What is your (hand) dishwashing method?

[sunshinegal]

So it has come to my realization that I may not have all the know how when it comes to hand washing my dishes in the sink (Especially coming from a waste it all sort of child hood!).

So- what (if any) kind of soap do you use?

Do you use sponges or rags or what?

Do you run the water to rinse or have a basin (or second sink if possible) full of water?

What about baking soda, vinegar?

What else? What about drying? Do you towel dry or "air"dry in a drainer?

I am in the process of teaching the kids to wash as well and want to pass on good- nature friendly habits

Thanks in advance to all you wonderful mommas!

[cdmaze]

I try to use natural dish soap- I usually get trader joes soap...but right now we're using Dawn (sorry!)

I use a brush- put the soap on and scrub, rinse then air dry.

Not the most effective - I really miss my dishwasher.

I'm hoping someone has some better suggestions!

[~Nikki~]

We have a dishwasher that we use for big loads. Those happen usually twice a year. :P We've downsized the dishes we keep in the cupboards, so that there is one place setting per family member. The spare dishes are kept in a box in the pantry, and we pull them out the few times a year we have a big dinner. When we had them all in circulation, we'd end up using them ALL before bothering with the dishes. Bad bad habit! So this is why we downsized.

Anyway...dish washing system is as follows:

-We use Palmolive currently, I beleive. I'll be moving to a more natural soap now that we've started shopping at a place that sells it. But I want to use this up first.

-I use a cloth that's a strange material. It actually gets rock hard when it's dry, but is as soft as any other cloth when it's wet. We bought it when we moved to the apartment, because it can be easily rinsed and doesn't need to be washed as often as regular cloths. So it saves us from doing "dish cloth" loads of laundry.

-We have a single sink. I fill it about a quarter full with hot water, and a little soap. I wash the dishes right after dinner so that they don't have time to develop a crust. They're easy to wash. I lay a towel out and let them air dry. Sometimes we towel dry but usually we just leave them and put them away the next morning. I rinse as I wash, right in the sink with a little water. By the end of the dish washing session, the sink is about half full, due to the added rinse water.

[Teensy]

I now have a dishwasher, but in the days that I didn't I would rinse the dishes pretty clean and stack them besides the sink. I fill one sink with hot soapy water, clean out the other side, and lay a towel beside it to stack clean dishes on. The dirty dishes get washed in the hot, soapy sink. Then they are stack in the clean empty sink until it is almost full and I rinse them off and place on the towels. I repeat until all dishes are done. I wash glasses first, then plates, silverware, and pots and pans last. Then they get towel dried and put away.

I would buy a dozen or so white wash clothes and use them to wash the dishes. I would toss them into the laundry room after I was done with the dishes and wash with the next load of whites.

[wannabe]

Things that are nasty dirty (like baking dishes) sit full of water in the sink until the next load.

Then, using a sponge and a scourer, I scour out any big things soaking, until they're essentially clean, wash the sink, then put about 5cm of HOT water in the bottom with detergent. The cleanest things go first, so glasses first, then mugs, then bowls that have had dry things, cleaned pots, etc, etc on to knives and forks at the end. With each 'batch' of stuff I fill the sink with dishes, wash them all, then turn the tap on to run hot into the sink, rinse them and put them on the drying rack. Then turn off the tap and fill sink with dishes again, wash, rinse, repeat I often leave the forks soaking for a while so they are easier to clean.

I normally air dry, but have to hand dry ATM for toddler safety.

[Pinoikoi]

I don't often handwash anymore, but I used to.. I always figure that silverware is the germiest, since it goes in your mouth, so I try to let those soak in hot water as long as I can.. they go in the sink first and are the last things to come out...

I use a brush for MOST things, but I like that germs can be microwaved out of sponges.. dh usually uses kitchen rags. I wash them for him regularly..

I have ALWAYS airdried..

[sunshinegal]

Alrighty then- I'm not too far off.

I just tend to not notice just how much hot water I am using. Usually too much! In the winter, I find it hard not to use it for even rinsing some of the dishes: Hot water is soooo wonderful.

I have tended to use sponges, but it seems like most people don't. It has made me wonder, what sponges anyway? And I don't mean the sort in the ocean

Does anyone have a separate basin to dunk the dishes into to rinse off instead of running the water?

My mother thought that I shouldn't help with the dishes when I was growing up. She said I had plenty of time left in my life to do dishes. But, I sort of skipped dishwashing basics in school!!

Besides everyone seems to have their own method, but I am always open to improving mine!

Thanks