Handwashing

It's been a cleaning day chez nous. Four loads of laundry, showering, vacuuming, Swiffer'ing, and dishwashing.

As for the last, for the past several years I have handwashed the dishes. In that time, instances from a "LOST" episode of Jack Shepard (the doctor with the obsessive fix-it personality) to now-President Obama have cited handwashing the dishes as "therapeutic." I can say without hesitation that such a statement comes from someone who doesn't handwash very often. Many times I have the feeling that I am forever washing dishes.

Handwashing really fills the handwasher with a deep of the value of minimizing the number of plates, bowls, pans, etc. that are used in cooking. When I see cooking shows on television, it astounds me how callously the host has bowls for each separate ingredient, and liberally transfers the foods from pot to pan to serving dish to plates to.... It's a sure sign that they have staff who will take care of their messes for them. And then, I seem like a dish Nazi whenever people, like my brother and his family, are visiting. Using a dinner plate for dessert is a thing that doesn't seem like a big deal to me, but it apparently offsets the sensibilities of some who refuse to see the simple rationality that food all goes to the same place anyway, separate dish or no.

In some sense, it isn't much of a choice to handwash. Our kitchen is relatively small and sacrificing what little cabinet space we have to a dishwasher isn't very feasible. But in another sense, it is very much a choice. I've seen the results of a lot of dishwashers --- from the cheaper models to the fancy brands --- and, as always, the theory of a dishwasher varies greatly from the reality. After pre-soaking/rinsing dirty wares, and then having to handwash them anyway because of residual food, a dishwasher doesn't seem like that much of a time-saver to me. Add in the large volume of hot water use; the necessaries of buying soaps, rinse agents and drying liquids; the cost of the dishwasher itself, plus maintenance. For under $10, you can get a good dish rack at Wal-Mart, some 3M sponges with a layer of steel wool for scouring, and a bottle of dish soap that will last 6 months.

As for methodology, I am a stacker, which requires a fairly strict order of attack. I start with plates and bowls, on opposite sides of the rack, each going from smallest at the edge to largest toward the middle. Then, move on the cups and mugs, carefully placed around the perimeter of the metal rack and leaning against the edge of the plastic drainboard. Move on to the big-ticket items such as mixing bowls, 9"X13" baking dishes, metal stove top pans, or cookie sheets. Penultimately, the silverware is sorted into large utensils, sharp items and the generic forks and spoons. As they're washed, I drop each into the washbowl and when finished, round them all up into a bunch, rinse and put into the silverware section of the dish rack. Finally comes the plastic containers and Tupperware.

In a certain way, there is some satisfaction gained from taking the chaos of coffee rings in the mugs, the remnants of pesto sauce in the pan and potato starches on the cutting board and creating order. But it will all have to be done again tomorrow.