You can probably just chalk it up to a life habit that I never gave opportunity… but I have always washed my dishes in a dishwasher. In fact, nearly every day of my life I have used a dishwasher. Go figure. My parents used one. My grandparents used one. It’s been in every home I have lived in…. and when it wasn’t available (broken or kitchen remodelings), it was a source of great stress. Dishwashers get loaded, started, and emptied. End of story. Or so I thought.
Recently, I have begun washing dishes by hand immediately following every meal. Months ago, I read a famous zen story titled, “Wash Your Bowl” (via Leo Babauta) and have considered its meaning ever since.
As a result, I decided to give the mindful practice of “washing my bowl” a literal shot in my life. I began washing every dish following every meal. And since then, I have almost completely stopped using the dishwasher.
I love it. Here are the practical benefits I have seen:
- Less Physical Clutter. How often were dirty plates, bowls, and glassware left on my kitchen counter following a meal just waiting to be loaded in the dishwasher? Far more often than I would like to admit, that’s for sure. Each time, physical clutter was left on my kitchen counter, table, and sink.
- Less Mental Clutter. An unfinished project clutters the mind… always. Even when we were not in the kitchen, the pending responsibility of needing to clean the dishes was always hanging over our evening events. And we were specifically reminded every time we walked into (or even past) our kitchen.
- Seamlessly Transition Between Activities. Once the mind clutter of dirty dishes has been removed, we are freed to move from activity to activity, event to event, and room to room. We are allowed to be fully engaged in the present… however we choose to spend our evenings. There is no need to return to the past and finish the duties of our meal.
- Dishes are Always Clean. Ever need that one mixing bowl, pot, or cooking utensil, only to find out that it’s still dirty sitting in the dishwasher? Yeah, me too. Washing dishes after every meal means the dishes and cooking utensils are always clean and in their drawer.
- Dishes get Cleaner. Perhaps, the age of my built-in dishwasher has something to do with it, but I always hated pulling a bowl or plate out of the dishwasher that didn’t quite get all the way clean. And now I never do. Dishes are cleaned fully, everytime.
- It Takes Less Time. It came as a surprise, but I truly believe that washing our dishes after every meal has taken less time than loading/running/unloading the dishwasher. After most meals, it takes only 2-3 minutes to handwash each item. Cups are a snap. And most plates are a breeze to clean immediately following a meal.
- Example for My Kids. My kids see parents who finish what they start, aren’t afraid to put in a little effort, and leave a room cleaner than they found it. And those are life disciplines that I hope they embrace every day of their lives as they get older.
- It Brings Personal Satisfaction. There is a level of satisfaction in life that accompanies working with our hands and accomplishing a task without the need for mechanical intervention. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against machines. In many ways, they allow us to accomplish and create more than we could without them. I’m just saying there is a simple satisfaction in reminding ourselves that we can still live joyfully without them.
To accomplish the task of washing dishes immediately after every meal, I use three items: a dish wand, a sink rack, and a towel. I wash, dry, and put away. And with every practice in life, I own it – not the other way around. When we entertain or have a large meal that uses a number of cooking pots and pans, we still use the dishwasher.
It’s been a practical step of living intentionally. It’s been a process of choosing to question my life assumptions and live mindfully in all facets. And in that way, maybe it’s more than I just never gave it an opportunity… maybe it’s more honest to say that I never chose to live this intentionally ever before.
We’ve been married 40 years and do not use a dishwasher. It does work really well at cleaning my caps though!
I have been washing my dishes by hand for years now. Instead of using a sink drain or dish drain to allow them to dry, I use the DISHWASHER as my dish drain! Less clutter! In addition to all the positives listed in your article, I love the warmth of the water. It’s become therapeutic to me. And mostly I love always having the dishes I need RIGHT where they belong.
I have always washed my dishes by hand. Love having a clean counter and sink. If I’m baking or cooking I wash bowls/utensils as I finish with them. It’s amazing how little time this takes.
Same; been living in this home for 35 years and never used the dishwasher. Except as a place to drain/air dry the hand-washed dishes.
