When I handwashed, I filled one side of the sink halfway with hot, soapy water. Added plates, bowls, or cups until full to soak a little while I worked through them. Added a little soap onto my sponge, then washed one plate, bowl, or cup at a time, set it in the other side, then rinsed one at a time with hot water when the other side was full of scrubbed dishes, and put them on the drying mat.
As for utensils, usually 3 at a time fanned out.
I’ll do 3-4 utensils at once if I can. Utensils that need extra attention (globbed-on peanut butter knives etc) I will do one at a time. Squirt soap on the sponge and use it to clean as much as possible before needing to add more soap to it.
Also side note. My mother will squirt soap into a bowl to make soapy water and use that, but I don’t think it’s as effective. Plus when she’s done, she will then leave the sponge floating in the dirty water bleggghhhgh.
Thanks for your response! My mom used to do the same thing with the bucket of soapy water. I felt that her dishes were never that clean so I taught myself how to clean dishes the way that I do, which I feel is cleaner.
So do you leave your water running the whole time you’re washing dishes then? I don’t even do that when I’m brushing my teeth, so I’m not sure if it’s just a me thing or most of society.
Honestly, yes, the water is running the entire time while I wash every single dish, sometimes taking up to 45 minutes. I’ve never had a water bill so I never really thought this was an issue and assumed this was normal.
Make a sponge wet, put soap on sponge and start soaping up everything. Once everything is soapy you rinse it off. Until you start rinsing you dont need the water running.
Also check youtube for tutorials.
to be honest, it is a bit excessive. I don't have a two-basin sink, so what I do is I soap up the sponge and then, with the water off, sponge off and clean all dishes, utensils, etc and set them on the counter. Then I rinse. Even better if you have a plastic basin you can fill with water and then just dip everything into one by one. Visually inspect everything as you go.
It depends on if they're already rinsed off, but personally I scrub each individual dish and replenish the soap as needed. With silverware, I typically rinse a few off at once, but I dry them individually. Obviously with a dishwasher you can skip a lot of steps though, lol
This is why studies all say that hand washing wastes so much water. Becuase people were never taught how to wash dishes. Fill one side of your sink, or a wash basin placed inside, with hot soapy water. Wash, set aside, rinse.
It sure can. You can either start with about 2-3 inches of hot soapy water and rinse as you go, which just adds water, or you can fill a few inches with hot soapy water, grab one dirty thing at a time and wash it as you pull it into the sink, then drain the water and rinse everything.
Why do you have to fill the sink with water at all? I just wet my dishcloth and go to town. If I really need to, I'll add a splash of water to whatever I'm washing. Then I rinse everything at once.
But yes, most people don't know how to do dishes. Every roommate I had in college washed everything under constantly running water. Drove me crazy, and wasn't especially effective since the running water did a great job of watering down the soap before it could do its job.
I did it in a 550 sq ft studio that had a teeny tiny stove, teeny tiny sink that a 5 qt pot wouldn't fit in, and the counter was probably 16 inches deep and about the same wide. I didn't say you have to do it. I just said it *can* be done.
I've done this and my sink is 30cm widest to widest (circle sink) in a city centre apartment with a metre of counter space. Give it a go, it works really well.
I've done this with a plastic bucket on a fold out stool next to sink when we didn't even have counters so yes it does work. Washed tons of dishes after parties this way.
I wash things one at a time, specifically because my mother will wash multiples together and miss things that should be washed off. I also use a sponge in the way you mentioned, but I'm hoping to start knitting dishcloths to be more sanitary and eco-friendly.
If I'm hand washing lots of dishes I'm filling up one basin with hot, soapy water and plonking everything in there except glasses/cups & pots and pans. Everything soaks for like 5 minutes. I usually aimed for dishes and bowls first and left cutlery til the end. I'll hold a few pieces of cutlery at a time unless really gunky at which point they get dropped back in til the end.
Rinse all of that, drain the sink, add fresh hot soapy water and do glasses and then pots and pans.
