Category — DYDT

Updated at the Bottom

The utensils-up-utensils-down question that Blanche threw out there is so interesting because I’ve never considered putting the utensils with the tines of the fork facing down and had no clue that others did this.  Also, the reasons why people don’t leave their utensils facing up mostly don’t apply in our situation.  (1) Our basket is shallow enough that I never touch the top of the utensil as I grab out the bouquet of forks — I can grab the handle.  (2) There are no dogs or small children who come anywhere near the dishwasher that could impale their hand or tongue on the tip of a butter knife.  (3) I wash all of our utensils before I place them in the dishwasher, therefore, I also don’t get my hands dirty dropping in dirty forks, heads up.

Yes, I wash all of our dishes before I wash all of our dishes (and Blanche told me to tell all of you that because it goes right along with my bleach obsession.)

I hand wash pots and pans and place those in the drying rack.  And I hand wash sharp knives.  But everything else gets hand washed and then placed in the dishwasher.  There is not one drop of food left on the plates before they enter the dishwasher itself, hence why our dishwasher is also spotless inside.  I also sometimes bleach the inside of the dishwasher, but that is a different story.

I know that most of you are reading this and thinking, “that is incredibly wasteful.”  But there will also be some of you reading this who say, “I do the exact same thing.”  And you people understand why I inexplicably wash the dishes before I wash the dishes.  That to not do so feels all kinds of wrong.

There must be more people out there who wash their dishes before they wash their dishes.

I should add that our dishwasher is a “dairy” dishwasher, meaning, we have two separate sets of dishes, utensils, pots and pans: one for meat and one for dairy.  And we only use the dishwasher for dairy dishes and utensils.  All meat dishes and utensils get washed by hand and then dried.  We eat “dairy” meals — meaning any meal sans meat — more often than meat meals.

Our kitchen is very very complicated.  But it totally makes sense inside my head.  And there are ribbons on the cabinets to let visitors know if things are “meat” or “dairy.”

So… am I the only pre-dishwasher dish washer?

(And feel free to ask any kosher kitchen questions since I know you probably have them since I just revealed that I have at least two of everything in my kitchen.)

Update:

This is getting more and more interesting.  We don’t run our dishwasher every day.  We run it every third day or so.  Perhaps that also lends itself to the fact that we wash the dishes before we wash the dishes.  If not, that food would be sitting on the plates in the dishwasher for three days.

I also will use the same water glass throughout the day.  So I don’t take a new glass with each meal — only one that lasts the whole day.

We end up with a lot of visiting kids in the house, hence how we can fill the machine in three days.  But if no one comes over our house during the week, it could take us even longer to fill the dishwasher.

Updated at the Bottom

There is only one correct way to load our dishwasher.  I say this because I just explained it to Josh, and he looked at me as if I were crazy.  But I’m not crazy.  I’m right.  And every morning, I need to fix the order of utensils and plates in the dishwasher because he loads it wrong.

This makes perfect sense.

Bowls and cups go on top because one of the Three Stooges had a bowl haircut on his head.  See, the top of the dishwasher.  You may slide two bowls into the back two slots on the lower level, but you only use those slots once the upper slots are filled.

On the bottom level go the plates and utensils and large items that you don’t want to hand wash for some reason.  There are two lines of slots to hold the plates.  All the small plates go in one line and all the large plates form the other.  BUT which size plate gets the left side or the right side depends on which type of plate there are more of in the sink when we begin loading the dishwasher.  If we have a lot of small plates, they get the left side, and vice versa.  The left side needs to hold the larger amount of plates first so the ones on the right side don’t roll to the left side when you accidentally close the dishwasher too quickly.

There are six slots for utensils.  On the far left should be the small spoons and on the far right should be the large spoons.  The spoons are always on the ends because spoons are rounded, and it is easy to remember where they go because rounded corners are a safety feature on certain counters.  One in from the left should be the small forks, and one in from the right should be the large forks because they prick food and prickly personalities sometimes need to be held back from the edge lest they lash out at people.  In the center left-side slot are category-less utensils: serving spoons, the random old spoons I use to stir my coffee, chopsticks, etc.  In the center right-side slot are the knives.  Only butter knives.  Sharp knives do not go in the dishwasher.  Ever.

I like having an order because I can unload things faster if all the same items are clumped together.

It wasn’t that Josh was incredulous over the idea that certain items should go in certain parts of the dishwasher, but he couldn’t see how he could remember my order based on those descriptions.  And I was like, how. could. you. not?  Seriously, round spoons, soft round edges — it makes sense.  Bowls on top because bowl haircuts belong on your head which is at the top of your body: easy to remember.

