Dishes!!! The never ending task!!!

Have you ever stood at your sink full of dirty dishes and thought to yourself, "this is a task that I will have to do for the rest of my life...."?  I dream of becoming a millionaire and hiring maids to wash my dishes for me but reality is I'll be my own maid for the rest of my life and I'm okay with that.  I do get a sense of satisfaction when I've cleaned the kitchen and walk away leaving the counters wiped clean and the floor swept.

I don't have a dish washer and I have been on a mission to figure out the most efficient way to wash my dishes.  I know this seems like a lame mission and I'm sure some of you are thinking, "wow Jill needs to get a life."  Fact is dishes are part of my life and I do have a lot going on and I don't like spending a lot of time washing dishes.  I rarely use disposable dishes, except on the weekends we have the children.  I try to have the children use the same plastic cup per day.  We go through glasses like crazy.  Although I find on those weekends all the glasses are still used and a bunch of plastic cups are too.  I have come up with an order of washing dishes that ensures organization, cleanliness, and speed.  I thought I'd share my system with you.  I know you guys are busy too and might benefit from applying my dish washing system to your cleaning routine.

   The Dish Washing System!!!

Fill a kitchen sink with hot soapy water, add all silverware and plates first.  Then add bowls and random things like Tupperware; lay your glasses in last.  While your sink is filling with water wash your mixing bowls and pots and pans separately, get them out of the way; dry them and put them away.  Now you're ready to tackle the sink full of dishes.  Wash all glasses first, rinse them and put them on your dry mat or rack whatever you use.  Next wash random bowls and Tupperware and then plates.  Rinse plates first and line them up in the dish rack then rinse the random bowls and Tupperware.  I have found that stacking your plates first and then stacking bowls and random dishes around the plates and on top of each other allows for better stacking ability with limited dish breakage.  Last, wash and rinse your silverware, lay them on your drying mat and in any random hole throughout your drying rack.  Rinse out your sinks, wash with comet or Ajax, rinse again, ring out the sponge and wash cloth, hang wash cloth and towels to dry and you're done! 


I hope one of you will benefit from my dish washing system.  Knowing that I might have helped you save at least five minutes of your day makes me happy and my mission is complete.  I'm off to put my dishes away and start dinner!

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