My family immigrated from the USSR and even though we've lived in places that had dishwashers, we've never used them. We just do everything by hand and it's fine??

Even if you do use it; I can understand getting all the chunks off before putting dishes in there, but if you're rinsing it off too, just rub it with a soapy sponge a bit and you're done?? Why would you almost wash it and then put it in the washer? It's like cleaning before the maid comes.

If the answer is "so they're sparkling clean every single time" then you're a bougie and need to learn to have some humility. Some water stains on the bottom of your plate are a non-issue.

Edit: after reading the comments and talking it over with my friends, I've decided to elaborate a bit

Washing dishes by using a soapy sponge and running water: the best way

Scraping them then putting em in the dishwasher: oooh look at mr fancy pants over here. But if you're running full loads on a new efficient washer then I guess I'll allow it

Rinsing plates then putting them in the washer: fuck you

Filling the fucking sink with soapy water to wash dishes: what the actual fuck is wrong with you go back to your fucking Norman Rockwell painting you absolute psychopath

  • volcel_olive_oil [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    you build up a mountain of dishes over a week and cram them into a machine that automates the process and saves water it's not rocket science

    if I need something again before the end of the week I hand wash it

        • 389aaa [it/its]
          ·
          4 years ago

          There are definitely leftists out there who fetishize labor as a moral good. It's often comorbid with the people who complain about petty shit that they find 'bougie', it's all aesthetic-based politics.

      • Abraxiel
        ·
        4 years ago

        Indeed; however, we see repeatedly that machines which accelerate or automate labor are frequently not used to reduce labor while maintaining production, but are used to maintain labor input while accelerating production! This hold true even with the domestic; for instance, when washing machines were introduced, the laundering of clothes, rather than becoming a trivial task, increased in frequency as the required labor power decreased, with people electing to wear freshly laundered clothes every day instead of only washing them when soiled or after extended use.

        • Terkrockerfeller [she/her]
          hexagon
          ·
          4 years ago

          These kinds of insights are exactly why I purposely make provocative posts about mundane topics I feel strongly about but also know I'm probably wrong on

          • Abraxiel
            ·
            4 years ago

            I'm glad my dilettantism has been valuable :)

        • Woly [any]
          ·
          4 years ago

          What, you're not grazing on dandelions that pop up between cracks in the sidewalk? I knew this website was full of posers.

    • DasKarlBarx [he/him,comrade/them]
      ·
      4 years ago

      saves water

      This is super important imo. As great as the time you save is, the water you save is probably better.

  • ElGosso [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Dishwashers that meet the Energy Star certification rating are more water-efficient than handwashing and can be more energy efficient at making hot water than your hot water heater

    • queenjamie [none/use name]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Yeah so it's better to just put the dirty dishes straight in there. Yet you'll see people "pre-rinse" and then use the dishwasher. That wastes even more water, but they're too dumb to realize it.

      • earthmover [none/use name]
        ·
        4 years ago

        This is not only misinformation, it's dangerous misinformation. The dishwasher clogs up if you put plates with big pieces of food in it.

      • ElGosso [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        Yeah it's a relic of an older time when dishwashers were shittier

      • TheCaconym [any]
        ·
        4 years ago

        Yeah so it’s better to just put the dirty dishes straight in there

        If there isn't large pieces of food, yes; but you also have to remember to clean up the filter often.

        • AliceBToklas [she/her]
          ·
          4 years ago

          Not all dishwashers have filters, some use a garbage disposal type situation to get chunky bits out

          • invalidusernamelol [he/him]
            ·
            4 years ago

            Yeah, mine runs directly to a garbage disposal that's under the main sink. You can even put a grease trap in the disposal line and compost the stuff. Maybe not though, depending on what kind of chemicals you flush down your sink. Would probably be great for a vermicomposter situation though.

            • AliceBToklas [she/her]
              ·
              4 years ago

              I feel like the grease trap option would be more to reduce grease problems in your sewer line than for composting.

              • invalidusernamelol [he/him]
                ·
                4 years ago

                I have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about, I read some pamphlets and articles on sustainable housing that included some sort of waste composting directly in the pipes, but that might have just been the vermicomposter.

                • AliceBToklas [she/her]
                  ·
                  4 years ago

                  idk if a vermicomposter would be able to do that, I do see some things about using off cuts of pvc pipe to make a vermicomposter but I don't know of any composting system that would work directly in the pipes.

                  • invalidusernamelol [he/him]
                    ·
                    4 years ago

                    Not directly in the pipes like physically inside them, but like a closed system that you don't have to mess with. You just do business as usual and your pipe setup automatically filters the food waste into a composter instead of sending it to a sewage line.

                    • AliceBToklas [she/her]
                      ·
                      4 years ago

                      hmmm, they do something like that on earthships, they plant a non-edible garden area and use that as the leach field for the blackwater runoff, and the greywater all goes into the indoor edible garden. Maybe something like that?

      • AliceBToklas [she/her]
        ·
        4 years ago

        In North America they are plumbed to the hot water line and use the hot water heater to have warm water initially, but for the longer running cycles they reheat the water as it's recirculating.