I am so lucky that he loves me and keeps me.

Do you have an order to your dishwasher for easy unloading or are items inserted wherever you find space?

Update:

Blanche additionally asks another important question: do you load your utensils with the handles up or down?

I hadn’t even considered another way: we load utensils down.  So the head of the utensil is sticking up and the handle is poking down.  Like a bouquet of utensils.  Is there any other way?

Updated at the Bottom

Now that we’ve established whether we’re bath-takers or shower-ers, I’d like to discuss the order of things which applies whether you’re soaking in a tub or standing in a spray of water.  I don’t literally want the order of things, especially if it’s going to turn into one of those uncomfortable moments like that Friends episode with this exchange:

Joey: Hey, why can’t we use the same toothbrush, but we can use the same soap?
Chandler: Because soap is soap. It’s self-cleaning.
Joey: All right, well next time you take a shower, think about the last thing I wash and the first thing you wash.

I guess I am really wondering whether you have an order to things, or whether you soap yourself willy-nilly.  I have to keep the same shower routine every single day, down to washing body parts in the same order.  If I go out of order, I feel off the rest of the day.  I have to kick off the shower by washing my face before I wash my hair.  My right leg is washed before my left leg; my left arm washed before my right one.  See, there is a deep, unchanging order to my shower, and if I alter anything, I feel out of sorts for hours.

So do you keep to the same order when you bathe or shower?  Or do you wash yourself willy-nilly?

Update:

I’m sort of amazed by two things: (1) how many people go from top to bottom.  I go in a very set order, but that order jumps around my body.  (2) How many people shave daily.  I’m willing to bet that if I did this, it wouldn’t feel like such an arduous task.  But it literally never occurred to me to shave my legs daily until now.

I really love these these discussions.

A few weeks ago, Ana asked, “what’s next?  Showering vs. bathing?”

Uh… yes.

I am a shower-er.  No baths for me, pretty much ever.  I like to get clean quickly.  Those showers that have stone seats built in the corner, encouraging the user to luxuriously relax in the warm spray of water… I use those ledges to hold shampoo bottles.

I’m a fan of hot springs like Ein Gedi, but other than something like that, I don’t enjoy… soaking.  I don’t enjoy sitting in a tub of water.

I do have a dream shower, even if I don’t have a dream house.  I want a shower with a window in it.  I wrote about it a while back in the post about the vomiting clown picture:

My friend, A, and I made a reservation to stay in a pensione in Rome for two weeks while we did research. After we dragged our suitcases up six flights of stairs, we learned that the woman who owned the pensione had decided to do some renovations that week. “You’ll stay in my apartment,” she told us, giving us the key to her personal home.

Instead of a small room in a boarding house, we now had an apartment in Trastevere, a much nicer section of Rome, complete with a washer and dryer, several bedrooms, and–my favourite part of all–a shower with a window in it. I’ve always said that it is my dream to live in a house that had a window in the shower. Those who have never been in a shower like this usually respond, “it sounds creepy.” But those who have showered in one know the saying, “once you’ve had the window cracked, you can never go back.”

I still dream about that shower and the little red, circular window.

So, do you prefer showering or bathing?

I don’t have my ears pierced.  The reaction that statement usually receives makes me feel as if I am the only 30-something on the planet who has never had a hole in her earlobe.  A few times someone has been talking to me, and they pause from what they’re saying to squint at my earlobes and ask apropos of nothing, “do you not have your ears pierced?”  Why, no, I don’t.

On numerous occasions, I have received earrings as a gift, which makes for a very embarrassing situation when the person hands me the wrapped box, gazing at my ears perhaps to see what I’m wearing in the moment, and then realizes in horror that they’ve gotten me the most useless present ever.

I’m not a fan of bracelets.  I can obviously wear them, but I prefer not to.  I don’t like anything around my wrist.  For a long time, I wore a watch on my right wrist because my mother got it for me and I liked to look down at it and think of my mother.  The watch broke last year, and I decided that I didn’t want to replace it.

But necklaces and rings?  I wear those every day.

For the last few months, I’ve worn the typewriter key necklace Josh bought me just because.

On my left hand, I always wear my engagement ring and wedding band.  On my right hand, I wear another ring — one that I switch from time to time.  I’m currently wearing “mischief.”

Though I take off all my rings in order to write.  I don’t like to type wearing rings.

What jewelry do you wear daily?  What jewelry do you not like (or can’t) wear?

Dedicating this question to Persnickety Chickadee.