Mundane Monday
Okay, bad title. But I couldn’t think of something better to title it, it being something that you have to do to make sure that the family clock is ticking smoothly (or internal clock, if you so prefer).
Today (Mondays), I’ll be focusing on the little things that can make a happy home. And guys, remember this phrase: Happy Wife, Happy Life. Memorize it. Write it down. Tattoo it. Just do it.
The task I chose for this opening topic is rather simplistic, but unless you have an unlimited amount of funds, careless about the environment in all aspects, have a housekeeper who does it for you, or you have piles of these and it’s a filthy, disgusting mess, this task is quite the important one. Dishes.
Dishes suck. Worst part about it, even if you have a dishwasher, they still suck. Why? Because until they invent a dishwasher that can individually scrub ever individual dish/cup/cheese knife, there will always be SOMETHING there. Whether it is soapy residue, leftovers that still got leftover from the wash, or just flat out didn’t clean it good enough.
What’s the point, then, of having a dishwasher where if you don’t pre-wash all the dishes, they’re going to come out just barely LESS DIRTY? And if you pre-wash, you might as well just go ahead and wash them all anyway because you’ve wasted time and energy and water already and they’re almost done! Isn’t it FrUsTrAtInG?!?
Aside from always using paper/plastic kitchenware (unless you have endless pockets of money, and then I’ll send you my “charitable funds” donation PO Box), or a maid that can do it for you, or a mountain of dishes that never get clean, you’ve experienced this problem. Oh, except for those guys who won’t go near dishes. And even then, dudes, you still have to put up with your wife complaining (or mom) about your lack of motivation to help out around the house. It’s better just to learn young and keep it up as the brownie points are a major bonus for a chore like this one. (Especially when your wife has a short gag reflex and notices that you forgot to dump out your extra milk from your cereal bowl 5 days ago!)
How do we solve this problem? Aside from “the dishes are done, man” route, I found an article (READ) that is pretty good. It’s from 1912, and no, the dishwasher was not utilized back then, unless you mean Rover or Spot.
The most important thing is to make sure you don’t just “smear” the bacteria around on the dishes. Also, wash off the dishes, since soapy dishes are an eyesore and can leave that “special sauce” flavor in a chilled margarita on the rocks. I prefer using the dishwasher for plates and bowls (after I give them a good one over with water and/or the soap scrubber), but I wash my cups by hand still as I can’t stand to see soap residue when I take a big drink out of my glass cup.
Anyone else have any suggestions?
