 🤠

As far as I've seen, it's for people like my parents who enjoy running a hot bowl of water then washing up dishes in it, rather than washing things under the hot tap, which both saves water and means everything is rinsed as it's washed.

My dad loves a washing up bowl. He truly believes that if you wash everything in a sort of soup of food grease, it's clean, and could only need a tiny rinse in the hot tap at most.

Washing things under a running tap does not save water it wastes it. Get over yourselves MN clean brigade people have been washing up in bowls for years

Thanks for all these replies so I've got another question now, haha...when I wash up I don't use a bowl but I don't fill the sink up either. I just leave the tap running with the plug not in. This way I can wash and rinse easily. I put the washing up soap on the sponge.

So if you fill either the sink or the bowl with I'm guessing soapy water how do you rinse everything?

I have literally just bought one - my reason to save water.

Last night I washed Salad. In total I had about half a bowls worth of water that went into a bucket outside to water the plants. It's amazing how much water you get through with simple tasks - washing veg/salad, Waiting for water to go hot/?cold.......

Have a guess? I reckon you can work this one out by yourself!

Are your questions serious?