Help us settle a silly debate...

[Caecelia]

So DH and I have been....debating over a hair brained idea he has. We are both sick of the dishes that constantly pile up all the time. Between cooking from scratch most of the time and um,....poor time management, we constantly have a pile of dirty dishes on the counter. So here's DH's solution: get rid of all but two of all of our dishes. (And after much pleading, he dropped the added clause of just one pot and pan). He waxed poetic about how it freeing it will be to not have an excessive amount of dishes in our cupboard. (And for those wondering, no, we don't have many people over, but yes, we will keep our 'excessive' amounts of dishes--but just in storage :rolleyes)

Ok, so I think he's a little bit cray cray on this one. I will now have to handwash 'my' dish three times a day instead of loading the dishwasher once a day. I told him I would try this little experiment if he agrees to take over the cooking for the next week, to see why I'm so opposed to this. But...maybe he's got a good idea, and I'm just being the stubborn one? What do you think? :shifty

PS--He said to post this on my mom forum :giggle

[Radosny Matka]

Uhhh, no thanks. What do you do if you have company?

[mwwr]

I think it is a great idea. When I lived alone, I only used two dishes. I never had clutter. You might like it, and if you don't, you know where to find the dishes.

[GraemesMomma]

I think Elora does this. One set of dishes for each family member. They get washed immediately after each meal.

There is a simplicity about it that is very appealing.

[Heather Micaela]

doesn't work for us, kids found alternate things to eat with when the real things were dirty

Also what if you needed different plates for different things at the same meal? Sometimes I still don't like my food touching and such

[NeshamaMama]

We do that in times when I feel like we need to simplify. :tu. I really like it! We don't pack everything away though, I just only use 1 dish per person and stick it in the drying rack after meals so I use the same ones. Once we feel like we can handle it again we go back to doing dishes once a day.

Sent from my XT557 using Tapatalk 2

[Carini]

I think it sounds like a good idea. Maybe pack everything and store in a garage or basement and commit to trying it for a week or two?

[Niphredil]

That's what we did. We actually kept one per person per meal, but ya. All the dishes had to get done everyday. There was nothing to pile up. We got into the habit of doing it everyday, and now we have more than that, but lost the pile problem.

It really does help.

[Mother of Sons]

We do something similar. We each have 1 mug. Use it and wash it, use it and wash it. It really only takes seconds to hand wash a dish. We didn't get rid of all the plates and things but after every meal each person hand washes their dishes. That just leaves the pots and pans and serving things to wash. I try to always wash as I go along and that helps too.

[Sparrow]

I'd try it for a week or two. Once you get into the habit of washing your dishes after every single use then maybe you can wean yourself into having them all again.

That or get rid of them all and get paper plates.:duck

[silverlining]

We have teeny, tiny kitchen, so we don't keep a lot there. Basically, two of everything per person. We do have extras in boxes in the basement for when we have company, which is rare. I'm not sure I could go to one per person, but what we're doing now is working for us.

[Meli]

I really don't understand how this helps much. In our house the bulk of the washing is pots and pans, mixing bowls etc - the things you use for the actual cooking. Plates and bowls are super easy to wash once the sink (or dishwasher) is filled with the water for the hard stuff.

[PaperMomma]

You could always try it- pack the other dishes away, instead of actually getting rid of them. :shrug

[Starfish]

It won't hurt to try the one-dish idea and see. However, if you have a dishwasher, it seems like the pile-up would be mostly pots and pans anyway, right? So it might not make that much of a difference.

I tried the one-dish method...but I too used tupperware lids or ate out of the jar to avoid washing my dish. I'm spoilering my current solution. If you read it, please understand that I'm in a different life phase than you. I'm not a mother, not married, and I rent 1/9th of a huge house with eight other single young professionals.

We have two dishwashers. :bag :cool :bag We fill one up and then turn around and fill the other one while that one is running/waiting for the clean dishes to be emptied. I recommend this method to anyone who has the money/kitchen space to make it possible, although I do feel decadently spoiled when I think about it.

[Aerynne]

I think it would be worth a try. I agree about pots and pans being what are a pain to wash, though. I kind-of laugh when people suggest paper plates as a way to make life easier- they don't make disposable pots.

