Author Topic: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes  (Read 30026 times)

Inaya

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #50 on: March 08, 2016, 02:35:47 PM »
Geezer millennial here. Also a recovering cereal addict. I don't eat cereal because I'll probably eat half the box in one sitting. That said, I HATE dishes (no dishwasher), but rinsing a bowl and spoon and tossing them in the drying rack is pretty much the easiest thing ever. My morning oatmeal is WAY more involved in terms of effort and dishes.

JenniOG2004

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #51 on: March 08, 2016, 02:54:42 PM »
My kids like old fashioned oatmeal in real bowls so I not only have to wash a pot, I have to wash two bowls and I swear, that stuff is like glue! Seriously though, I can't believe the argument against cold cereal is that it is too labor intensive. 

When I became an adult, I was amazed to find many families only use paper plates, etc.  I just never even realized that was an option.  I couldn't deal with that much garbage.

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #52 on: March 08, 2016, 03:54:46 PM »
I think a lot of these millennial-shaming articles don't really grasp the reality for a lot of folks under 30.  We have three adults and a dog (earning combined ~400K) in our tiny apartment, paying roughly 4500 monthly. For a lot of kids in cities (where it makes the most sense to chase money to pay off your massive loans), air conditioning, ceiling fans, dishwashers, and laundry are all pipe dreams.  Obviously everyone makes their own choices about trade-off, etc, but it's striking how many people have responded with some version of "just put it in the dishwasher, DUH!" It's a bit out of touch for millennials and lower-income folks, generally, especially in urban areas.

What part of 3 people earning a combined income of 400K is low income?


onlykelsey

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #53 on: March 08, 2016, 04:02:24 PM »
That's sort of the point.  When we moved in together we had student loan debt in excess of that, and we pay that much for a eleven-foot wide, two-bedroom place in an expensive city.

But, sorry, I didn't mean to conflate high-earning, huge student loan-having millennials with general low-income population, except to say that "put it in the dishwasher" is not applicable advice for either.

StarBright

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #54 on: March 08, 2016, 04:33:42 PM »
I think a lot of these millennial-shaming articles don't really grasp the reality for a lot of folks under 30.  We have three adults and a dog (earning combined ~400K) in our tiny apartment, paying roughly 4500 monthly. For a lot of kids in cities (where it makes the most sense to chase money to pay off your massive loans), air conditioning, ceiling fans, dishwashers, and laundry are all pipe dreams.  Obviously everyone makes their own choices about trade-off, etc, but it's striking how many people have responded with some version of "just put it in the dishwasher, DUH!" It's a bit out of touch for millennials and lower-income folks, generally, especially in urban areas.

onlykelsey- this is a great point about urban areas! I'm a granny millennial but definitely spent the ages 24-29 in apartments exactly like you describe. Cooking was such a pain because we didn't even have room to dry the dishes, let alone have a dishwasher. And in the summers we just ate meals at work ALL THE TIME just to spend more time in air conditioning.

Fishindude

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #55 on: March 09, 2016, 06:33:06 AM »
Can't believe such a fuss over doing a few dishes?
This chore can't take more than a few minutes out of your day.


I'm a red panda

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #56 on: March 09, 2016, 07:34:26 AM »
Can't believe such a fuss over doing a few dishes?
This chore can't take more than a few minutes out of your day.

Isn't this true of most chores though? It's when you have to do all of them that chores become a huge hassle.

Zikoris

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #57 on: March 09, 2016, 10:24:22 AM »
Can't believe such a fuss over doing a few dishes?
This chore can't take more than a few minutes out of your day.

I know, right? My boyfriend is exceptionally slow at dishes and it still only takes him maybe 20-25 minutes a day tops, and that's with the massive amount I produce from cooking and baking everything we eat.

RetiredAt63

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #58 on: March 09, 2016, 12:11:37 PM »
Just a tangent - I read once and then discussed with a microbiologist colleague - the dish towel is the dirtiest part of doing dishes.  So letting dishes air dry in a dishwasher is sanitary.  Getting a dish-rack (obviously setting it up so it drains into the sink) and just putting clean wet dishes into it is sanitary.  Drying a bunch of dishes with a dish towel is less sanitary, and takes more time.  So for those with few dishes (one or two people, or meals with few dishes) just washing and leaving them to dry in the dish-rack is fast and efficient.
Comment from my Scouter days - the biggest cause of upset tummies in campers is eating off poorly rinsed dishes (it's more work to heat more rinse water over the cook fire, so people tend to let the rinse water get too soapy).  So hot water and a bit of dish detergent for cleaning, but definitely a good rinse in hot water to get the detergent off.  I did it in a tiny apartment a few years ago, you can wash dishes quite easily in a one-basin kitchen sink.  And the dollar store has lots of inexpensive dish basins if needed.  I actually washed the dishes in a basin, rinsed in the sink, and drained in the dish-rack.

