A pile of dishes in the sink is every tired person’s nightmare. Whether they be crusted on with food, stained, or slimy – it can be a task that is difficult to tackle.
Method of cleaning your dishes no longer working for you? Check out some of these nifty hacks and tricks to kick your dirty dishes to the curb (figuratively of course!)
Washing By Hand
- Don’t wait! Try your best to tackle the dishes right after your meal or snack. This way the food doesn’t dry on the plate making cleaning that much harder and longer! If you can’t get to them right away – fill a basin with water and let them hang out in the basin.
- Make them soapy!. To save water, make the soap work harder for you. Soap everything up then rinse with low water pressure. I prefer dishwashing soaps with minimal or no scent, like the Ecover or the BioKlean. This saves on water and soap. I also find things get cleaner because the soap has a minute or two to work before it gets rinsed off.
- Go from big to small! Start with the larger dishes and then work your way to the small ones. The reason behind this is that if you are washing by hand and using a drying rack, you want to put all the bigger items on the rack first. That way when you work your way to the smaller ones they are easier to place!
- Enlist the help of your family! Whether there are many of you or just you and your partner – never feel like you have to deal with any cleaning on your own. Make cleaning and drying the dishes a fun game or offer some kind of incentive (a happy mom, perhaps?) that will motivate them into helping.
Dish Washer
I found this awesome info-graphic that does a great job in explaining how to best pack your dishwasher.
Credit: www.thecleaningauthority.com
When it comes to the cleaning solution, I use tablets in my dishwasher. They come in plastic bags. As of now, I haven’t found a good liquid that really cleans and is eco-friendly. I do recycle the plastic from the tablets, though! Mostly we break them in half as we have found we don’t need the whole tablet. I also put them in the base of the dishwasher as I find this makes them clean better.
Just like with my laundry machine, I also use vinegar to clean my dishwasher every few weeks. The vinegar combats the smell and especially with the hard water. I just dump two cups in, and run it empty on the shortest cycle. My machine does not smell like vinegar but the vinegar does leave my machine nice and clean!
Found these tips helpful? Maybe you have a few that I didn’t mention above? Let me know in the comments!
Happy organizing! And good luck with those dishes 🙂