The Things We Do For Dishes

You've enjoyed the last bite of your snack, wiped your fingers, sipped the last of your beverage, and are now ready for that big thing on your to-do list. Your sips and bites feel good when they are from real dishes, such as glazed ceramic cups and bowls.

But what are you supposed to do with those cups and bowls after you’re done??Doing the dishes isn’t on that to-do list!

In a world full of choices and compromises, answers to this question range from “This is why I use disposable bottles and paper plates” to “I first put the clean dishes in the dishwasher away, and then load my coffee cup”. To be sure, there is also “I just put my dirty dishes in the sink…and try not to forget”.

The delight of sips and bites with real dishes comes at the expense of our time and energy. Do you want to know why?

Dishwashers can’t load and unload themselves. Before dishwashers can start doing their thing, they need us to thoughtfully arrange dishes in their racks. And after they’re done, they need us to put dishes away, so the next batch of dishes can be loaded.?

You might conclude that the time and energy dishwashers demand from us is the reason why dishwashing continues to be the most hated chore in the U.S. But there’s more to the story.

For starters, as dishwashers are located under the counter to save countertop space, they require us to bend repeatedly while loading and unloading dishes. While an occasional forward bend might be a good fitness posture, who can judge us for not enjoying this when dirty dishes are in our hands?

Also, dishwashers are designed to clean dozens of dishes together in a batch. But when was the last time a whole load of soiled dishes appeared all at once ready to be cleaned? In general, dishes tend to accumulate gradually. This presents a hard choice. Should you let the dishes pile up until you have a full load? Or should you run the dishwasher before it gets full? You don’t want stinky dishes growing germs for hours while they’re waiting to be cleaned. Nor do you feel good about wasting money, energy, and water when you run a partially full dishwasher. It’s a hard choice because there’s no winning. A choice you wish you didn’t have to make.

Remarkably, dishwashers can’t see the dirt on dishes. Instead, they use a sensor that checks how dirty the water gets during cleaning. If the water looks clear, dishwashers assume that the dozens of dishes in them are spotless. As anyone who has run a dishwasher can tell, that is one big assumption. Sensing the clarity of water does not gather enough data to guarantee the cleanliness of individual dishes. While putting dishes away, if you see a coating of food residue on “clean” dishes, are you supposed to run the dishwasher again? You could hand wash dishes, but…no.?

As dishwashers can’t see dirt on dishes, they can’t use energy and water efficiently. They spray on dirty and clean regions of dishes exactly the same way, when they could have spent more resources on dirty regions and less resources on clean regions. No wonder they need to run for hours.

Speaking of hand washing dishes, our skills are so much better, aren’t they? After taking one good look at a dirty dish, we go right after the dirt and scrub dirty spots like cleaning ninjas.?

But you don’t have the time for washing dishes by hand. Weren’t you getting ready for that big thing on your to-do list?

Have you read “Oh, we have a dishcare!?