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #59 on: March 09, 2016, 12:33:26 PM »
Getting a dish-rack (obviously setting it up so it drains into the sink) and just putting clean wet dishes into it is sanitary. 

Before I had a house with a dishwasher I installed cheap wire shelf over my sink. I would wash dishes and put them on the wire shelf to drain dry. No need to put them away when they were dry, they were already on their shelf. Fast and easy.

RetiredAt63

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #60 on: March 09, 2016, 02:32:30 PM »
I was in a rental, couldn't do that.  But for a house, w hat a great idea.

Getting a dish-rack (obviously setting it up so it drains into the sink) and just putting clean wet dishes into it is sanitary. 

Before I had a house with a dishwasher I installed cheap wire shelf over my sink. I would wash dishes and put them on the wire shelf to drain dry. No need to put them away when they were dry, they were already on their shelf. Fast and easy.

MrsPete

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #61 on: March 10, 2016, 06:44:44 PM »
According to my friends circle, dishes are a pretty serious problem. I know multiple people who are paying double or triple our rent because they ABSOLUTELY MUST have a dishwasher

Yup, I absolutely must have a dishwasher because I despise washing dishes by hand. 
And dishwasher pods are expensive, not to mention un-green.
This is a reasonable complaint.  I've never bought those pods, but I'm starting to have trouble finding the plain crystal-type detergent (which is less expensive in the first place, AND you can use only half of the recommended amount and get good results). 

I make my own homemade laundry detergent and love the quality and the price (it's like paying sale price and getting a premium product), but I have not yet found a dishwasher detergent recipe I like. 

Perhaps - like this millennial - we reject cereal because it's annoyingly loaded with sugar and unhealthy, and actually spend significantly more time each morning making a healthy breakfast of eggs and not-instant oatmeal!
Yep, this is why I don't buy cereal.  Compared to a breakfast of an egg or a bowl of steel-cut oats, it's a bad deal for both cost AND healthfulness. 

merula

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #62 on: March 11, 2016, 07:17:45 AM »
Millennial here, Between my daughter and I, takes us about 2 weeks to go through 2 boxes of cereal and a gallon of milk. Wife doesnt eat breakfast usually. My box costs $5(quaker oats granola), and the kid's is generally $3.50. A gallon of milk is $2.69 from the local pharmacy. So $10-13 for 2 weeks, or roughly a dollar a day... or 50 cents for each of us. Thats expensive?! Pay attention to the portion size!

$0.50/person isn't objectively expensive, but when it's double the cost of homemade granola, toast on homemade bread, etc, it's relevant. If I preferred the taste of boxed cereal, I'd probably say it's worth it, but since I don't, I'm rejecting boxed cereal on both cost and taste grounds.

babysnowbyrd

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #63 on: March 14, 2016, 01:59:19 AM »
I know someone whose large family actually *does* use paper plates.  They ran the numbers, and decided that the extra expense was not as high as what you'd expect, and for them it's actually worth it.

As for cereal being inconvenient? Damn. Milk/Cereal is about the EASIEST DAMN THING to clean out of a bowl, as long as you WASH IT RIGHT AFTER and don't let it sit in the sink all day while the milk dries up and cements the leftover flakes to the side of the bowl. Takes maybe 18 seconds to wash, rinse, dry, put away... less if you just rinse and put in dishwasher. I love to eat cereal fortified with a big scoop or two of rolled oats. Adds a tiny bit of texture, increases nutritional value a ton.

Ha ha ha ha!  I reuse my cup all the time, and when my MIL is visiting...where's my cup?  She keeps washing it.


I just have a sink and I find that most things I eat are probably fine with just a rinse. I have a sponge that I put a drop of detergent on, give it a quick swish and put it in the rack. Cereal IS one of the easiest things to clean up after.

But on cups...yeah. When I lived with my family, I'd always leave cups out (especially water-I mean, I keep drinking water throughout the day!) but they'd disappear because someone would put them in the sink. That person would invariably get mad at me for going through 6 cups a day and not washing them. Ummm...

