WOW Wednesday

It's that day of the week again... WOW Wednesday... where I give a little pearl of "common knowledge" that may not be common.

Washing Dishes

Yes, everyone knows how to wash dishes. Very few wash the way I do, judging from the strange looks I get from visitors.

I learned how to wash dishes at the lake. We frequently had lots of people at the lake, and there's no electricity, and thus no dishwasher. No one person wanted (or deserved) to be shackled to the sink washing dishes. Thus, everyone took turns. If you were tall enough to reach the sink (possibly with the aid of a stool), you were old enough to wash dishes. No one was too old. One person washed, one dried and put away. Anyone not volunteering often enough was told when it was their turn. I quickly learned that it was a good idea to volunteer at lunch time... not as messy as breakfast (which involved porridge), and not nearly as many dishes as dinner. But this is beside the point.

This is how I was taught to wash dishes.

Treat the dishes like an assembly line. Start by rinsing all the dishes (best done when food still soft), and ordering them by dirtyness, with the cleanest dishes closest to the sink. Fill the sink with hot soapy water (as hot as you can stand to have your hands in), and fill a basin with hotter water (hot enough that you can only stick your hand in briefly). Place the basin on a bar stool beside you, on the same side as the drain rack. The drain rack, of course, directs the excess drip water back into the sink.

Start washing with the cleanest dishes, and work your way to the dirtiest. This way your water stays as clean as possible for later dishes. Partially fill the sink with the first batch of dishes, so that some can soak while you work on others. Never put a bunch of sharp knives in the dishwater... you can cut yourself on the unseen blades. Instead, dunk them individually, keeping ahold of the handle.

Once you wash a dish (using a washcloth), put the dish in the hot water basin to rinse the soap off. From the hot water basin, the clean dishes are transferred to the drip rack. (Around here, this is where I stop... dishes need to thoroughly air dry around here: any remaining dampness not caught by the tea towel will cause mildew in my cupboards.) To dry the dishes, use a tea towel whose only function is to dry clean dishes... you don't want to get those clean dishes dirty!

My mom taught me that it was very important to get all the soap residue off. She claimed it was poisonous. I'm not sure if it actually is, or if that's just one of the things moms say. (She also told me wallpaper paste was poisonous.) I'm pretty trusting, and take her at her word. The dishes end up clean and sparkly this way, if nothing else.

I was good and did my dishes tonight. I was also lazy, and ate junk food for dinner. That's a problem I have... I get hungry before I clean my dishes to cook. (Unlike at the lake, I only do dishes here when I run out.)