I like this idea of using the dishwasher as the drying rack!
So agree, this is how you’ll make the best use of it, save time and money
Brilliant!
Very useful information shared. Thanks alot
When my $1500 barely five year old dishwasher stopped cleaning utensils and started to sound like a 747 gearing up for take off I unplugged it and started washing dishes by hand.
I fully expected to pay a hefty repair bill or worse plunk it on the curb for disposal.
Full of anger and contempt that I tossed a perfectly fine dishwasher that worked for 15 years for this shinny new stainless steel piece of poo I realized that no matter how much money I spent, the days of good quality, long lasting appliances are dead.
I realized that washing dishes by hand was not nearly as time consuming or tedious as expected. My dishes were actually clean, no stuck on bits or that perpetual “residue” .
So, I am not going back, at least until I sell my house and am forced to buy a new one for the new owners.
And regarding water and electricity use. Since my dishwasher did such a poor job I often ended up running a load of dishes twice just to get the dishes clean or at least not smelling of food. I most assuredly use less water washing by hand.
Currently I live alone. I wash my dishes as I go and don’t miss the dishwasher. But having had 7 children and a mini farm with milk goats, sheep and more, the dishwasher was a life saver in my past. In fact at one point I had two! Call me decadent! LOL. Your lifestyle definitely affects what makes sense. And it changes through the years. It is always good to consider what others think but it doesn’t always match your life. I appreciate reading about new possibilities though.
I tend to be very lazy (but I’m working on getting more productive!) and dishes always pile up in the sink to the point of ridiculousness. However, I read in a not-so-great book about organizing, etc that she washes dishes every night before bed and then empties the dishwasher every morning. Since I tend to be lazy about emptying the dishwasher as well I decided to try this practice but in a different way. I make sure that whatever dishes I use go directly into the dishwasher instead of letting them pile up in the sink. Then when the dishwasher is full, I do a load. In the meantime if I run out of dishes or whatever, I can hand wash what I need. But I’m amazed at how the simple act of keeping dishes out of my sink makes my kitchen look a hundred times cleaner. There may be clutter galore on my counters but the sink being clean makes a world of difference.
I love my dishwasher. No need to justify it, it’s my path
I was hoping you’d add information about saving water and electricity.
Actually you use more water to wash them by hand but sure no electricity. Anyway you have to read suggestions but then choose what works better for you. For sure it is great to have the sink always clean and without dishes. The day starts better. Try it for a week!
That is a fallacy about energy use. A small sink of water to wash and then rinsewater is far less than the 2 hour process with multiple rinse cycles and all the electricity used to wash and dry. In hand washing just a small bit of gas used to heat the water. I use my dishwasher to store bags, large pots and produce (onions potatoes and garlic.)
Oooh, no! Don’t store onions and potatoes together, anywhere, ever. Bad, bad, bad! The ethylene gas from onions can cause potatoes to spoil quickly, and the high moisture content of spuds can soften and spoil onions.
Actually, stoppering the sink 1/3 full of water and rinsing as I go over it uses less than a sinkful of water to get a large amount of dishes clean. I put the cutlery on the bottom right away and they’re pretty much clean by the time I get to them at the end. By the same token, washing your dishes as you run the water down the drain is extremel wasteful and nowhere as efficient.
A modern dishwasher uses far less water than washing by hand. For example, I run my dishwasher every 5 days, it uses about 3 gallons of water. I open it overnight to let them air dry so I don’t use the dry function.
It was 600.00. I chose a specifically for its excellent sound rating, you can barely hear it
I find I do a lot more cooking and much more healthy cooking by keeping dishes clean or the dirty dishes in the dishwasher. I don’t run it until it’s stuffed full and it gets it clean the first time through with no rinse aid on the regular cycle.
me too.