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #64 on: March 14, 2016, 12:37:29 PM »

Agree. "Convenience" is always measured against the benefit for me. Really any type of inconvenience, even if minor, isn't really worth it for cereal IMO because it's basically sugar and simple carbs. I eat non-instant oats for breakfast a lot, and find the cost-benefit analysis favors that breakfast. It's harder to clean up (top of bowl oats have cemented to the side before I finish eating the bottom) and cook (boiling water, adding honey, nuts, and dried fruit). But it's significantly tastier, more nutritious, and cheaper than cereal, so the inconvenience is worth it.
Millennial here, Between my daughter and I, takes us about 2 weeks to go through 2 boxes of cereal and a gallon of milk. Wife doesnt eat breakfast usually. My box costs $5(quaker oats granola), and the kid's is generally $3.50. A gallon of milk is $2.69 from the local pharmacy. So $10-13 for 2 weeks, or roughly a dollar a day... or 50 cents for each of us. Thats expensive?! Pay attention to the portion size!

Well it's expensive per calorie/nutrient. I think that's what people mean. Personally I find eating cereal completely useless. I might as well skip breakfast. Not that I'm knocking it for you if it works for you.

If I have a bowl of processed cereal for breakfast I'm hungry again an hour later. I find it just as convenient to cook a bowl of rolled oats in the microwave with some almond milk and frozen fruit. Takes about 30 seconds to put everything in a bowl and 3 minutes to cook in the microwave (during which I can be doing something else). Lots of protein and other nutrients plus heart healthy fiber. Works out to about $1.40/day and keeps me satisfied until lunch.

oh, and I put the bowl and spoon in the dishwasher when I'm done

Yes, I'm in the oatmeal club as well. I make a canister of my own mix on the weekend with chia seeds, flax seeds, walnuts, and raisins, then throw in a pat of butter for extra amazingness.

But I do also sacrifice for convenience by using instant oats. I'd rather use non-instant but being able to just pour boiling water from the kettle to the bowl rather than also dirtying a pot is not worth it when I don't have a dishwasher.

Ooh, another convenience trick I learned is poached scrambled eggs. http://food52.com/recipes/17328-daniel-patterson-s-poached-scrambled-eggs  I don't bother with draining the eggs in the first step. While the eggs are cooking you quick rinse out the bowl you stirred them in. Now you have scrambled eggs without the hard to clean frying pan!

faithless

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #65 on: March 14, 2016, 04:30:20 PM »
I can't really be bothered with cereal - expensive, not very filling, inconvenient (having to have milk) and not very portable - I usually boil up a batch of eggs at the beginning of the week and have an egg and a banana for breakfast, whenever in the morning I fancy them.

I very occasionally have cereal as a light snack in the evening eg if I've had a big lunch and skipped dinner, kind of as a treat.

Ooh, another convenience trick I learned is poached scrambled eggs. http://food52.com/recipes/17328-daniel-patterson-s-poached-scrambled-eggs  I don't bother with draining the eggs in the first step. While the eggs are cooking you quick rinse out the bowl you stirred them in. Now you have scrambled eggs without the hard to clean frying pan!

Ooh, thanks, I'll try that for a change when I'm at home.

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #66 on: March 15, 2016, 11:11:15 AM »

Agree. "Convenience" is always measured against the benefit for me. Really any type of inconvenience, even if minor, isn't really worth it for cereal IMO because it's basically sugar and simple carbs. I eat non-instant oats for breakfast a lot, and find the cost-benefit analysis favors that breakfast. It's harder to clean up (top of bowl oats have cemented to the side before I finish eating the bottom) and cook (boiling water, adding honey, nuts, and dried fruit). But it's significantly tastier, more nutritious, and cheaper than cereal, so the inconvenience is worth it.
Millennial here, Between my daughter and I, takes us about 2 weeks to go through 2 boxes of cereal and a gallon of milk. Wife doesnt eat breakfast usually. My box costs $5(quaker oats granola), and the kid's is generally $3.50. A gallon of milk is $2.69 from the local pharmacy. So $10-13 for 2 weeks, or roughly a dollar a day... or 50 cents for each of us. Thats expensive?! Pay attention to the portion size!

Well it's expensive per calorie/nutrient. I think that's what people mean. Personally I find eating cereal completely useless. I might as well skip breakfast. Not that I'm knocking it for you if it works for you.

