The bloody dishes! For years I struggled with this hang-up about doing the dishes. They don't bring me joy. What a headache! Lying on the couch in a state of inertia, knowing that there were dishes to be done and not being able to. It got on top of me. I did usually do them, at least I tried. At some stage I stopped using soap, I felt that with a scourer it was unnecessary, and that it was cheaper and more environmentally friendly. My dishes were always smudged though. It took me ages to work out that soap was helpful in doing the dishes. It's cleaner too, I'm so messy that I have to clean the house every morning.
Almost every night I would bail on the dishes and plan to do them in the mornings. I guess washing the dishes really only takes about 10 minutes. Tea-towels are nice but basically I would leave them to drain. With the dishes you can easily apply the Pareto principle, where 80% of the outcome depends on 20% of the causes. The parable being that If the kitchen is done then most of your housework is done.
Zen monks do the dishes. It is a type of meditation; a discipline and focus. I guess it's stoic.
Usually I use running water to do the dishes. My X's mother did it that way, and being without a second sink it tends to be easier to wash thoroughly and gives them a good rinse. One day there were dishes piled up in the sink and I put my hands in the sink looking for something and I cut my finger on a kitchen knife. So yes, now I never leave the knife in the sink, I wipe it and put it away.
I considered getting a dishwasher but my kitchen wasn't designed to fit one. My friend though, had a benchtop dishwasher. I never really thought of buying one, assuming they weren't that great as they are small. But then, by chance I bought one.
My friend came over to help me connect the hoses and the tap hose didn't fit on. So we decided to go to Bunnings warehouse to get a part. But we got there and we couldn't find one. One of the staff tried to solve our problem but we had to go to another store as it wasn't in stock. So we get to Bunnings Alexandria at about 8pm, (They shut at 9 pm) And we've located the aisle but there are literally hundreds of these small parts available. However my friend is smart and thinks he's found it. So with the help of a shop assistant we test it against a tap and seems to be good. So we bring it home and voila the tap is connected.
I fell in love with the dishwasher. At first I thought it was a bit crap, small, and, there was still some debris on the dishes. But you just have to read the instructions and practice packing it and stuff. If you pack it efficiently, it means there are no more dishes left sitting on the bench or sink. But the best thing about it is that you don't have to do the dishes anymore. Hoorah, a burden has been lifted from my soul. The burden of dishwashing and ennui.
One day a few weeks later my downstairs neighbour knocked on the door telling me that there was water flooding into his kitchen window, that he thought it was the rain at first but that it must be something else. It turned out that whenever I ran the dishwasher it was flooding his apartment. So I called maintenance and they were very nice, very responsive and they sent the plumber out. He said it wasn't the dishwasher that there was no reason the dishwasher would do that, that it was the outside tap and that he'd tightened it and that there was no problem.
Alas, I ran the dishwasher and it happened again. So they sent the plumber out again and they decided it was the outside pipe. They climbed the wall, four stories high and put a new pipe in, I'm the madwoman who lives in the roof with the pigeons. I warned them about the pigeons. After it was fixed I asked my neighbour if I could do a test run and he got mad and said it isn't working, you can't keep doing this. By the time I talked him into allowing my test run we ran it, and my bad, it was still leaking! Every time I would run my dishwasher my neighbor's son would knock on the door and inform me the dishwasher is still leaking and I would say 'you are just kidding'. Only dishwashers draining into the sink wouldn't do that.
Finally six months down the track the plumber found that the pipe behind the tiles behind my sink was leaking. He had to break all the tiles and weld it back together. It took hours. It also accounted for a chronically leaking tap. So I sweet talked my neighbour into letting me run it and voila it worked! Relief, love Happiness!
A few days later I got a call from my neighbour And I picked up the phone in trepidation, but he just said It seems to all be fixed now! Hurrah! At last!
One day my friend visited me and he said your dishwasher is nice and quiet, and I said yes, the sound comforts me, it is the meditative dishwasher.
So for a year or so, the dishwasher has been a game-changer. It keeps my kitchen clean (more than before anyway, lol). It's just a relief and a joy to use it. (My brand of dishwasher is a Midea Benchtop Dishwasher).
Recently I lost the rinse-cap. The dishwasher still working. I had to buy a new one from the company. It was $18.00. The original one vanished into thin air!
Yesterday in the Black Friday sales I got two packs of 120 finish dishwashing tablets, one box for me, and, one for my friend. He didn't know it was a surprise. This morning he texted me saying he has subscribed to Finish on Amazon. So I will be keeping two boxes. It will last for months. I told him 'jinx, make a wish'.
So, if you can do the dishes by hand like a Zen monk then congratulations, but if you really can't get past it and it's draining your energy then I suggest you get yourself a dishwasher. Either in-built or benchtop. Wash the dishes, dry the dishes, turn the dishes over! La, the joy of dishes!
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