Simple Ways to Keep Dishes Clean Every Day

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Dishes. Without fail, they have to get done all the time and if we don’t get them done on a daily basis, we have so much to catch up on. And let’s be honest, it’s the last thing we want to do when we’re tired and have no energy left.

Most of us have busy schedules too. Things like work and commutes and activities for the kids. We are drowning in all that we have to do and feel like there isn’t enough time left to tackle anything else.

But, I realized something about dishes that really changed the way I view them. Yes, they are still demanding but they don’t have to feel draining. You see, whichever way you wash your dishes, there is a way to make them easier and more manageable. And it doesn’t matter if you’re washing dishes with a dishwasher or washing them by hand. Keep reading on how best to manage both ways.

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Unloading the Dishwasher

How do you feel when the dishwasher needs to be emptied? Are you eager to get it done or do you look at it and cringe that there’s something else that needs to get done?

I used to cringe at the thought of emptying it. Thinking I had other things I could be doing and it was such a drag to empty it.

Then I thought, how long does it take me to empty it? So I set the timer to see.

Keep in mind, there are four people in my family. I stay home during the day and we eat all 3 meals at home (my husband and kids pack their lunches every day). We rarely eat out and we run our dishwasher daily. And it’s full every time we run it. I won’t run it if it’s not.

So after I timed myself, I looked at the timer and realized it took me under 5 minutes – 4 minutes and 48 seconds to be exact. Then I thought, if it takes me under 5 minutes, why have I dreaded the thought of doing it for so long

Now, when I have to think about doing it, I tell myself it will only take about 5 minutes. And I also tell myself that I can do anything for 5 minutes. It’s amazing when we tell our minds something positive, we don’t mind it as much.

Have you ever timed yourself emptying your dishwasher? You should, I think you’ll be surprised.

Loading the Dishwasher

You can also try timing yourself when loading your dishwasher. This should be a quick process but I think you’ll surprise yourself once you see how little time it takes to get your dirty dishes into the dishwasher.

Another trick I do is tell myself I’ll do any one minute tasks I see. So if a couple of dishes are in the sink that I can quickly rinse and load into my dishwasher, I’ll do it because it’ll take me under a minute.

Hand Washing

Some of us have to or want to wash our dishes by hand. And I’ll tell you that my mother-in-law swears it’s quicker to hand wash dishes than to put them in the dishwasher and have to unload it later.

Here’s a trick that I do when I need to hand wash something. Now, I have a dishwasher but there are things that can’t go in the dishwasher and I also like to hand wash my pots and pans. So, I fill my sink up with hot, soapy water and I wash my dishes as I’m cooking dinner. I also set dishes in there to soak while I’m cooking dinner. This gives me less time to clean up when dinner is over.

Another trick I learned from a reader is if you hand wash everything, tell yourself you’ll wash a certain amount of dishes and then you’re done. So if you tell yourself you’ll wash 25 dishes and once all 25 are clean, you’re done. And you could still have dishes in the sink but you can stop if you want to since you washed those 25 dishes. But most times, you’ll wash those few extra dishes since you know it won’t take long and your hands are already soapy and wet.

I’ve tried this method and I tell myself I’ll wash 18 dishes (4.5 dishes per person) and most times I don’t have anything left but if I do, I don’t mind finishing them since there’s only a couple left in my sink. And I love a clean sink! But it’s in telling myself that I only have to wash 18 that puts me in the mood to wash them.

Shifting our mindset

If we can shift our mindset to think it’s only going to take a few minutes to unload the dishwasher or that we only have to wash 18 dishes and then we’re done, we will be more inclined to do them.

Most times, we don’t want to do something because we know it will take up time.

Change your mindset and I promise you these tasks won’t feel difficult to do. You won’t feel so overwhelmed when it’s time to do the dishes. You’ll just get them done and move on to something else. And the longer you do this you’ll start getting into a routine. And once it’s a routine, it will be second nature to wash the dishes. You’ll have developed a habit.

Final Thoughts

We’ll never get away from doing dishes so we might as well make the best of them. Having a better attitude toward our chores helps us to do them without too much hesitation. Try it and you’ll see for yourself. Don’t make doing the dishes hard on you.

Knowing that these tasks don’t take a lot of time will help shift your mindset. And that will help you get this demanding chore done every day.

What chore brings you the most stress?

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