The Dish Washing Debate

When I was a kid growing up the biggest dish washing debate was between my twin and me, over whose turn it was to wash the dishes. My twin won the debate back then with a simple strategy, he broke a plate every time it was his turn so I became the dishwasher. Whenever my mom discussed kitchen appliances she readily explained that she had a perfectly good dishwasher, me. But the real dish washing debate these days is whether or not it’s better to hand wash your dishes over sanitizing them in a dish washing machine. I am still a dishwasher by hand to this day. It seems like a lot less work than scraping, loading, starting the dishwasher, and unloading, and putting away. I just clear (or get the table cleared), rinse and stack while the water heats up from the tap, scrub with hot and soapy, rinse, and put the dishes in the drainer to air dry. I am fast too and use less electricity hand washing (although I know the hot water heater uses some), but nobody has to plug me in to get the dishes done. I have read that the energy efficient dishwashers use less water because rinsing hand washed dishes supposedly uses more. There is that to consider. A newspaper article I read says it takes 27 gallons of water to hand wash versus 4 to 6 gallons used by an energy star dishwasher. Yet, I don’t believe I use 27 gallons on a sink full of dishes either, even though I have never actually measured.

One thing I do know is that I never have to put anything back in the dishwasher that didn’t come out clean because I have eyes on when I’m hand washing the dishes. When the dish or glass goes to the drainer, it’s clean. I am obviously prejudiced in favor of hand washing but I am also the kind of cook that cleans as I go, not only because my kitchen is tiny (too tiny for a dishwasher too) but also because I like a neat kitchen and it doesn't take much to leave mine looking like a bomb went off in it. So despite the conclusions in the news article on the dish washing debate being pro mechanical dishwasher, as my mom always said, we still have a perfectly good dishwasher, me.