QUESTION: dishwasher

If you only have enough dirty dishes to fill about a third of the dishwasher, do you put them in the dishwasher or leave them out? If in, do you run it a whole cycle, do a quick rinse, or not doing any of it?

I tend to drag my feet on putting away the clean dishes. So assuming the dishwasher is actually empty, I would load them and let it sit. If they are super nasty, I might run the rinse and hold.

we tend to leave them out. i like deciding how to load based on everything that has to be loaded. (in other words, big items first, stick the little stuff in between the big things.)

We put them in as they get used until it is full. Then we run it. Assuming we’ve taken out the clean dishes first. Sometimes the sink gets full before that happens.

Husband made a deal with me. If I load the dishwasher, he’ll unload it. For some reason, I hate putting dishes away.

Yeah, me too. If I have to hide them (company coming), then I have to rearrange everything when I have a load.

More or less the same deal here.

I always loaded as soon as I had time, because I hate a sink or counter full of dirty dishes. But I always try to rinse them, anyway, since dirty dishes are bad enough, dirty dishes with dried on food are nasty.

I grew up without a dishwasher, so dirty dishes are not allowed to remain in the sink.

My habit is wasteful perhaps, but I/we actually wash them lightly and then put them in the dishwasher. When it’s near full I run it to give them a good hot, thorough cleaning.

The honor of taking them out goes to the next person with something dirty to put in.

you made a deal with poofguy?

Yep. We get home and the dishes are done.

I was wondering where he went yesterday.

I handwash things that I use often - wine glasses, knives, etc. I put things in the dishwasher that I won’t need for a while - until I’m ready to run it.

I rent a room in house with a family. The family uses the dishwasher as a storage cabinet for stuff not used often, so it’s never run. All dishes are washed by hand. We never let the sink nor counters get full of dirty dishes. When I lived alone I was in the habit of washing by hand because I never used many dishes. It would have taken me a year to fill a dishwasher.

We rinse the big chunks off the plates & pans and store them in the dishwasher until it’s full enough to run.

I have 3 sons and even though the oldest is away at school, we almost always have a full dishwasher every night. On those days when there’s a small load, if it’s half full I will run it on quick wash. Less than half full and it waits for the next day’s dishes.

So you only have two wine glasses?