[ReadingMommy]

We didn't go that extreme, but we did pare down our dishes to a set of six correlle, plus a few additional plastic kid things. (Family of 4 here) Our goal was to make it hard to have a pile of dishes that wouldn't all fit into the dishwasher in one load, and we've pretty much achieved that. We cook so much from scratch that I often have to run at least two loads a day, but I *do* it because the fact that I have a load to run means I have almost no dishes/pots/pans left for the next meal. I have been keeping up with dishes for the most part since we pared down and I've been happy with it!

[Quiteria]

I think it'd be easier to just load the dishwasher after each meal, and set a time to unload it before the next meal piles up. And be willing to run it as soon as it's full.

[milkmommy]

doesn't work for me eaither. General eatting off of dishes aren't my issue I often use paper plates and clean the used dishes forks spoons ect after each use the issue is the prep stuff and reducing to like one pot or something flat out wont help. I do find getting the prep work done and cleaned in the moring helps a lot but reducing things too much causes way more stress.

[Sundance]

I haven't read all of the replies, I'll do that tomorrow.

But that's basically what we have done. There are 5 (soon to be 6) of us and we don't have a dishwasher. We cook from scratch, and I'm in the kitchen all.the.time.

The kids each have 1 plate, and DH and I have 4 between us (we have additional ones in a box in the basement that we do use for company). It helps a lot.

I have also started washing after every meal. I find that if I can stick with it, it takes less than 10 minutes to get the kitchen done, and it's much better!

[Andi]

Lol. That was my husband's plan too for our pile of dishes. I just ignored him and did the dishes. They are "his" chore, but he was just too busy to do them so I pitched in. It is easier to maintain than catch up...

[Domina]

I'm so rotten I'd just start eating takeout to avoid washing my dish. :shifty

[mystweaver]

We tried this. It failed. Epically. Low blood sugar + finding your only plates have dried food on them because your husband didn't do two freaking dishes all day + finding your only pot has burned food in it = cranky, cranky wife. :bag

On the plus side, the experiment got us in to marital counseling. :shifty

[marbles]

As for pots and pans, I did that for a while, just not on purpose. I didn't have a pile of dishes but they were always either dirty or being used. It was so frustrating! During a meal prep I would sometimes end up washing something three times! I recommend having few pots and pans, but enough to make your most complicated, messy meal with.

[Caecelia]

Well, I'm willing to try it. (And DH will be happy to know that he's in the majority here, it seems! :giggle)

But, yeah, I'm picturing this happening:
We tried this. It failed. Epically. Low blood sugar + finding your only plates have dried food on them because your husband didn't do two freaking dishes all day + finding your only pot has burned food in it = cranky, cranky wife. :bag

On the plus side, the experiment got us in to marital counseling. :shifty

:bag

And yeah...disposable pots would be great...

[Little Forest]

I don't think it is a great idea or will solve your problem. :no
Posted via Mobile Device

[abh5e8]

it did work for us. we started about a month ago (note dc#4 is currently 2 weeks old) and i was beyond tired of piles of dishes. i had no energy to keep up with them. so we went to 1 plate per person. it was wonderful, no more piles. i actually had the kids use their plastic divided trays (that we usually save for camping), so it meant only 1 dish per meal (vs the extra small bowels for dip or sauce or what not that they usually have).

op....i think you should try it! (but leave your dishes in the cabinet...just use the 1 each for a while and see how it goes.)

I also agree that the prep bowels and pans/pots are what pile up around here. but, since we moved a few months ago, i pretty much just use 1-2 pots for everything (mostly because we eat so much that the smaller pots are just too small) and i have 2 cast iron frying pans. this helps a lot too. i'd love to even retire the smaller cast iron pan, but i can't get the newer/bigger one seasoned well enough for fried eggs.

[peekaboomama]

We minimized, but not quite that far. I have 6 of each out, for the three of us: salad plates, dinner plates, bowl-dish things, and bowls. The rest are high up in the cabinet but still in the kitchen (we have cabinets all the way up to our 10' ceilings). We don't have a dishwasher. I'm in the process of minimizing my pots, too. I hate doing dishes, and I hate having the counter full, but I cook all.the.time. and want some flexibility.

