How do you learn and assimilate new information? Some people learn by being shown, others by reading, and some figure it out after hearing a vague concept. Do you just need an idea or do you need specifics? I definitely like specifics, but I'm pretty good at figuring things out on my own. If I do, though, and share with someone else, I give specifics, usually in step-by-step format. My brain likes to break things down into logical parts and order processes into logical steps.
This means that I function best with a routine. Lately, my life has been anything but routine. Life in general is no longer routine. Food prices going up? Better do a little extra shopping and plant more in the garden. Gas prices going up? Better get a couple more patch kits for the bike. Postage rates increasing? Better go get those Forever Stamps now. Hosting a crazy challenge? Oughta have more posts done ahead of time!
When opportunities arise, or new information comes to light, action may be required now, not when it's convenient. However, I can always find a little comfort in having some routines in my life, such as washing dishes. Last year, during the first Crunchy Chicken challenge I joined, I talked about our low water use. I didn't talk too much about the dish-washing.
Periodically the machine versus human debate on water savings for dish washing comes up. I can't fit all of my dirty dishes for a day in the dishwasher, so it's kind of a moot point. I'll be hand-washing some pots and pans anyway. On occasion, someone will say they washed their dishes with a teacup of water when they were sailing. It frustrated me that they never gave directions for how they did this. So one day, I went searching on the Internet to find the magic technique for such low water use, and I discovered there is no magic technique. What these sailors failed to mention was they used a teacup of fresh water only. They initially washed all the dishes in seawater, which was plentiful and didn't need to be conserved, and then rinsed in a trickle of fresh water. This is, of course, no help whatsoever when you are inland!
I can, however, usually wash a full day's dishes in a few gallons of fresh water. If I wait until the end of the day, and the dishes aren't too dirty, I can easily do them all in one load using just two gallons (including rinsing). When I've done a lot of cooking, or have used any kind of fat during the day, it may take two loads. At least half of the water used is later poured onto garden plants. We have several ornamentals that are not on the drip irrigation system yet we never have to use the hose to water them as a result of reusing the kitchen water. (Note: those of you not living in a desert climate may not understand that plants die here without regular watering. We cannot count on rainfall alone.)
Now I know a lot of you are very anti-plastic, but plastic helps me use less water doing the dishes. It started when I noticed in the winter that my hot water didn't stay hot very long in the metal sink. The cold metal sucked the heat right out of it. I got a plastic dish tub that fits securely into the sink. This keeps the water hot longer and allows me to easily dump it out for reuse if it's not too dirty and has no oil in it. For the rinse side, I use a large plastic serving bowl that just fits in the sink. I purchased this bowl in a thrift store several years ago when I needed something to hold cut oranges for an Aid Station I volunteered to run during a local bike race. The top of the bowl is wide enough to dip an entire dinner plate into the water for rinsing.
Prep work helps make dish-washing more efficient and saves money on the food budget, too. It starts with putting away leftovers. Even a small amount of leftover food is saved, sometimes to be used in soup. One of the best frugal purchases for your kitchen is a rubber spatula. It lets you get every last bit of goodness out of your cooking. This extends your food, as well as reducing the crud you have to wash off later. Rinsing the last bit of food residue from the pots and pans with some clean water eases dish-washing even more, and this water can be saved in the freezer for future soup. Keep seasonings in mind so that you don't combine incompatible flavors.
When I'm done cooking for the day, or have a full load to do, I fill the rinse bowl with water as it's warming up. Then I put a few inches of hot water in the plastic tub with dish soap to wash all the dishes. I start with the cleanest dishes and work my way through to the dirtiest ones last. If I have plastic baggies to wash, they are washed first before the water gets icky. Any dishes with oil or Earth Balance on them are left for the very end. I rarely use any oil in my cooking and we rarely splurge on Earth Balance, especially since it contains palm oil. With no animal fats from meat, eggs, cheese, or dairy products, dish-washing is a breeze! (Another advantage of eating a vegan diet is there are no nasty pathogens in my dish-water and far less danger of bacteria in my kitchen.)
When I'm done with all the dishes, usually enough to fill a drainrack and the dishwasher (aka the giant drainrack), the water all goes out to the garden unless the wash water is oily or exceptionally dirty. The plastic tub and bowl are rinsed well and left to dry for the next day.
If you have tips and tricks to keep your dishes clean with less water, please share. (And be specific!)