  • AliceBToklas [she/her]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Handwashing dishes is WAY more wasteful than the dishwasher. Like, most people use ~5x more water handwashing. Prewashing dishes then putting them in the dishwasher is the biggest waste though, since the dishwasher should be more than capable of removing stuck on particles of food since that's it's whole reason to exist.

    I mean, if you think about it more, it makes a shitload of sense since a water pump and a lil heater can just keep scrubbing them for like a long ass time without getting bored or tired of it so it can just build in some pre-soak/pre-rinse time to soften things up before it even bothers to get into the soapy part.

    And since it's a pump and water jets the amount of water it needs to accomplish each task is smaller than filling a sink up (which is the most efficient way of handwashing but very few people do this anymore)

    But it's weird, right before I saw this I was reading this article about immigrants to North America being very mistrustful of dishwashers

  • Terkrockerfeller [she/her]
    hexagon
    ·
    4 years ago

    Genuinely so happy downvotes are gone because being ratiod by the comments is humiliating enough as it is

  • domhnall [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Owning dishes is a bourgeois decadence. Eat directly off the coffee table. Kitchen and dining room tables are also a bourgeois decadence.

  • OgdenTO [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    4 years ago

    My dishwasher broke and it was fine washing by hand. But dishwashers are honestly pretty cheap, generally use less water than handwashing and take a bit less time.

  • AlexandairBabeuf [they/them]
    ·
    4 years ago

    i fill the sink all the ways up just to rinse my dishes before putting them in the dishwasher

    then i take a 3 hour long shower and then a bath

    cleanliness is really important to me

  • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I grew up washing dishes by hand but in the place I currently live in there's a dishwasher and using it saves money on the water bill so I use it. Like if I need to eat something now and don't want to wait an hour for the dishwasher to do it's thing of course I'll wash it by hand, but otherwise I need to save as much money as possible. Seriously the dishwasher I the place only uses 9.5 liters of water (2.5 gallons for Americans) to wash a full load of dishes.

        • Terkrockerfeller [she/her]
          hexagon
          ·
          4 years ago

          Yeah if I'm washing something really greasy I need to use my hands to tell when it's all washed off because you can't really tell through a sponge

  • Terkrockerfeller [she/her]
    hexagon
    ·
    4 years ago

    To add to this: washing "by hand" should absolutely not involve filling your fucking sink. Just run em under a faucet while scrubbing with a soapy sponge then rinse it off jfc what's wrong with americans

    • maverick [they/them]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Doing a large load of dishes would take more time and use way more water if you don't fill up the sink and wash them that way.

      • glimmer_twin [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        You can just fill the sink like 1/4 of the way and dip/scrub. I do have a split sink though so I can have the wash area and rinse area tbf.

        • maverick [they/them]
          ·
          4 years ago

          Yeah that's what I do too. One side for water and the other side for rinsing.

    • Zoift [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      If you have a large load of dishes, that's exactly what you want to do. It's the point of dual-basin sinks, One to fill & soak, one to scrub over.

        • Zoift [he/him]
          ·
          4 years ago

          The 3rd basin is for a drying rack, if for some reason you have a restaurant-grade wash basin. Otherwise I just put a couple of towels out on the counter under the drying rack.

          I mean, none of this matters much if your just washing your own dishes at home I guess. I'm having flashbacks of my days working in a Wafflehouse.

  • sexywheat [none/use name]
    ·
    4 years ago

    My tabletop dishwasher for my tiny concrete box of an apartment was one of the greatest investments I ever made.

  • Spinoza [any]
    ·
    4 years ago

    :party-parrot-science: MOST EFFICIENT DISH METHOD BELOW :party-parrot-science:

    1. Put a tiny bit of very hot water in a sink.
    2. Add soap.
    3. Wash the cleanest dirty dish in the soapy water.
    4. Rinse it under another tiny bit of hot water into the wash sink.
    5. Repeat 3 & 4 until you're done.
    6. Consider leaving the sink if you're still going to cook that day, so you can soak dishes in it and get the biggest chunks off before they go in the next wash sink.
    • Terkrockerfeller [she/her]
      hexagon
      ·
      4 years ago

      Sounds pretty good but requires you to have counter space next to the sink to queue up dirty dishes. We just put em in the sink and wash when the meals over (or even wash immediately after we're done with it)

      • HamManBad [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        Oh look at ms. decadence over here with enough time to do dishes after every meal instead of slowly building up a mountain of filth.

        Or maybe I just do that cuz I'm lazy I dunno

        • Terkrockerfeller [she/her]
          hexagon
          ·
          4 years ago

          Tbf I do build it up often, but then, as people making excuses for Trump golfing would say, I get to work

      • Spinoza [any]
        ·
        4 years ago

        we have a soft agreement in my house that if you're on dish comrade for the day, you try not to let it get beyond one sink full of stuff before you do a load, and you make sure it's clean for the morning

  • Redshirt_Army [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Absolutely agreed. Unless you've actually got an issue that makes it hard for you to wash dishes, doing it by hand in the sink is barely any work.

    • Terkrockerfeller [she/her]
      hexagon
      ·
      4 years ago

      Yeah, I even make this post as someone who fucking hates washing dishes. Boo hoo, suck it up and wait till you have some spoons or something but don't waste a shitton of water to have a machine do it for you