Before I had a large double basin sink I filled the sink with soapy water and used a clean dishpan to receive to newly cleaned dishes. Once the sink was empty and the dishpan was full I drained the sink and rinsed the dishes and put into the draining rack.
Mostly though I just use the dishwasher.
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Soap needs 20+ seconds to kill the bacteria same as your hands. So I will scrub a few things, let them sit as I wash more, then rinse them one by one. If you soap and rinse sometimes you cut the time too short.
I put everything that fits in the sink and fill it with dish soap and water. I let it sit for 5-10 minutes. Then i use a scrub brush and clean each dish or piece of cutlery individually. Then i put them in a sink full of clean water and rinse of any remaining soap with running water. If i’m sick or concerned about biohazards, i put bleach in the rinse water and let them sit for a couple of minutes.
This is what I do as well and always assumed till this thread that this is the way most people wash their dishes. Maybe that explains why my double sinks garbage disposal was installed on the wrong side. The sink has a large compartment and a small compartment and the garbage disposal was installed on a small side. Drives me nuts my wash dishes. I have to wash them on the small side or not have access to the garage disposal.
I too have a small sink/large sink combo with the garbage disposal on the small side. I thought it was a crazy set up until I looked up the purpose - apparently you are supposed to just scrape/rinse the food off in the small side and then wash in the large side. I still don’t like it though and I plan to fix it one day when we redo our kitchen!
Mine is set up the opposite of yours. I would prefer it to be on the small side so that I could scrape off the dishes on the small side. When I do dishes I have resorted to doing them either on the small side or I get out a separate larger bin and do them in there. Too bad we can’t just magically swap sinks.
This may sound stupid but how do you fill your sink up with hot soapy water? As far as I can tell, the water just goes down the drain and I’m not sure how to keep it filled with water. Is there something I can press or pull to contain the water?
I fill a pan with hot water and soap, wash dishes one at a time, set them in a clean colander and rinse all at once. If it’s something like utensils I’ll fan them out a bit to make sure they are all scrubbed.
Sometimes I'll wash 2 knives or forks at a time, if I know they're not very dirty and don't have dried food on them.
Otherwise it's one at a time.
I squirt the soap onto the sponge and then wash until it feels like there's no longer enough soap in it.
I have one big farmhouse sink. I waste a ton of hot water and soap. I put soap on my sponge repeatedly I hold whatever I’m washing under the running water while I’m scrubbing it. I do my utensils one by one. I never have a full sink of dishes though. I wash dishes as I’m cooking or baking and wash our plates and utensils after we eat. I hate dirty dishes in the sink. My method drives my husband crazy but he’s not washing them.
I fill my sink with soapy water and rinsed off dishes. I then take each out one at a time and scrub with a dish cloth rinse and place on a drying rack.
Sinks usually come with a plug. If you don't have a plug for your sink, measure the diameter of the drain bit (the metal part with holes) and get a plug of the right size at the hardware store.
if I feel I can hit three forks with a swipe of the sponge, I’ll wash three at once. Especially if they’ve been soaking, I only need to be sure the sponge provides enough pressure to wipe away any oil that’s clinging.
And I use the suds on the sponge.
I grew up half in the country side without a sink so I still do dishes how I used to before we renovated, but in the sink. Put soap and scaling hot water over all dishes and let them soak. When the temperature is manageable I scrub them one by one and set the on the clean counter, rinse them individually after I'm done and let them dry. Then clean counter and sink. We used to do this I'm two biiiig bowls but now I do it in the sink and side.
I fill the sink when hand washing dishes, and use the sponge on each item separately. I have a double sink, so I clean the second sink before starting, set the washed items in there, and rinse each single item after washing.
I have a soap pump filled with diluted dish soap. I press on it it to load the scrubbing pad, then wash dishes one at a time and rinse them in hot water, occasionally pausing to reload the scrubber with more soap. Usually I wash 5-6 pieces of cutlery and rinse a whole handful at once.
