Is there a sanitary way to reduce our daily dishwashing?

March 28, 2009 8:25 PM

Is there a sanitary way to reduce our daily dishwashing?

Hi MeFites, my husband and I seem to create large piles of dishes for just two people, and even when we wash them every day they pile up again very fast.

Is there a way we can wash dishes straight after using them that is sanitary without having to fill the sink up with boiling hot water and suds every time?

Or are there other methods we can use to reduce the amount of dishes at the end of the day while maintaining sanitation? (we have no dishwasher unfortunately - renting)

Any and all tips would be very much appreciated. A huge thank you in advance!!

Katala

posted by katala to home & garden (25 comments total)

No food on your stuff = clean, no?

IANAMB, but it's my operating assumption that if the plate is clean and dry, it's not going to be a conducive host for biotic entities, regardless of whether it's been "sanitized" or not.
posted by mrt at 8:29 PM on March 28

Why fill the sink with suds? Put some soap on the sponge/dish rag/whatever after getting it wet and go at it.

Also, you can reuse dishes depending on what was on them and what they new food will be. Sandwiches are generally fine. Stuff like that. You could even share plates and cut those in half.
posted by theichibun at 8:38 PM on March 28 [1 favorite has favorites]

I'd look at the way you're using dishes now. I found I was incredibly inefficient while cooking and instead focused on creating fewer dishes to wash. I, generally, use one glass a day which is rinsed several times (for the various things I drink during the day) and washed at night. The same goes with bowls, plates and cutlery. A quick rinse/once over with the cloth and a good scrub once a night helps keep things under control.

Also, in case you're not doing it now, soak and wash dishes while cooking food. It makes the whole "build up" thing not happen as much.
posted by David Fleming at 8:38 PM on March 28

This question seems so easy I'm trying to figure out what the trick is.

Wet your sponge. Add some soap. Rub soapy sponge over dish. If food is sticking, consider using a dishwashing brush. When all food and liquid are loosened, set dish down. Repeat with all remaining dishes. Turn on tap. Rinse dishes under running water from the tap. If dish still has food on it, repeat sponging/brushing and rinsing as necessary. Put dish in dishdrainer to dry.

Really? How to wash a dish is the question?
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:41 PM on March 28 [3 favorites has favorites]

Is there a way we can wash dishes straight after using them that is sanitary without having to fill the sink up with boiling hot water and suds every time?

I don't know if it is "sanitary" (people use that word to mean very different things), but I usually handwash a dish or two at a time (as compared to handwashing a full day's worth of dishes, which I do by filling up a tub with hot soapy water) by running some warm water, putting dishsoap on the scrubby-sponge-thing, and washing the dishes sort of under and sort of next to the stream of running water, but without soaking or filling up anything with soapy water.

The total water used is a lot less than filling up the sink, though the hot-water-per-dish ratio is probably going to be higher than doing a whole sink-full the regular way. I'm sure it doesn't kill every microbe, but I haven't died yet, either, for whatever that's worth.

Of course, the best way to reduce the amount you wash is to focus on producing fewer dirty dishes in the first place -- once they are dirty, they have to be cleaned, regardless of whether you do dishes once an hour or once a month. Some people manage to cook and eat with a minimum of dirty dishes, while others can't eat a bowl of cereal without filling the sink with every plate and pan in the house.
posted by Forktine at 8:41 PM on March 28

A small wash basin would reduce the amount of water you need to get sufficient depth to hand wash dishes. I've always used one because I find reaching down into the sink to wash dishes cramps up my shoulders.
posted by Mitheral at 8:43 PM on March 28

Is there a way we can wash dishes straight after using them that is sanitary without having to fill the sink up with boiling hot water and suds every time?

Yes. Get a washingup bowl. Fil it with water and soap and put your dishes in it. Let them soak until you want to wash them - all day, overnight, whatever. You can put a drop (literally a drop) of bleach into the bowl if the idea of resting your dishes in standing water freaks you out.

Put soap on a sponge, scrub them (you can put the washing up bowl on the counter and transfer the scrubbed dishes to the sink if you like) and then rinse them one by one under hot (ish) running water. Dry or drain and stack away.

Were this method unsanity, 56 million British people would be dead.
posted by DarlingBri at 8:51 PM on March 28 [3 favorites has favorites]

Rinse and re-use dishes that have nothing icky on them. Coffee cups are a good example. If you're just going to drink more coffee out of them, why clean and sterilize first? No horrible evil will spawn on a dish in a few hours, or even a day.