If I have a bowl of processed cereal for breakfast I'm hungry again an hour later. I find it just as convenient to cook a bowl of rolled oats in the microwave with some almond milk and frozen fruit. Takes about 30 seconds to put everything in a bowl and 3 minutes to cook in the microwave (during which I can be doing something else). Lots of protein and other nutrients plus heart healthy fiber. Works out to about $1.40/day and keeps me satisfied until lunch.

oh, and I put the bowl and spoon in the dishwasher when I'm done

Yes, I'm in the oatmeal club as well. I make a canister of my own mix on the weekend with chia seeds, flax seeds, walnuts, and raisins, then throw in a pat of butter for extra amazingness.

But I do also sacrifice for convenience by using instant oats. I'd rather use non-instant but being able to just pour boiling water from the kettle to the bowl rather than also dirtying a pot is not worth it when I don't have a dishwasher.

Ooh, another convenience trick I learned is poached scrambled eggs. http://food52.com/recipes/17328-daniel-patterson-s-poached-scrambled-eggs  I don't bother with draining the eggs in the first step. While the eggs are cooking you quick rinse out the bowl you stirred them in. Now you have scrambled eggs without the hard to clean frying pan!

Instead of buy instant oatmeal, we buy "quick" oats and I cook them by pouring boiling water over them and letting them cook in the bowl. They take longer (I allow about 20 min, by which time they're also cool enough to start eating), but they have a better texture than instant, and you can add whatever mix-ins that you want (I usually do brown sugar/salt/butter, but craisins have been tasty lately). You can also vary the texture by varying the oats/water ratio: more water cooks them more thoroughly so they're smoother and soupier, more oats makes them thicker and more textured. And buying plain oats is WAY cheaper than buying instant packets!

sheepstache

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #67 on: March 15, 2016, 11:27:48 AM »


But I do also sacrifice for convenience by using instant oats. I'd rather use non-instant but being able to just pour boiling water from the kettle to the bowl rather than also dirtying a pot is not worth it when I don't have a dishwasher.


Instead of buy instant oatmeal, we buy "quick" oats and I cook them by pouring boiling water over them and letting them cook in the bowl. They take longer (I allow about 20 min, by which time they're also cool enough to start eating), but they have a better texture than instant, and you can add whatever mix-ins that you want (I usually do brown sugar/salt/butter, but craisins have been tasty lately). You can also vary the texture by varying the oats/water ratio: more water cooks them more thoroughly so they're smoother and soupier, more oats makes them thicker and more textured. And buying plain oats is WAY cheaper than buying instant packets!

Oh maybe that's what I mean. I'm talking about the unflavored oats you can buy in a big bag and just pour boiling water on. All I know is they're not the 5-minute oats you need to boil with the water.

Oh, here we go, the bag I have says "1-minute quick cooking oats." Wouldja look at that. I just start eating whenever it's cool enough so it didn't occur to me there was a difference from instant oats--because how could it be quicker without scalding your mouth off.

Okay I've googled it now and apparently the difference is you're supposed to microwave instant oats. I don't have a microwave so I've always made both the same way.

I am super happy to have learned something new about oatmeal today.

maco

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #68 on: March 15, 2016, 03:28:52 PM »
List of reasons I don't eat cereal for breakfast:
  • I'd rather sleep in than spend that much time eating before leaving the house
  • I can't eat it while driving or while walking between the car and train / train and office
  • It takes about 3 bowls to feel full
  • Even after those 3 bowls, I'm hungry an hour later

There's probably more. I'd way rather eat something with eggs or peanut butter or some other decent quantity of protein! Since I picked up a 5-pack of Pillsbury crescent roll tubes at Costco this week (they were like $3 off), I made mini quiches last night and had two for breakfast today. Just popped them in the microwave for 1 minute. They're good! Even my anti-spinach husband likes them.

Or, as one of my friends put it:

If we wanted to eat rice, sugar, and milk for breakfast, we'd have rice pudding.
« Last Edit: March 15, 2016, 03:32:34 PM by maco »

kite

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #69 on: March 16, 2016, 05:44:18 AM »
My family of four doesn't use dishes.  We just dump everything on the table and use our hands.  Then we just have to set the dog on the table when we are done... everything clean... still have not figured out how to effectively get the hair of the table without wiping thought.

My 2 years old nephew drops the cheerios on the floor then laps them up, imitating the family dog. 
Filthy & disgusting when your own kid does it, but do funny when it's someone else's. 

SpeedReader

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #70 on: March 16, 2016, 08:34:32 PM »

My 2 years old nephew drops the cheerios on the floor then laps them up, imitating the family dog. 
Filthy & disgusting when your own kid does it, but do funny when it's someone else's.

