My dad told me I was washing dishes wrong for 25 years, then he spent 5 minutes showing me the right way and I saved 3 hours that month

Turns out filling the sink with hot soapy water instead of scrubbing each dish under running water was the one move I was missing, has anyone else had a parent's stupid tiny tip completely change a daily chore?

3 comments

3 Comments

claire_young7623d ago

Ok but you're still wasting water here lol. Filling the sink uses a set amount of water, but keeping the tap running while you scrub each dish uses way more. Your dad had the right idea about the hot soapy water though. The real trick is to fill one side of the sink with soapy water for washing, then the other side with clean rinse water. That way you're not constantly running the tap to rinse off soap. Your dad probably meant well but he missed the full efficiency hack by a mile.

davidkim23d ago

Wait, you're actually saying filling BOTH sides of the sink is MORE efficient than just using one? That's wild to me because I feel like that doubles the water usage right off the bat. I always just fill one side with soapy water and rinse under a slow trickle from the faucet, which feels way less wasteful than having two full basins sitting there.

mianelson17d ago

Claire's spot on about the double sink setup, that's actually the part that saves the most time for me. I fill the wash side with hot water and a good squirt of soap, then the rinse side with just hot water-no soap. The thing that really sealed it for me was when I started throwing a splash of vinegar in the rinse water, it gets rid of any leftover soap film and makes glasses come out totally streak-free. Just gotta be careful not to use it on aluminum stuff or it'll turn weird.