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13 comments:
hmmm... I never thought of using the dishwasher as a DRAIN RACK! That's brilliant! I don't hvae any counter space here, and so don't handwash very often.
Currently, we run the dishwasher every 2 or 3 days. That's about how fast it fills up, since breakfast is just a glass and a knife and lunch is a pyrex container. We wait until it is full full full, then run it at it's lightest and lowest setting.
I bet that doing what you are doing will safe much more water, though... something we have to think about in this semi-arid state we live in (Colorado).
I like the dishpan idea.. I hadn't noticed water getting cold, but it seems like a great way to get the water back out of your sink for the garden. :)
Just remember, Jennifer, if you are washing any dishes that have been used with any animal products, it really isn't a good idea to dump that water outside. Most greywater guides advise against using kitchen sink water; I suspect this is part of the reason. The only reasons I feel comfortable using the wash water are:
1. I'm vegan,
2. Very little food matter ends up in the water due to pre-cleaning,
3. I don't use oil usually.
Rinsewater is fine, though.
My tip is really lame ...but will save water and energy. I used to always just put it on normal and never thought about it. Watching CNN one day I heard them mention how most dishwashers do just fine on the light cycle and it can save up to 30% in H2O and energy. So...I switched. Who wooda thunk a little knob reading could lead to such savings?
Oooh - cool blog! Thanks for stopping by my tiny little effort. I haven't connected with any vegan bloggers yet, so this is exciting for me! I will be back!
xoxo
Will at Green Couple wrote a really cool post about dishwashing. Basically what he said was that the dishwasher works great for stuff like utensils, but for a big pot, the pot takes up too much room so you should wash those by hand. So now I hand wash pots and big items, and I dishwash plates and spoons and stuff, and I end up doing one load of dishes in the dishwasher a week. Sometimes less. Not too bad!
And orgie, one other thing that you may or may not do, make sure you turn off the "heat dry" on your dishwasher. You don't need it. Just let everything drip dry.
Chile~ Good reminder. We eat vegan for most meals, and also try to cook with VERY little fat (same small bottle of olive oil for 6 months now). No meat in our house except the dog bones, and the only milk is my daily glass of milk iwth breakfast (I've tried all sorts of alternatives but come right back everytime). I could just make sure and rinse the glass first and do the random egg pan seperately (I do like my free range chicken eggs on occasion).
Orgie? I think I'll just stick with OrganicNeedle, thank you very much. I have enough trouble with boob searches landing on my blog already. *sigh*
Oh yeah, thanks for the reminder on the light setting. We run the dishwasher a couple of times per month (to keep the gasket from drying out) and always do it on light with no heat.
Thanks for comin' over here, Optimist! Love the dog photo. My dog's legs are too short to do that, but she can fit in tight places.
Arduous, I'll look for that post. (linked at your blog maybe?)
Way to go, Jennifer! Possible future challenge along those lines (when I recover from this one. I don't know how Crunchy does it...)
Yes...no to the heated dry. You do have to remember to open the door to let the steam out.
here's that post i was talking about chile
Thanks, Arduous!
I've been using my dishwasher as a drain rack for a while now, since I realized that the dishwasher was doing such a poor job at cleaning the dishes that I had to go back and re-wash half the items anyway. Talk about a waste of water! I hadn't really started this because of the water savings, but I'm glad to think that I have the chance to cut down on water usage doing it this way. Thanks for the challenge to work even harder to keep the flow off, Chile!
I know what you mean about the sometimes uninformative inspirational statements. I am currently scratching my head on how so many of the moms I read (Crunchy (both Going and Chicken), Sharon Astyk, Green Bean, Organic Picks' Cindys) manage to not only cook all (most?) of their meals form scratch, do canning, take care of kids and spouse, ride bikes to all sorts of places, sleep, and participate in various challenges and write well written blog entries. I am convinced that cloning exists and I'm being kept in the dark about it. I consider it a good day if I manage to shower when I plan to shower. I am currently letting a spider go about his business in the basement because I am being environmentally friendly...not a slob.
Sounds like a lousy dishwasher, Sarah!
Beany, I think the key word there is "moms". It's a little known fact that all these green moms are using their offspring as slave labor. The bloggers are not, in fact, the ones doing all that cooking, gardening, canning, and cleaning up. They sit calmly writing their blog posts while the poor little ones do all the real work. ;-)
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