Nope, still disgusting.  :-)

lithy

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #71 on: March 16, 2016, 09:12:34 PM »
I will fully admit to being completely loathe to do dishes.

I like to cook and I like to find ways to be efficient with reusing my bowls/knives/cutting boards/etc. during prep.  Once I eat though?  Anything still dirty that doesn't fit in the dishwasher could stay dirty until the next nuclear apocalypse for all I care, or at least until I have to use it again.

This seems polar opposite to my wife, who apparently loves to make every dish in the entire house dirty while making dinner and then ask me to clean it up because she cooked.

All that said, I love cereal but I lump it in with Coca-Cola.  Things I love but I really don't buy because none of it is really good for me and I'd eat an entire box in the coarse of a couple weekend breakfasts.  So if my choice was to blame cereal for being inconvenient and creating too many dishes in some stupid survey I might pick that answer.  But damn, even I can rinse out a bowl and spoon in about 5 seconds worth of hot water and be willing to use it again the next day.

Then again, I'm kind of an elderly millennial.  I feel like I missed the boat on being a super-entitled shitheel millennial by about 5 year, yet still not old quite enough to legitimately claim the apathy of Gen X.  Sucks to be me.

Inaya

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #72 on: March 17, 2016, 07:17:25 AM »
Then again, I'm kind of an elderly millennial.  I feel like I missed the boat on being a super-entitled shitheel millennial by about 5 year, yet still not old quite enough to legitimately claim the apathy of Gen X.  Sucks to be me.


Best early-millennial description ever. I too am in that awkward position of being a millennial--yet my childhood house still used a rotary phone, and I learned to type on a typewriter.

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #73 on: March 17, 2016, 07:36:09 AM »
When I was in college, I would go months without doing dishes. It got to the point where I would use the same solo cup for about a week before forgetting to rinse it out at the end of the day and it getting funky. The wife (girlfriend at the time) and I even ate cereal and spaghetti out of solo cups, then we would rinse them out and use them to drink out of. We maybe spent $5 every two or three months on cups because we reused them so much. Calculated out, my time not spent doing dishes was definitely worth more than the expense of solo cups. We would do something similar with cheap store-brand paper plates.

Now that we are "mature" adults, we own a home with a dishwasher. The cost of water/detergent to run the dishwasher is cheaper than it used to be to use solo cups/cheap paper plates so we don't even keep them in the house any more. Don't have any clean plates? Load and turn on the dishwasher. It takes 5 minutes.

But in an actual reply to the OP, we don't eat cereal any more because we don't regularly eat breakfast and as a result, don't keep milk in the house because it always ends up going bad before we finish it, even if we only buy a half gallon.

maco

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #74 on: March 17, 2016, 09:02:09 AM »
Then again, I'm kind of an elderly millennial.  I feel like I missed the boat on being a super-entitled shitheel millennial by about 5 year, yet still not old quite enough to legitimately claim the apathy of Gen X.  Sucks to be me.


Best early-millennial description ever. I too am in that awkward position of being a millennial--yet my childhood house still used a rotary phone, and I learned to type on a typewriter.
My childhood house still has a rotary phone. My grandfather built it for Art Rooney in Steelers colors, and when Rooney died, it came back to the family. It's in dad's game room along side the other sports memorabilia, hooked up.

I got my first typewriter at age 4 or 5 and learned to type back then.

I'm nowhere near Gen X, though. I'm so young I once had this conversation on a date:

Me: Is this David Bowie? (pronounced first syllable like a dog's bow wow)
Him: Bowie. Where were you in the 80s?
Me: Not born yet?

There wasn't a second date. (I was born in the 80s, but I was potty training when they ended)

shelivesthedream

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #75 on: March 21, 2016, 06:41:04 AM »
I quit eating oatmeal for breakfast and switched to muesli because I couldn't deal with the dishes. It's morning, I'm sleepy, and not only do I have to heat something up before I can eat it but I actually have to put effort into washing it up afterwards.

Dishes are the bane of my life right now. We both work mostly from home so are in for all meals and cook from scratch. Tiny kitchen so not only no dishwasher but also the dirty dishes from one meal seem to take up the entire counter. The dish rack can only hold so much at a time and I have never been able to find a dishcloth that is absorbent enough to actually DRY dishes, so we air dry them. We just never seem to catch up! There are two loads waiting for me right now.

onlykelsey

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #76 on: March 21, 2016, 08:52:20 AM »
Then again, I'm kind of an elderly millennial.  I feel like I missed the boat on being a super-entitled shitheel millennial by about 5 year, yet still not old quite enough to legitimately claim the apathy of Gen X.  Sucks to be me.