If that seems too disgusting for you, then the soap-on-sponge-and-running-water method is just fine. It's how I always do my dishes, and they come out squeaky clean.
posted by wsp at 8:55 PM on March 28

Seconding David Fleming. We use one glass per day, sometimes two days, although we mostly drink water which may help. I also wipe the rim of mine occasionally with a napkin to keep lip balm from building up there, but I'd probably do that even if I only used a glass per hour.

I'll also use a plate for crackers, or a dryish sandwich, then keep it in "plate purgatory" (a spot on the counter) until I need a plate again. But, if you're not eating very greasy food (we're vegan, so that happens a lot), you can just rinse the plate. This is quicker than washing and will save lots of water.

This method is made possible because we're lucky enough not to have ever had bugs in the kitchen at this place. If I were living in some of my college accommodations, I'd probably keep my plate in the refrigerator.

I'll also put a big serving of something in a bowl, eat part of it, put the bowl in the refrigerator with a cover on it, then have the rest for a later dinner.

I'll re-use plastic containers for the same items without washing in between (again, no meat probably helps with this). Crackers & dry goods especially, but also peeled carrots, olives, etc.

We actually started thinking about how to do this kind of thing during the severe drought a couple of years ago here in the Southeastern US. Good luck.
posted by amtho at 8:59 PM on March 28 [1 favorite has favorites]

Limiting the quantity of dishes and cutlery you actively use might help. Put the rest on a higher shelf so you can't easily reach for it. Then dishes just can't pile up.
posted by zadcat at 8:59 PM on March 28

Sometimes, I'll cut fruit or cheese or whatnot with the knife from my multitool, then wipe the blade on my pants. I wouldn't do this if I was preparing food for another person, because, yeah, people have differing standards of sanitation.
posted by box at 9:00 PM on March 28

If you are not a fan of sponges (I'm not), you might want to get one of those soap-dispensing brush things. Back in the days before I had a dishwasher, that's what I used. The brush head detaches, and every week or so I'd put a splash of bleach in a bowl of hot water and toss it in. I felt pretty good about how clean my dishes were.
posted by phunniemee at 9:02 PM on March 28

Don't fill the sink with water. If you're going to put a dish in the sink and not wash it for a while, just splash a little water on it to keep the food residue from hardening. When it's time to wash, fill an already dirty small bowl with soap and hot water, and dip your sponge in that.
posted by mollweide at 9:13 PM on March 28

How would you feel about just wiping / rinsing off the remains with cold water and then going over with vinegar? That's a 99.9% effective anti-bacterial solution.
posted by Dipsomaniac at 9:54 PM on March 28

Why not get a portable dishwasher? That's what I did when I was renting, and it gives you a few extra square feet of counter space as well on its top. That way you can fill the dishwasher and then only run it every few days. It'll use less water than a sinkful a day for certain...
posted by barc0001 at 10:18 PM on March 28

I sometimes do the once-over with a soapy sponge right after using a dish, quick rinse, dry and put away. On the sanitary front, microwaving your sponge will kill lots of bacteria.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 10:26 PM on March 28 [1 favorite has favorites]

seconding zadcat to hide excess dishes.

my process:
1. clean a bowl
2. fill it with warm extremely soapy water (i use the anti-bacterial type) and a sponge
3. fill the sink with 2" water
4. scrub off excess yuck in the sink water (dirty) with a brush
5. use the soapy water (clean) sponge to wipe down
6. set aside
7. repeat 4-7 until out of stacking room/complete
8. rinse -> dish drainer

(sometimes if i'm lazy i put the soapy dishes directly in the drainer, and then rinse it all off in the sink with the spray hose. once i was too lazy and had so many dirty dishes that i had to do them in the bathtub with two buckets, same system.)
posted by vaguelyweird at 10:29 PM on March 28

I use cloth napkins and will sometimes eat off of them for sandwiches, crackers, dry snacks, etc. A quick shake over the sink to get rid of the crumbs and it's good to use again until it's soiled or until I do a load of laundry.
posted by mezzanayne at 1:37 AM on March 29

Use less dishes, stack neatly in sink throughout day rinsing off anything that could dry and become difficult to remove, wash the lot at night - nothing bad is going to come from those dishes sitting there unwashed for a few hrs - the exact same process as waiting for the dishwasher to fill up before turning it on.
posted by koahiatamadl at 6:19 AM on March 29

You can get microfiber cloths such as E-cloths that enable you to clean with just water. We use these in our house for small amounts of washing up with a running hot tap, or better still a washing up bowl with a small amount of water in it.

