Washing up or Dishwasher

I am very lucky in that I have a dishwasher and under normal circumstances it is OH's job to feed it and mine to empty it.  If he emptied it I would be looking around for stuff for weeks.  So this little regime seems to work for the best part. Funnily enough he is not keen on handwashing.  

The other problem is that I have a lot of vintage pieces of china and porcelain which I use on a regular basis.  These are definitely not dishwasher proof or indeed Geoffrey proof.  He will bung anything and everything into the dishwasher.  I therefore have to segregate out what he can happily deal with and then I set to with the hand washing up to make sure that  my porcelain lives to see another day.

The dishwasher is a boon, especially when I am working and in a hurry to do this or that.  It is an absolute boon for sterilising my jam jars or preserving jars.  That I really do appreciate it for.

Washing up by hand though has its own particular charm.  I used to have to do this of an evening after tea and at the weekends to earn my pocket money.  It was a discipline and I and my brother had chores to do within the household.  I also used to clean shoes for everyone as well.

Hand washing up though treats each individual piece with care and even with a dishwasher I still feel a need to do the handwashing up especially when it is a particularly older piece.  It helps protect the integrity of the item and lets it live to see another day.

For the handwashing up I have cotton tea towels which I can boil up to get them really clean.  They are only ever used the once and then placed into a bucket until I have a stash to put on the boil wash.  No point in putting on said wash if it is half empty have to get your money's worth.  A lot of people do not use a boil wash.  There are some things in the kitchen such as my dish cloths as well which need that kind of programme. The dishcloths are boiled either in the washing machine or on a pan on top of the cooker.  I re-use them until they are falling to pieces and because they are cotton they then go in the composter. I do use lower temperature washes as well, but the boil wash is important.  I am old fashioned I am afraid as I was bought up with carbolic soap, lots of washing soda and boiling water and plenty of elbow grease to get something clean.

As long as the washing up gets done one way or another, I am quite happy.  I see a need for both types of washing up in this household for practical reasons more than anything else.  Whilst the dishwasher is on I can usually get on with something else as well which is also a time saver.

Do you have a preference, hand washing or dishwasher or like me do you appreciate the need for both.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan 

x