Best early-millennial description ever. I too am in that awkward position of being a millennial--yet my childhood house still used a rotary phone, and I learned to type on a typewriter.
My childhood house still has a rotary phone. My grandfather built it for Art Rooney in Steelers colors, and when Rooney died, it came back to the family. It's in dad's game room along side the other sports memorabilia, hooked up.

I got my first typewriter at age 4 or 5 and learned to type back then.

I'm nowhere near Gen X, though. I'm so young I once had this conversation on a date:

Me: Is this David Bowie? (pronounced first syllable like a dog's bow wow)
Him: Bowie. Where were you in the 80s?
Me: Not born yet?

There wasn't a second date. (I was born in the 80s, but I was potty training when they ended)

Haha.  I was also potty training at the end of the 80s.  Or had possibly just completed potty training. 

I think some signs of a generation are really based on class.  Like, we had a rotary phone until I started college (in 2004), but I remember more middle-class friends not know what it was, even in 1995.

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #77 on: March 22, 2016, 09:45:29 AM »
I quit eating oatmeal for breakfast and switched to muesli because I couldn't deal with the dishes. It's morning, I'm sleepy, and not only do I have to heat something up before I can eat it but I actually have to put effort into washing it up afterwards.

Dishes are the bane of my life right now. We both work mostly from home so are in for all meals and cook from scratch. Tiny kitchen so not only no dishwasher but also the dirty dishes from one meal seem to take up the entire counter. The dish rack can only hold so much at a time and I have never been able to find a dishcloth that is absorbent enough to actually DRY dishes, so we air dry them. We just never seem to catch up! There are two loads waiting for me right now.

You want something like this.  I realize you aren't in the US, maybe Amazon?

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/1/1/166973-calphalon-kitchen-towel-mandarin-plaid.html

Bicycle_B

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #78 on: March 22, 2016, 11:41:57 AM »

Now if I could get my kids to REUSE THEIR DAMN CUPS (I feel your pain zolotiyeruki) instead of filling a fresh cup for a drink of water EVERY DAMN TIME then dropping it in the sink 6x/day.... I swear at the end of some days (weekends especially) there are 30 cups piled up in the sink/dishwasher, and it was empty that morning.


Have you tried getting your children "their very own cup"? When my son was little his regular friends all had their own personal cups too. We kept the personal cups on a shelf over the sink (low enough for the kids to reach) and they were expected to use that cup -and that cup only- for water or soda.

+1

shelivesthedream

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #79 on: March 22, 2016, 03:17:40 PM »
I quit eating oatmeal for breakfast and switched to muesli because I couldn't deal with the dishes. It's morning, I'm sleepy, and not only do I have to heat something up before I can eat it but I actually have to put effort into washing it up afterwards.

Dishes are the bane of my life right now. We both work mostly from home so are in for all meals and cook from scratch. Tiny kitchen so not only no dishwasher but also the dirty dishes from one meal seem to take up the entire counter. The dish rack can only hold so much at a time and I have never been able to find a dishcloth that is absorbent enough to actually DRY dishes, so we air dry them. We just never seem to catch up! There are two loads waiting for me right now.

You want something like this.  I realize you aren't in the US, maybe Amazon?

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/1/1/166973-calphalon-kitchen-towel-mandarin-plaid.html

Do they really, really work? I have been recommended dishcloths before that might as well have had a waterproof coating. But if these actually pick water up off the plates and don't put it back immediately...

maco

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #80 on: March 22, 2016, 03:28:12 PM »
I quit eating oatmeal for breakfast and switched to muesli because I couldn't deal with the dishes. It's morning, I'm sleepy, and not only do I have to heat something up before I can eat it but I actually have to put effort into washing it up afterwards.

Dishes are the bane of my life right now. We both work mostly from home so are in for all meals and cook from scratch. Tiny kitchen so not only no dishwasher but also the dirty dishes from one meal seem to take up the entire counter. The dish rack can only hold so much at a time and I have never been able to find a dishcloth that is absorbent enough to actually DRY dishes, so we air dry them. We just never seem to catch up! There are two loads waiting for me right now.

You want something like this.  I realize you aren't in the US, maybe Amazon?