You do not that soap is not a disinfectant, right? Its an anti-surfacant i.e. it makes it easier to remove dirt. You can clean stuff fine with cold water and no soap, its just harder work generally (excepting other methods such as microfiber cloths). The main purpose of washing up is to remove food residues that bacteria etc need to live on.
posted by tallus at 6:26 AM on March 29

In Sweden, where it seems to be pretty uncommon to have a dishwasher, I've found that most people have a spray bottle that they fill with dishwashing liquid and other sanitizing stuff. They spray each dish, scrub it, and rinse it off with really hot water. I like this method and I've adopted it. My spray bottle has some diluted bleach it in to really kill the bad stuff.
posted by melissam at 6:38 AM on March 29 [3 favorites has favorites]

Paper plates.
posted by gjc at 7:36 AM on March 29 [3 favorites has favorites]

If you have a lot of dishes, filling the sink uses less water than washing under running water. I assume you don't actually fill a full-sized kitchen sink. I just get enough water in there to dunk the dirty dishes before I scrub them, repeating as necessary, until they are clean (but sudsy) and then putting them aside to rinse all at once.

For things that aren't very dirty, like glasses/mugs and plates for sandwiches or crackers, I just rinse them right after using them so the food doesn't have a chance to harden. A quick swish under cold running water does the trick. This applies to anything I would just leave in the sink before I started trying. For example, when making tea I'd just drop the teaspoon in the sink after - now I take a couple seconds to turn on the water, rinse it, and then drop it in the drying rack instead.

Also, if you haven't already, get a drying rack so you don't have to towel-dry the dishes (which seems unsanitary to me anyway) and then get clean dishes from the rack instead of the cabinet.

When cooking, try to minimise the number of dishes you use. E.g. crack eggs directly into the pan instead of into a bowl and then into the pan, or measure things directly into a bowl instead of into numerous measuring cups and then into the bowl. If you're making pasta you can use the pot lid to strain it instead of dirtying a colander. Use the same fork to mix everything (rinsing in between of course) instead of a whisk or other similar implements. Use the lowest common denominator measuring spoon instead of 5 different spoons/cups. I.e. 3 tsp = 1 tbsp, so if you need 1 tbsp of something and 1 tsp of something, use a teaspoon 4x instead of a teaspoon and a tablespoon. Plan your cooking so you can re-use dishes.

All of that comes from having a housemate who seems to use every bowl, pot, pan, fork, spoon, knife and plate in the house to cook anything. Plan ahead when you cook and do it in mind of using the least number of things possible. That's the single greatest factor in reducing dirty dishes. All the little things add up and before you know it you have 10 dirty forks in the sink and a stack of dirty pots.
posted by Xianny at 9:17 AM on March 29

You can reduce the number of dishes you need to wash my reducing your number of dishes. When I was living with three roommates, we had a terrible time maintaining the kitchen. I ended up boxing all our dining ware except for one plate, bowl, mug, and glass per person. We were forced to do dishes right away.
posted by lunalaguna at 1:40 PM on March 29 [1 favorite has favorites]

I never fill the sink with water. Dishes that I don't wash right away I pile in the sink and fill the dishes themselves with water as required to soak the stuff off. (So I fill bowls/dishes with water and stack them, so dishes are on the bottom and bowls on top, so everything is always soaking but the sink is not "filled" with water. And I fill glasses w/water just to keep liquids from drying onto them, etc.) Then when I go to wash them I just turn on the hot/warm water and soap up a sponge, and wash/rinse each one at a time. And that way I can just clean a few if I only have a few minutes and not worry about draining the sink or whatever. It's perfectly sanitary and my dishes are exceptionally clean. (I'm really anal about clean dishes. I have many friends whose dishes I feel the need to wash before I use them.)

But the best way to keep the dirty dishes from piling up is to just wash them right after you use them! And lunalaguna has a good method of forcing you to do that. Because in the end, the same number of dishes are washed (that is, the same number of meals are eaten), so you might as well have fewer dishes total. Less storage space for clean dishes is required, and then there's less pile-up. :)
posted by iguanapolitico at 12:22 PM on April 2