There’s a more important point rather than debating ecological stuff, It is the people habit. Washing your own dishes will surely improve your family mindset. I don’t use dishwasher for this specific reason, you are all talking about the conservation of water or something. How about talking about building your kid mentality to fit a great person. Conserving water are not by the mean of using a dishwasher. it’s just 1 of 1001 reason for peoples to justified their laziness because it’s convenient to them. I don’t mind if people use a dishwasher because I respect their choices, but making a reason to feel they are doing some glorified deed to the world what a hypocrite.
If you understand one or two point about life coaching, washing dish using your hand it’s ? percent more beneficial, more than you can imagine.
My feelings on this is that hand washing might pertain to whatever stage of life you are in. For example, if you are working parents with toddlers and a baby, hand washing all those bottles might not work for that family. It’s interesting to think about though…..
We are a family of 5 but i have the feeling that using dishwasher is more time consuming that washing by hand. We simply used much more bowls, glasses cutlery etc when we were using dishwasher because we had the idea that dishwasher will do our work. But at the end we many times used the machine twice a day. Of course It is a hassle by hand as well but I really aggree with all the benefits Joshua listed.
Joshua, dishwashers conserve water. For me, minimalism includes a leave no trace component as well. Water is a limited resource. Understanding our role in depleting that resource whether we live in desert communities in the south and west, or eat almonds, is both a challenge and an opportunity to do better.
It is not true that dishwashers use less water. Think about it. You are being told this by companies who promote everything about a dishwasher. This comparison assumes we are idiots who stand at the sink allowing the water to run all day. Please dont assume this. It’s very easy to control your water usage by handwashing.
I can’t imagine why someone would think a dishwasher would use less water than hand washing. And of course the dishwasher uses electricity too. I don’t have a large family so hand washing them and putting them away takes far less time than loading the dishwasher and then going back an unloading it. I don’t blame anyone for using a dishwasher especially if they have a large family but to say it uses less water puzzles me.
Don’t forget your water probably gets heated by electricity.
Dishwashers drastically reduce the amount of water used washing dishes. The average sink faucet allows a flow rate of anywhere from 1.5 to 3 gallons per minute. Whereas your dishwasher only uses about 3 gallons per cycle. If you can wash and rinse your dishes with less than 3 gallons you are a dishwashing master, however, I seriously doubt it.
I have grown up handwashing all my life, speaking from experience I use about 5 litres of water to clean up dishes for about 5 people which seems economical . recently considered getting a dish washer though.
I hand wash all the time and battle with wasting water. Then I see people rinsing off all their dishes before putting them in the dishwasher and realize maybe the machine uses less water, but the people don’t!
Absolutely agree.
It’s not possible for you to know where people get their knowledge about water use.
Julia:
Not so. I have to scoop the water out of the sink that the dishwasher drains due to the way the plumbing is hooked up. I scoop 20-2 cup bowls of water every time the dishwasher drains. I can hand wash my dishes with less than half of that amount of water. I use a sanitizer in the rinse water and it is so hot I have to wear gloves.
I’m fairly certain they don’t conserve water. I recently had a dishwasher installed, and my water bill has been the same.
My dishwasher gets things cleaner than handwashing. They are also more ecological than handwashing. You also store dirty dishes out of sight. Win win.
Agree! And dw or hand wash, there will be clutter until it is dealt with. If I need something before it’s run, I’ll wash it by hand. I can think of a thousand other things to get Zen doing other than washing dishes.
I wish I had a dishwasher because where I live the water is very hard (limestone) and the dishes would get cleaner from a dishwasher.
True but I lived in one of those hard water areas and the dishwasher and other plumbing often broke down due to mineral deposits. Plumbers were very busy in that area.
Now see, for the last 23 years I’ve fought pitched battles with our ridiculously hard Utah water as I watched it unfailingly leave a frost on dishwasher loads, destroy water heaters and softeners years before their time, obstruct both hot and cold water faucets/spigots, and totally choke off a washing machine. If your dishes are leaving the dishwasher without water residue it’s because your detergent product is loaded with chemicals softeners and conditioners. I was finally using the detergent-plus-softener products as well as extra rinse agents like LemiShine or Jet Dry just to get results that looked and felt clean (never used the heated dry, btw). I have no problems like this when washing by hand and air drying.