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/1/1/166973-calphalon-kitchen-towel-mandarin-plaid.html

Do they really, really work? I have been recommended dishcloths before that might as well have had a waterproof coating. But if these actually pick water up off the plates and don't put it back immediately...
Brand new, most dish cloths do have a waterproof coating. It's called sizing and is used during the weaving process. That's why the first thing you do with brand new towels is wash them on HOT, or even better: boil them on the stove.

In any case, I'm a fan of flour sack towels. Skip the terry cloth and go for fine cotton (or linen, if you can find it). The finer the threads, the more absorbent the fabric, because the surface area to volume ratio of each thread is better. More loosely spun threads are more absorbent too, but they're also less durable, so that's a balancing act. And (and now I'm getting into "your friend the hand weaver" territory) longer floats (think twill) expose more of the thread's surface area to allow for more absorption than plain weave.

onlykelsey

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #81 on: March 22, 2016, 03:32:44 PM »
I quit eating oatmeal for breakfast and switched to muesli because I couldn't deal with the dishes. It's morning, I'm sleepy, and not only do I have to heat something up before I can eat it but I actually have to put effort into washing it up afterwards.

Dishes are the bane of my life right now. We both work mostly from home so are in for all meals and cook from scratch. Tiny kitchen so not only no dishwasher but also the dirty dishes from one meal seem to take up the entire counter. The dish rack can only hold so much at a time and I have never been able to find a dishcloth that is absorbent enough to actually DRY dishes, so we air dry them. We just never seem to catch up! There are two loads waiting for me right now.

You want something like this.  I realize you aren't in the US, maybe Amazon?

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/1/1/166973-calphalon-kitchen-towel-mandarin-plaid.html

Do they really, really work? I have been recommended dishcloths before that might as well have had a waterproof coating. But if these actually pick water up off the plates and don't put it back immediately...
Brand new, most dish cloths do have a waterproof coating. It's called sizing and is used during the weaving process. That's why the first thing you do with brand new towels is wash them on HOT, or even better: boil them on the stove.

In any case, I'm a fan of flour sack towels. Skip the terry cloth and go for fine cotton (or linen, if you can find it). The finer the threads, the more absorbent the fabric, because the surface area to volume ratio of each thread is better. More loosely spun threads are more absorbent too, but they're also less durable, so that's a balancing act. And (and now I'm getting into "your friend the hand weaver" territory) longer floats (think twill) expose more of the thread's surface area to allow for more absorption than plain weave.

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-New-Towels-More-Absorbent

Boil them in vinegar!

LouLou

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #82 on: March 22, 2016, 06:15:40 PM »
Getting a dish-rack (obviously setting it up so it drains into the sink) and just putting clean wet dishes into it is sanitary. 

Before I had a house with a dishwasher I installed cheap wire shelf over my sink. I would wash dishes and put them on the wire shelf to drain dry. No need to put them away when they were dry, they were already on their shelf. Fast and easy.

I can't believe I never thought of this!  Genius.

Now I am privileged enough to have a dishwasher, and a husband to put dirty dishes in that dishwasher, so I don't care anymore.

RetiredAt63

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #83 on: March 23, 2016, 07:58:28 AM »
I've heard waffle weave is very absorbent.  Also, never ever use fabric softener on towels (none of us here would do that anyway, right?).  It blocks absorbency.  I've visited people who had lovely fluffy bath towels that had zero absorbency.

maco, are you a hand-weaver?  Floats and thinking about thread diameter and fiber composition and twist tightness?

In any case, I'm a fan of flour sack towels. Skip the terry cloth and go for fine cotton (or linen, if you can find it). The finer the threads, the more absorbent the fabric, because the surface area to volume ratio of each thread is better. More loosely spun threads are more absorbent too, but they're also less durable, so that's a balancing act. And (and now I'm getting into "your friend the hand weaver" territory) longer floats (think twill) expose more of the thread's surface area to allow for more absorption than plain weave.

maco

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #84 on: March 23, 2016, 01:09:29 PM »
I've heard waffle weave is very absorbent.

maco, are you a hand-weaver?  Floats and thinking about thread diameter and fiber composition and twist tightness?

