How: Rolling with It Part 2:
Dishwashing
AKA, first world, early twenty-first century problems. Not the most exciting post, I know but it can’t always be vide-greniers and beach trips around here. And I do think this is helpful. Never fear, I have a host of more interesting topics in the hopper.
Dish Washing
The truth is, I have always found dish washing meditative: getting everything clean and then wiping the counters down and organizing the kitchen for the next day. That’s why I’m the dishwasher and John is the cook. But I’m not going to lie, it’s a lot more meditative when you’re loading a dishwasher and especially, using a garbage disposal. Dish washing has proved to be more of a challenge than the lack of a dryer, because of all the tiny food remains you have to clean up and transfer to the trash (no point in a composter when we can’t maintain it when we’re away). Yuck. Yuck, yuck, yuck.
Basically, in this regard, I just have to suck it up. After I scrape dishes into the trash, I still rinse/wipe smaller particles off them with a paper towel that then goes in the trash, and then soak them in super hot soapy water before I wash and rinse. If there’s a lot of dishes, I recruit John to dry for a bit because our dish rack is not that big. And then, on the recommendation of a few different internet sites, I use a silicone sink stopper/sieve to keep the rest from stopping up the drain because those little food particles don’t cling to it the same way they do to metal. They fall right in the trash.
Speaking of the drain, I also want to keep it clear and odor-free so I do a boiling water/vinegar rinse a few times a week. Sometimes this means just pouring some vinegar down right before I’m going to strain a pot of pasta into the colander over it or remembering to pour the leftover hot water from the electric kettle down the drain.
During the day, we try not to let the dishes pile up. One of us does the breakfast and lunch dishes so that the kitchen is pretty clear for dinner.
Finally, for smaller tasks; a couple dishes or a glass here or there, we avail ourselves of this very French version of the US sponge/detergent wand:
They were running a marathon of the tv series A French Village, Sunday night and I caught a glimpse of one of my favorite characters, the brave, beautiful, Marie Germain, using the very same thing in the 1940’s. Good company.