Experiment #2: We Need Batches! (Day 10: Dishes)

There is nothing I loathe more than doing the dishes by hand. It was always my designated chore when I was a kid. At best, I can slap on a pair of headphones and dance while I scrub. (I like to listen to old-school industrial, dubstep, and silly alt-hip-hop. Music is just about the only thing that keeps me motivated.) At worst, well...it can be a scary, angry affair. With every scrub, I think about how much time I am wasting, when there is a dishwasher sitting right next to me. My roommate refuses to fix it, and doesn't actually know if it's even broken. She gets paranoid about hearing a dripping sound in the basement, but will neither replace the machine or have anyone come to service it. It is a glorified drying rack. Now, I know that I am a horrible person--bah--but I admit to sneaking an automated load of dishes from time to time, when I know that she will be gone long enough. ...and you know what? It is liberating, every time.

There are times, though, when I simply have to bite the bullet and do the dirty work--and fit in as many awful idioms as possible. It's nice to have an empty sink, and it makes sense to me to wash dishes immediately after their use. Sometimes, though, this isn't possible, and batching can help to solve the problem.

Tips and Tricks

1. Rinse your dishes off as soon as you are done with them. It helps to loosen food particles and saves time on scrubbing, later.
   
2. Soak dishes when necessary. I find that soaking them while I am at work allows me to wash them quickly, when I get home. You can also soak them overnight, but I would recommend reserving some time in the morning to wash any overnight dishes, if possible.
   
3. Be sure that your sponges, brushes, detergent, etc. are up to the task. Don't try to wash dishes with a sponge that is crumbling in your hands. Stock up on supplies ahead of time, on grocery day.
   
4. If you are going to batch cook, don't drive yourself crazy by attempting to batch clean at the same time. Wash the dishes that you can wash, while you are waiting for your food to cook, and only if you have no other cooking-related tasks to complete (i.e. chopping vegetables, prepping other dishes, etc.) Anything else can wait until the next day, when you don't have to cook dinner. If you are batch-cooking on a weekend, and you have no problems filling an entire Sunday with cooking and cleaning (a.k.a. having no life), then have at it. Do both in one day and save yourself the trouble, later in the week.
   
5. Plan to do dishes every couple of days, to avoid both burnout and overflow. If you have a large family that requires more frequent dish-washing habits, delegate! Share this chore so that each family member has to wash the dishes on a given day/s.
   
6. If you have the resources, get a washing machine. It saves on water, energy, time, and aggravation.
   

My Rules My roommate is not particularly keen on communal living. We eat basically the same foods, but she isn't interested in sharing. In two years, I think that we have eaten the same dinner five times or less. Shared chores are also mythical, around here, so it can be frustrating, feeling like I am cleaning for two in common areas...i.e., I pay rent to be the maid. It is far too easy to rebel against these feelings, but this rebellion can be both beneficial and detrimental. Regardless of our mutually exclusive habits, things need to get done, and we need to do them.

1. I will only do my own dishes. This can be difficult to track, but I'm not steadfast with this rule. I refuse to count forks, but I also won't waste my time on someone else's dishes, unless they are willing to share labor on a regular basis.
   
2. I don't expect anyone else to do my dishes, either.
   
3. Given the increase in cooking, I probably need to schedule a batch of dishes every other day, or so. In the future, I can probably space this out to every three days without any trouble.
   
4. There will be dancing, and I will not apologize for it.
   
5. When I move, I will have a place with a dishwasher, if it kills me.