In any case, I'm a fan of flour sack towels. Skip the terry cloth and go for fine cotton (or linen, if you can find it). The finer the threads, the more absorbent the fabric, because the surface area to volume ratio of each thread is better. More loosely spun threads are more absorbent too, but they're also less durable, so that's a balancing act. And (and now I'm getting into "your friend the hand weaver" territory) longer floats (think twill) expose more of the thread's surface area to allow for more absorption than plain weave.
Yes, indeed. I'm still rather a newbie, but I've been a string-person my whole life, so already used to thinking about "the right yarn for the job." I think it was the September 2014 issue of Handwoven that had empirical testing of different weave structures and setts for absorbency. And waffle weave is definitely high up, but it's easy for fork tines to catch on those floats...which is why I'm making waffle weave bath towels.

(Waffle weave is a point twill threading, btw)

RetiredAt63

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #85 on: March 23, 2016, 06:46:15 PM »
I just got started too - down the rabbit hole for sure.  I have been knitting since I was little, and started spinning a few years ago, now that there are such wonderful fibres out there. I got a rigid heddle loom for Christmas and did my first scarf, now I want to try using a pickup stick for the next scarf, which will be Illusion fingering from KnitPicks for the warp, and Misti Alpaca for the weft, yum.  I know someone who does dish towels for craft fairs, I think she uses a linen/cotton blend in a balanced plain weave.  And yes, floats would not be good with tines  ;-)  But waffle looks so neat.  I am just learning terms, and they differ for regular looms versus rigid heddle, a bit.

Sorry, I got a bit carried away there.

I've heard waffle weave is very absorbent.
maco, are you a hand-weaver?  Floats and thinking about thread diameter and fiber composition and twist tightness?
Yes, indeed. I'm still rather a newbie, but I've been a string-person my whole life, so already used to thinking about "the right yarn for the job." I think it was the September 2014 issue of Handwoven that had empirical testing of different weave structures and setts for absorbency. And waffle weave is definitely high up, but it's easy for fork tines to catch on those floats...which is why I'm making waffle weave bath towels.

(Waffle weave is a point twill threading, btw)

Mac_MacGyver

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #86 on: March 27, 2016, 02:45:18 PM »
Cereal was the lazy option. Glad cereal is in candy bar form now.

zolotiyeruki

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #87 on: March 27, 2016, 08:08:29 PM »
Cereal was the lazy option. Glad cereal is in candy bar form now.
I think the old saying "necessity is the mother of invention" needs a second part: "and laziness is the father."

Zikoris

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #88 on: March 27, 2016, 09:12:50 PM »
I picked up a dish rack for my boyfriend a couple of weeks ago, and he loves it - he's always dried everything by hand until now. So that takes a good chunk of the "challenge" off for him, which is good.

TheGrimSqueaker

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #89 on: March 27, 2016, 11:22:04 PM »
Cereal was the lazy option. Glad cereal is in candy bar form now.
I think the old saying "necessity is the mother of invention" needs a second part: "and laziness is the father."

I wish there was a way to up-vote this.

Metric Mouse

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #90 on: March 28, 2016, 12:28:16 AM »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deDlrkhLsTw


Has this been posted yet? Save the planet, don't wash dishes?

MoonShadow

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #91 on: March 28, 2016, 01:41:34 PM »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deDlrkhLsTw


Has this been posted yet? Save the planet, don't wash dishes?

That's a damn good way to get vitamins into kids, too.  I remember eating hard candy spoons with ice cream as a kid, but they were apparently too expensive.  If we can make sugar and rice into a fortified breakfast cereal for kids, I can't imagine why hard bread spoons can't replace the plastic spork.  The chopsticks are pretty cool, too.

TheGrimSqueaker

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #92 on: March 28, 2016, 03:22:36 PM »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deDlrkhLsTw


Has this been posted yet? Save the planet, don't wash dishes?

That's a damn good way to get vitamins into kids, too.  I remember eating hard candy spoons with ice cream as a kid, but they were apparently too expensive.  If we can make sugar and rice into a fortified breakfast cereal for kids, I can't imagine why hard bread spoons can't replace the plastic spork.  The chopsticks are pretty cool, too.

We've already got bread bowls for soup; why not?

El Gringo

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Re: The apparently insurmountable challenge of washing dishes
« Reply #93 on: March 30, 2016, 08:05:22 AM »
So GQ contacted the research firm who actually conducted research, and their response was that the NYT/Washington Post analysis is a load of crap: http://www.gq.com/story/the-real-reason-millennials-arent-eating-cereal-for-breakfast. TL;DR, Millennials aren't eating cereal for breakfast because either 1) we're eating breakfast on the go (cereal isn't a portable option), and/or 2) we realize that cereal isn't healthy. But we still occasionally eat it for snacks.