Simple Living | Dishes By Hand
Loves, I know most of you greatly favor having an automatic dishwasher, and some of you might even rather go without oxygen than be without one. But, if you’re considering washing by hand, whether by intrigue or necessity, you might find some thoughts here to guide you.
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A rinse-off under hot running water, a squirt of dish soap on the sponge, a quick rub-down of the dinner plate front and back, another hot rinse, then into the clean sink to drain and dry. Repeat with drinking glass, fork, knife, and spoon, and probably a serving dish or two. My turn, done. Maybe five minutes have passed. By the time the table, countertops, and stove top are wiped down, the clean dishes are dry and ready to put away. Done and done. Never a needed dish that’s dirty in the dishwasher, never a multiple-meal backlog of clean dishes to put away. How could this washing dishes by hand be our preferred way to a clean and tidy kitchen?
I suppose it’s by creating what feels like less work, not more.
When I was designing the kitchen in our home, I was blessed to be working with features like spacious ceilings and abundant light, and I was challenged to be working with limited square footage. In a small space, I would need to carefully design a fully functioning kitchen that would live large enough to support our lifestyle. I pondered how the kitchen would flow and where every dish, utensil, and appliance would be placed. Almost immediately, I knew that I would prefer cabinet space over an automatic dishwasher. I also knew that to make this choice a success, I would need to have a function plan as well. A literal, this-is-how-we’ll-wash-dishes plan. Because this task, I was determined, wouldn’t be onerous to any one of us.
Obviously, the end result of the endeavor would be clean dishes, but other things were important to me in getting from here to there, as well. Seeing the evidence of a kitchen in use is welcoming and homey to me, but seeing scattered stacks of dirty dishes feels cluttered and unsettling, not to mention daunting. So I knew that, realistically, there had to be a holding place for dirty dishes to go ahead of being washed that would keep the countertops clear. And, since I prefer those clear countertops, I knew I’d need a solution other than a countertop rack (or mat) in which to drain the dishes as well.
Interestingly, I found my inclination toward quality and simplicity guiding my way, even here. It began with the curious phenomenon that when you have something you value, you want to care for it, and the caring for it somehow doesn’t seem so great a task. So it was (and is) with the collection of quality kitchenware and tabletop I’d gathered over the years - washing beautiful things makes for a beautiful experience. Also, having only what we use and love proved key. In this case, too much really would be too much.
Slowly, through contemplation and revelation, the design of the kitchen-for-hand-washing took shape. A porcelain enameled double bowl sink* would be both beautiful and practical, providing a “dirty” sink on the left and a “clean” sink on the right. A 9” depth would hide dishes from general view, thus providing the holding place for dirty dishes I was looking for. The clean sink would function as the drain rack, with a pottery drain pot in one corner to hold the flatware. Both sinks would have a stainless steel rack fitted at the bottom, helpful for holding dishes and protecting the sinks. An unlacquered brass faucet with a side spray would bring another note of beauty and function. And for the washing itself, a streamlined line-up of simple tools and supplies: a natural sponge with a scrubbing side, a bottle brush, a pump dispenser with liquid dish soap, and Bar Keeper’s Friend.
Then, to bring it all together into a well functioning plan, habits were set in place. The person making the meal would also do the washing of prep dishes as she or he went, efficiently using cooking’s pockets of waiting time, and ending with double wins: a ready meal and a clean kitchen. After we’d eaten, each person would rinse, wash, and rinse his or her own place setting in the dirty sink, and put it in the clean sink to drain and dry (the last person would rinse the sink and empty the drain basket). No, we wouldn’t fill a sink with hot soapy water for washing, no we wouldn’t fill a separate sink with hot clear water for rinsing. It’d be simpler than that, and quicker.
Finally, with a wipe-down of the table, counters, and stove top, and a quick put-away of the clean, another meal would be wrapped, with nourishment, habits, and responsibility shared.
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The other night our eldest college guy, who’s visiting home, jumped up and washed all the remaining dinner dishes before my husband and I had even pushed our chairs away from the table. When we thanked him, he said this was nothing compared to the mountains of dishes he’d managed in the dish pit of a restaurant last year (certainly not his first choice, but a job he hadn’t blinked at taking, nonetheless, maybe because being a disher was already a skill?). He chuckled then, and said, also, it’s funny, when he’s here, he still automatically washes his dishes after every meal, despite having left home over three years ago.
*The original sink in our kitchen was stainless steel, but the use of it was the same.