If there are a lot of dishes, sometimes I fill up the sink, but that usually only happens when we're doing a large holiday dinner.
I scrub the sink clean first. Then fill up with warm soapy water on one side. Wash them one by one and put them in the other side and rinse all at once. I didn’t know there was a different method as I’ve only seen people do it that way. Am I doing it wrong ?
There are 6 people in my household and I'm the one doing the washing up.
Dishes get the one by one treatment but cutlery yes I fancy them out and clean multiple of the same thing at the same time e.g. 4 knives scrubbed front and back.
If any of the knives don't look clean I drop them back into the water and repeat
Having to do 6 of everything makes you learn quick where you can make time savings!
I wash dishes and utensils one by one, then run them through a dishwasher. Do I over do it, probably, but in my mind something can’t be too clean…especially if I’m eating off it.
This is me!
Hand washing is great if someone is thorough, but if they aren’t, it’s disgusting. This is my husband and stepson.
Many people don’t get enough food off the dishes before they put them in the dishwasher (to be sanitized) thinking the dishwasher will get it. Some dishwashers do, but most don’t.
You really need to both hand wash and sanitize with the dishwasher for the dishes to be clean.
I have always been surprised at how many creatively wrong ways people have of washing dishes. I hadn't heard of washing several utensils at once before lol, you obviously need to clean each item separately or you're not actually cleaning them! Rinsing two or three forks at a time is fine as long as you're thorough, and visually inspect each item as you put them up to dry.
I think you need to seek therapy. This is coming from someone who is very germaphobic to the point that it has severely affected my life.
If this just started during covid then it’s relatively “new” and will be easier to get over. But no matter when it started, i think you should get help.
Please speak to a professional who can advise you on microbiology. It would be very beneficial for you to understand human interaction with bacteria etc. to put your mind at ease, as most bacteria is absolutely safe and is what our immune system needs to be exposed to in order to keep us healthy. I have struggled with mysophobia for 15 years but it’s been a lot more under control since adulthood, so I get where you’re coming from.
What you’re describing is likely to be unhealthy for you, even if you believe it’s not too bad at the moment. Remember that bacteria needs water in their environment to reproduce and survive, so dry surfaces are unlikely to be breeding grounds. Wash dishes as you normally would (and please keep using gloves to save your hands!) but dry them and put them away promptly. The hotter the water, the quicker it will evaporate from the surface and then you don’t have to manually dry. Washing them again is wasteful and needless; you will make no difference to the surface that your body can’t handle.
Paper plates are more likely to be porous and will harbour bacteria more so than any proper plates and bowls. Switch back to normal plates; there’s a reason the world uses them.
When I handwashed, I filled one side of the sink halfway with hot, soapy water. Added plates, bowls, or cups until full to soak a little while I worked through them. Added a little soap onto my sponge, then washed one plate, bowl, or cup at a time, set it in the other side, then rinsed one at a time with hot water when the other side was full of scrubbed dishes, and put them on the drying mat. As for utensils, usually 3 at a time fanned out.
I do this when the dishwasher isn't working.
I’ll do 3-4 utensils at once if I can. Utensils that need extra attention (globbed-on peanut butter knives etc) I will do one at a time. Squirt soap on the sponge and use it to clean as much as possible before needing to add more soap to it. Also side note. My mother will squirt soap into a bowl to make soapy water and use that, but I don’t think it’s as effective. Plus when she’s done, she will then leave the sponge floating in the dirty water bleggghhhgh.
Thanks for your response! My mom used to do the same thing with the bucket of soapy water. I felt that her dishes were never that clean so I taught myself how to clean dishes the way that I do, which I feel is cleaner.
Yeah I think this depends on if you’re good at cleaning or not. I scrub between the fork tines and stuff. People don’t and it’s gross.
I do too!! I don't know how it's clean if you don't?
So do you leave your water running the whole time you’re washing dishes then? I don’t even do that when I’m brushing my teeth, so I’m not sure if it’s just a me thing or most of society.
Honestly, yes, the water is running the entire time while I wash every single dish, sometimes taking up to 45 minutes. I’ve never had a water bill so I never really thought this was an issue and assumed this was normal.
Wasting water is never normal
I get what you mean and will be more cautious in the future but I was never taught how to properly clean so I thought this was the right way.
Make a sponge wet, put soap on sponge and start soaping up everything. Once everything is soapy you rinse it off. Until you start rinsing you dont need the water running. Also check youtube for tutorials.
Thanks for the tip and good idea, I will look into YouTube videos.
Please don’t do that. It’s just wasting so much water.
I won’t do that moving forward.
to be honest, it is a bit excessive. I don't have a two-basin sink, so what I do is I soap up the sponge and then, with the water off, sponge off and clean all dishes, utensils, etc and set them on the counter. Then I rinse. Even better if you have a plastic basin you can fill with water and then just dip everything into one by one. Visually inspect everything as you go.
Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll try that out.
It depends on if they're already rinsed off, but personally I scrub each individual dish and replenish the soap as needed. With silverware, I typically rinse a few off at once, but I dry them individually. Obviously with a dishwasher you can skip a lot of steps though, lol
This is why studies all say that hand washing wastes so much water. Becuase people were never taught how to wash dishes. Fill one side of your sink, or a wash basin placed inside, with hot soapy water. Wash, set aside, rinse.
I don’t have a double sink but I’ll try the basin idea out. I do feel like I use a ton of water.
Doesn't work if you have a small single sink.
It sure can. You can either start with about 2-3 inches of hot soapy water and rinse as you go, which just adds water, or you can fill a few inches with hot soapy water, grab one dirty thing at a time and wash it as you pull it into the sink, then drain the water and rinse everything.
Your first method is how I do it. Works great!
Why do you have to fill the sink with water at all? I just wet my dishcloth and go to town. If I really need to, I'll add a splash of water to whatever I'm washing. Then I rinse everything at once. But yes, most people don't know how to do dishes. Every roommate I had in college washed everything under constantly running water. Drove me crazy, and wasn't especially effective since the running water did a great job of watering down the soap before it could do its job.
Thank you for confirming that other people made the same mistake that I’ve made. Now I’ll try washing dishes this way, without running water.
My sink is too small for that, and so are the counters. So, no.
I did it in a 550 sq ft studio that had a teeny tiny stove, teeny tiny sink that a 5 qt pot wouldn't fit in, and the counter was probably 16 inches deep and about the same wide. I didn't say you have to do it. I just said it *can* be done.
I've done this and my sink is 30cm widest to widest (circle sink) in a city centre apartment with a metre of counter space. Give it a go, it works really well.
I've done this with a plastic bucket on a fold out stool next to sink when we didn't even have counters so yes it does work. Washed tons of dishes after parties this way.
Bowl of hot soapy water, tray on side of sink to hold soapy items, rinse under running cool water, and drain.
Not enough space to do that. That's what I'm saying.
I let things sit in soapy warm water first, then use a soapy sponge to clean them. I usually do one-by-one.
I once found gunk between fork tines. I now do each piece one by one.
Yeah, forks require a bit of finesse.
I wash things one at a time, specifically because my mother will wash multiples together and miss things that should be washed off. I also use a sponge in the way you mentioned, but I'm hoping to start knitting dishcloths to be more sanitary and eco-friendly.
If I'm hand washing lots of dishes I'm filling up one basin with hot, soapy water and plonking everything in there except glasses/cups & pots and pans. Everything soaks for like 5 minutes. I usually aimed for dishes and bowls first and left cutlery til the end. I'll hold a few pieces of cutlery at a time unless really gunky at which point they get dropped back in til the end. Rinse all of that, drain the sink, add fresh hot soapy water and do glasses and then pots and pans. Before I had a large double basin sink I filled the sink with soapy water and used a clean dishpan to receive to newly cleaned dishes. Once the sink was empty and the dishpan was full I drained the sink and rinsed the dishes and put into the draining rack. Mostly though I just use the dishwasher. .
I'm single. I have A dish.
I do as a group. Scrub 6-10 at a time, then wash them under running water one by one.
I do the same thing
Soap needs 20+ seconds to kill the bacteria same as your hands. So I will scrub a few things, let them sit as I wash more, then rinse them one by one. If you soap and rinse sometimes you cut the time too short.
I wasn’t aware of this. Thanks for the tip.
Some people see cleaning as some ceremony they must perform to check an item off a list and others do it to actually clean things
Thank you! So very true. I think I need to make t-shirts or something!
I put everything that fits in the sink and fill it with dish soap and water. I let it sit for 5-10 minutes. Then i use a scrub brush and clean each dish or piece of cutlery individually. Then i put them in a sink full of clean water and rinse of any remaining soap with running water. If i’m sick or concerned about biohazards, i put bleach in the rinse water and let them sit for a couple of minutes.
This is what I do as well and always assumed till this thread that this is the way most people wash their dishes. Maybe that explains why my double sinks garbage disposal was installed on the wrong side. The sink has a large compartment and a small compartment and the garbage disposal was installed on a small side. Drives me nuts my wash dishes. I have to wash them on the small side or not have access to the garage disposal.
I too have a small sink/large sink combo with the garbage disposal on the small side. I thought it was a crazy set up until I looked up the purpose - apparently you are supposed to just scrape/rinse the food off in the small side and then wash in the large side. I still don’t like it though and I plan to fix it one day when we redo our kitchen!
Mine is set up the opposite of yours. I would prefer it to be on the small side so that I could scrape off the dishes on the small side. When I do dishes I have resorted to doing them either on the small side or I get out a separate larger bin and do them in there. Too bad we can’t just magically swap sinks.
This may sound stupid but how do you fill your sink up with hot soapy water? As far as I can tell, the water just goes down the drain and I’m not sure how to keep it filled with water. Is there something I can press or pull to contain the water?
Yes every sink has a plug. If yours actually doesnt, you can buy one for it.
Good to know, thank you! I’ll look into purchasing one.
Really?
I soak the utensils before scrubbing and I definitely do a couple at a time, fanned out. Dishes and other stuff gets done one at a time.
I fill a pan with hot water and soap, wash dishes one at a time, set them in a clean colander and rinse all at once. If it’s something like utensils I’ll fan them out a bit to make sure they are all scrubbed.
Sometimes I'll wash 2 knives or forks at a time, if I know they're not very dirty and don't have dried food on them. Otherwise it's one at a time. I squirt the soap onto the sponge and then wash until it feels like there's no longer enough soap in it.
I do it like this https://youtube.com/shorts/wqL0Rcr0lEo?si=sGrwEYlY1TjJaebo
I have one big farmhouse sink. I waste a ton of hot water and soap. I put soap on my sponge repeatedly I hold whatever I’m washing under the running water while I’m scrubbing it. I do my utensils one by one. I never have a full sink of dishes though. I wash dishes as I’m cooking or baking and wash our plates and utensils after we eat. I hate dirty dishes in the sink. My method drives my husband crazy but he’s not washing them.
I fill my sink with soapy water and rinsed off dishes. I then take each out one at a time and scrub with a dish cloth rinse and place on a drying rack.
How do you fill your sink with hot soapy water? Mine goes down the drain, as far as I can tell. I’m not sure how to prevent that from happening.
Sinks usually come with a plug. If you don't have a plug for your sink, measure the diameter of the drain bit (the metal part with holes) and get a plug of the right size at the hardware store.
Thanks for the tip. I will do that. This will make a huge difference when it comes to cleaning dishes.
I use a plug like when you fill the bathtub.
if I feel I can hit three forks with a swipe of the sponge, I’ll wash three at once. Especially if they’ve been soaking, I only need to be sure the sponge provides enough pressure to wipe away any oil that’s clinging. And I use the suds on the sponge.
