Dish one’s for you... 30.10.08
WHEN I was growing up,
washing the dishes was a chore that I’d try to avoid if
at all possible. After all in a large family like mine
there were often enough plates and cups and glasses and
stuff to keep a small team of people in work for half a
day, which is why I think I love my dishwasher so much.
I was tempted to throw in the line here ‘and I’ve been
married to her for fifteen years now,’ but figured that
if I did there might be no column next week due to maybe
broken fingers and/or my eating my dinner through a
straw. So I didn’t add that line in, you didn’t read it
above up there and we’ll just move on now...okay!
Dishwashers are class. I mean they take all that hassle
out of having plates and cups and stuff stacked up in
the sink or beside the sink, or wherever you put the
stuff you need to wash if you don’t have a dishwasher. |
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Personally, I am a stack
them beside the sink man. If you’re not going to wash
them right away, put them there until you are ready to
wash them, put them in the sink when you wash them and
take them out. Then, dry them and put them away.
It seems pretty logical to me, because while the dirty
dishes are stacked beside the sink until such time as
they are going to be washed, the sink itself is free and
available for use.
But I know there are many people who like to put their
dirty dishes in the sink and just leave them there,
probably in the hope that some other fool will come
along and wash the darn things.
But they don’t. Usually people just use the sink over
and over again, until it is half filled with water and
dirty dishes and bits of floating food going mouldy.
Which is why dishwashers are class. Because you can just
open the door, throw the dirty dishes in and that whole
unsightly mess is outta sight.
Well that’s what I’d like to think, but apparently the
‘what to do with the dishes before they are washed
thing,’ exists for the dishwasher too.
For one thing there are people who rinse their dishes
before they put them in the dishwasher. In fact there
are some people who darn near wash them completely that
it defeats the purpose of actually having a dishwasher
at all. According to the manual for my dishwasher it is
not necessary to rinse stuff before you put it in. The
dishwasher has a setting for this called pre-wash which
adequately takes care of this little chore. But nope,
some people insist that the stuff still needs to see the
sink before it can get into the dishwasher.
Which kinda makes me wonder if the dishwasher had
feelings...would they be hurt?
I mean come on now, by doing that are you not kinda
suggesting that ole dishwasher, you know the guy you
paid hundreds of euro for, is not really up to the job.
I can just imagine the late night conversations with the
other appliances, umm like the toaster.
“Well, do they put the bread under the grill for a few
minutes before they use you do they? Nope, but all I do
is heat the dishes up to, like a really high
temperature, and drive the price of their electricity
bill up. It’s so depressing.”
Rinsed or not apparently there are right and wrong ways
to put the stuff into the dishwasher as well.
In fact it would seem that those little wire rack
thingys inside the dishwasher all have specific purposes
and that’s the only way the dishwasher should be loaded.
What I’m saying I guess is that my way, if there is a
space at all for one more thing, like even a mug
squeezed in on between the plates on their rack, is
apparently just wrong.
It’s wrong because that’s not way that the manual says
things are to be loaded, but I dunno, as long as the
dishes come back out clean surely it doesn’t matter what
way they go in? And then of course there are the pots
and pans. |
When I was younger I used
to wash and dry the dishes as quickly as I could, put
them away and try to conveniently forget about the pots
and pans. Then, when they were spotted afterwards I’d
say I did all the rest and somebody else would have to
do them.
But there are people who think they shouldn’t go in the
dishwasher.
Why the hell not? I mean if I’m going to have a machine
help me wash the dishes I want it to wash the horrible
greasy slimy things that I hate washing.
Even if it does mean I have to wedge them on to the
plate rack at the bottom... |
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A DROP OF
PORTER is
the weekly
column of
Inishowen
Independent
editor,
Liam Porter. |
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