[HadassahSukkot]

as much as we cook and bake... almost all our dishes are from pots/pans and plastic/glass storage-ware.

The kids get 1 plate for snack and for dinner. I might have 1, maybe 2 plates during the day. I just reuse or find some way to eat so that I don't dirty much before dinner. Even so, we run the dishwasher usually 2x per day, sometimes 3 due to all that I'm in the kitchen for. :shifty

We entertain a good bit when I'm not as unwell, so... we need dishes for more than 8 people in cups, plates, bowls and serving dishes. They don't really make disposable bowls here... so that complicates meals like chili or raclette.

[ruhama]

We can't do a lot from scratch here. But this is what we're wanting to do. It's working for cups so far. The idea is to pare down, force ourselves to wash more frequently (b/c it's a remembering thing for us, not avoidance), then slowly put dishes back in the cupboards AFTER we've established the habit we really want to establish of at LEAST rinsing dishes after a meal.

We have a dishwasher - which is great for bigger loads, but when we have 2 dishes to wash? Soap & scrubby - swish swish - rinse - done. :shrug3

Depends on your internal motivation and drive to change habits. Altering your environment can HELP change behavior but if no one wants to change deep down, ain't gonna happen.

[mommylove]

I think a better solution is to fill one side of the sink (or get a washtub if you have a single sink like me) and as you cook wash a dish/pot or 3 at a time so you never get stuff piled up to begin with. I don't have a dishwasher but when I wash as I go, after meal cleanup is a cinch. Since you have a dishwasher, it will be even easier.

[MomtoJGJ]

All my pots and pans except for my cast iron go in the dishwasher, so plates are a big deal (especially with 6 per meal)

So honestly for us paper plates really helps... It wouldn't help too much to go down to one plate per person because that just makes the other stuff pile up :shrug but using paper plates makes it nice and easy to put the pots and pans in the dishwasher with the cups and bottles and bowls. We run the dishwasher once a day now instead of at least twice.

But that's typically in seasons...

And for casserole type things, you could use aluminum pans :think They are disposable.

[Caecelia]

So yesterday was our first full day of the one dish method. We got away with one not completely full dishwasher load at the end of the day. :jawdrop We're going to try to just reuse the plates/cuos/silverware throughout the day and keep them in the drying rack, and then run a load at the end of the day. I have to admit, so far, I am seeing how much better this method is shaping up to be. :jawdrop That means...my DH was...right. (And not his type 4 wife!) maybe I'll wait to tell him that for Father's Day. :giggle :shifty


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[allisonintx]

I think it's great. We've done that when things are out of control, before. It was really a blessing.

[librarianjojo]

:rockon This is how us minimalists get you. mwahaha... :heart Hope this keeps going well for y'all!

[jandjmommy]

Time yourself doing the dishes after each meal. You'll probably be done in about 5 minutes, including pots and pans. Work on the time management issue you mentioned and you won't need to worry about how many dishes are in the cabinets. We cook everything from scratch 3 meals a day and no microwave so we use almost all of our dishes each day. No way am I leaving them in the sink to pile up all day or handwashing several times a day--that's why I have a dishwasher!

[Sundance]

Time yourself doing the dishes after each meal. You'll probably be done in about 5 minutes, including pots and pans. Work on the time management issue you mentioned and you won't need to worry about how many dishes are in the cabinets. We cook everything from scratch 3 meals a day and no microwave so we use almost all of our dishes each day. No way am I leaving them in the sink to pile up all day or handwashing several times a day--that's why I have a dishwasher!

Same here, except we don't have a dishwasher. I *do* time myself doing dishes after every meal (well, not directly...we set the timer for DD1 for something else, and I "race" her with the timer), and it usually takes me 7 minutes or less to wash the dishes and wipe the counters and table, a little more after supper, usually.

[Caecelia]

I have timed myself loading and unloading the dishwasher--about 5 min if I stay on task (ie, toddler isn't 'helping'). In the past, I've averaged 2 dishwasher loads a day, so really even though it's running twice a day, it's not that much time. But now, I'm consistently doing just one load a day still. I think what I've gained the most from this change is the perception of having less work to do, since I don't see a near constant pile of dishes next to the sink.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk