Off the Urban Grid

How to Efficiently Wash Dishes by Hand

Washing your dishes by hand might seem like a horrible chore you want to avoid. However, your dishwasher could very well be sucking up well over the necessary amount of electricity and water if you don’t have an efficient one. If you want to start washing your dishes by hand so you don’t have to rely on your dishwasher, follow the tips below.

• Add hot water and soap to those greasy pots and pans. Let these soak separately from your other dishes, because you don’t want to wash your almost clean dishes in oily, grimy water.
• Stack your dirty dishes outside of the sink, because the goal is to use as little water as possible.
• Place your cutlery in the sink and add hot water and soap. Clean all of them first and then rinse them off at one time. Then place them in a dish drainer to dry. Drying them with towels can actually be less sanitary.
• Put your stack of dirty dishes into the sink next. Wash all of these with a soapy dish rag and rinse them all off and place them in the dish drainer as well.
• Now you can wash your glasses and put these out to dry.
• Last but not least are the pots and pans. These should be easy to clean by now since they have been soaking.

If you have pots and pans that have food crusted or burned onto them, add water and baking soda to the problem then boil the water. You can also do this with glass baking dishes, except you will want to put them in the oven to boil the water.

Washing dishes is an unpleasant task, but once you perfect your hand washing technique, it will become just another quick routine. Oh, don’t forget your rubber gloves so your hands don’t get chapped from all of that hard work.

Tags: efficient dish washing, green dish washing, washing dishes, washing dishes by hand