Do you run your dishwasher every night? - Page 3

[accountclosed3]

to encourage children to use the same dishes over and over, one mom i know went to one of those 'paint your own' pottery classes with her kids, had them paint their own mug, bowl, and small plate--and made a set for herself and husband. during the day, they use only their dishes, and for dinner, they use 'family dishes.'

this decreased the overuse of clean dishes.

[greenmansions]

We run our dw every night. It is a super-efficient one that uses very little water, and we don't have to prerinse our dishes for them to come clean. It uses less water to run it than it would take to rinse everything so it wouldn't be smelly if left in there another day. We also put in all our pots and pans from cooking dinner (also unrinsed), so it's rarely not full when run. Sometimes we run it in "top solo" mode, where only the top rack is washed; then we cram everything into that rack.

I too find that stuff piles up in the kitchen if I can't start out the day with an empty dw to start filling.

Sorta OT, but when DS was about 18 months old he went through that 'loving to play in the dw' phase. We kept all the day's dishes on the counter til he went to bed, then loaded the dw and ran it. What a pain that was! I hated having the sink and counter full of dirty dishes.

[chefpaige1]

I run mine 2-3 times a day! I wish I had 2 dishwashers! My poor children are constantly emptying the dishwasher. We cook alot, and don't eat out too much. Anyway, I would wash a not full dishwasher if it ever were. They get much cleaner when the dishwasher isn't stuffed full.

[Em T]

Hi, I'm new here. If your dishwasher is not quite full you can always add in soap dishes, stove burner pans & odds & ends like that to get some other chores done painlessly & not waste the empty space.

[nikirj]

Originally Posted by Em T

Hi, I'm new here. If your dishwasher is not quite full you can always add in soap dishes, stove burner pans & odds & ends like that to get some other chores done painlessly & not waste the empty space.

It NEVER occurred to me that you could put stove burner pans in there! Holy cow, my dirty stove burner pans thank you.

[Wabi Sabi]

We run ours at least once a day, oftentimes more. It just gets full so quickly- I'm one of those people that can dirty four mixing bowls making toast.

If I need to run the dishwasher to make room for the next meal's dishes but there is still a little room left in it I can almost always find something else to stick in there: the tray from ds's high chair, the dog's food and water bowls, the fruit bowl that sits on the kitchen table, the tea kettle that normally lives on the stove, the carafe to the coffee maker, a vase, the burners to your electic stove, sometimes even a plastic toy that is grimy, etc. Although they don't need daily washing all of those can benefit from an occasional good, hot washing.

[springbabes]

I'm pretty obsessive about making sure the dishwasher is full before I turn it on. Even so, I run the dishwasher at least twice daily. I'm with chefpaige--I wish I had 2 dishwashers, esp. when all the kids are out of school. Usually by the time it gets washed and unloaded, there's enough dirty dishes to fill again. I'm seriously surprised that people can go several days without running their dishwashers. Do you not cook?

[greenmansions]

Originally Posted by nikirj

It NEVER occurred to me that you could put stove burner pans in there! Holy cow, my dirty stove burner pans thank you.

the other thing that can go in is the metal filter from your kitchen hood/fan unit

[bu's mama]

Originally Posted by Em T

Hi, I'm new here. If your dishwasher is not quite full you can always add in soap dishes, stove burner pans & odds & ends like that to get some other chores done painlessly & not waste the empty space.

That's what I do also...plus the dog bowls, microwave dish, etc. since I can't stand to run it half-full. Mine gets washed every day or every other day but I load the dishes right in it. I can't stand dirty dishes in the sink or on the counter. And it's always at night so I can wake up to a clean kitchen. I'll empty it while the coffee's brewing.

[Pinkdiva]

We don't have one in this house: So, we handwash after every meal, we plan on getting one next summer, but I don't really think I'll use it, I've gotten used to handwashing again.

[Leilalu]

ideally, I need to run it once a day. But what really happens.......

I try to be good, but every month or two I fall off the wagon and it takes me awhile to get back on, like a week or so. Dishes pile up, I procrastinate, blah blah.

My ideal, what I usually try to have happen is this: rinse everything off quickly after use, put in dishwasher. before dinner, if dishwasher was run, take clean stuff out, so dh can load it.
He has been helping clear off the table at night for awhile now So if I'm smart, I will do this more often.

I have way too many dishes to go a day in between without running it.

[Adamsmama]

I've just recenlty begun running ours every day or every other day (depending on when it is full). Half of our sink collects dirty dishes, mid morning I unload all the dishes and load all the dirty dishes. There are always (just about) dishes in our sink to be loaded, so I'm running the dishwasher usually once a day.

[CookClanMama]

We only run ours when full, which is at least once a day! We *do* have five kids. I run mine at night after supper & unload in the AM so that we can load throughout the day. It saves my sanity because it keeps my counters & sink relatively uncluttered.