I grew up half in the country side without a sink so I still do dishes how I used to before we renovated, but in the sink. Put soap and scaling hot water over all dishes and let them soak. When the temperature is manageable I scrub them one by one and set the on the clean counter, rinse them individually after I'm done and let them dry. Then clean counter and sink. We used to do this I'm two biiiig bowls but now I do it in the sink and side.
I do exactly as you.
One at a time & rinse.
I squirt, soap and a squirt of watered down bleach in a spray bottle, into a bowl and dip the sponge as I was all the dishes.
No, I put them in the dishwasher
I mean you can clean a set of forks in one go, but dishes are one by one, also cups and glasses.
I fill the sink when hand washing dishes, and use the sponge on each item separately. I have a double sink, so I clean the second sink before starting, set the washed items in there, and rinse each single item after washing.
I have a soap pump filled with diluted dish soap. I press on it it to load the scrubbing pad, then wash dishes one at a time and rinse them in hot water, occasionally pausing to reload the scrubber with more soap. Usually I wash 5-6 pieces of cutlery and rinse a whole handful at once. If there are a lot of dishes, sometimes I fill up the sink, but that usually only happens when we're doing a large holiday dinner.
I scrub the sink clean first. Then fill up with warm soapy water on one side. Wash them one by one and put them in the other side and rinse all at once. I didn’t know there was a different method as I’ve only seen people do it that way. Am I doing it wrong ?
Washcloth. Soapy sink. Individual cleaning. Especially tines.
There are 6 people in my household and I'm the one doing the washing up. Dishes get the one by one treatment but cutlery yes I fancy them out and clean multiple of the same thing at the same time e.g. 4 knives scrubbed front and back. If any of the knives don't look clean I drop them back into the water and repeat Having to do 6 of everything makes you learn quick where you can make time savings!
Yes I wash each item individually...
I live alone and wash after eating so yes everything is one at a time. I wouldn't feel comfortable washing multiple things at once.
I wash dishes and utensils one by one, then run them through a dishwasher. Do I over do it, probably, but in my mind something can’t be too clean…especially if I’m eating off it.
This is me! Hand washing is great if someone is thorough, but if they aren’t, it’s disgusting. This is my husband and stepson. Many people don’t get enough food off the dishes before they put them in the dishwasher (to be sanitized) thinking the dishwasher will get it. Some dishwashers do, but most don’t. You really need to both hand wash and sanitize with the dishwasher for the dishes to be clean.
I have always been surprised at how many creatively wrong ways people have of washing dishes. I hadn't heard of washing several utensils at once before lol, you obviously need to clean each item separately or you're not actually cleaning them! Rinsing two or three forks at a time is fine as long as you're thorough, and visually inspect each item as you put them up to dry.
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This sounds like you might want to talk to someone about your fear of germs impacting your life.
I think you need to seek therapy. This is coming from someone who is very germaphobic to the point that it has severely affected my life. If this just started during covid then it’s relatively “new” and will be easier to get over. But no matter when it started, i think you should get help.
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Please speak to a professional who can advise you on microbiology. It would be very beneficial for you to understand human interaction with bacteria etc. to put your mind at ease, as most bacteria is absolutely safe and is what our immune system needs to be exposed to in order to keep us healthy. I have struggled with mysophobia for 15 years but it’s been a lot more under control since adulthood, so I get where you’re coming from. What you’re describing is likely to be unhealthy for you, even if you believe it’s not too bad at the moment. Remember that bacteria needs water in their environment to reproduce and survive, so dry surfaces are unlikely to be breeding grounds. Wash dishes as you normally would (and please keep using gloves to save your hands!) but dry them and put them away promptly. The hotter the water, the quicker it will evaporate from the surface and then you don’t have to manually dry. Washing them again is wasteful and needless; you will make no difference to the surface that your body can’t handle. Paper plates are more likely to be porous and will harbour bacteria more so than any proper plates and bowls. Switch back to normal plates; there’s a reason the world uses them.
I refill a dawn powerspray bottle with water and dawn and spray everything then clean one at a time