Tuesday, June 14, 2011

gone retro

For a house with only two people in it, handwashing the dishes honestly is far less work than rinsing (pre-washing) the dishes, loading the dishwasher, wheeling the dishwasher over to the sink (no, we don't have a built-in. Our kitchen is circa 1935 - I'm lucky I'm not using the term "icebox" literally), hooking it up, wheeling it back, unloading the clean dishes and then starting it all over again with the dirty dishes that had somehow managed to collect in the sink. Believe me, the whole dishwasher full of clean dishes, sink full of dirty dishes cycle was a neverending source of housewifey angst. Add in the fact that the hippies (who seem determined to ruin everydamnthing in the modern world) have taken the most of usefulness out of dishwasher detergent and you can see why I've convinced Mike that we need to get rid of our dishwasher. (anybody want to buy a dishwasher?)

It's crazy, I know. It's like we're regressing back to the stone age or something. No television and now no dishwasher, either. Stop me when I start dragging my laundry down to beat against the rocks on the banks of the Chagrin River.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

From Tam today:

I swear, they are trying to repeal the Industrial Revolution.

PPPP said...

Hmm. What's wrong with beating the dirt out of your clothes on rocks? Works for me.

Kidding.

We had a portable DW with a hose that hooked up to the faucet of the sink back in the early 60s. When my folks built a new house in 1964, that DW moved with us, and the sink was plumbed accordingly. Only sometime in the late 70s/early 80s was the kitchen upgraded to have a true built-in DW.
___________________

All the kids have now grown and flown, yet we still find ourselves running the dishwasher every couple of days. And it's always full loads, too. Home cooking uses lots of dishes for us, even though it's just the two of us.

Weer'd Beard said...

Hippies are always angry and filled with hate.

And it makes them angry that you're not unhappy. Because they hate you they want to make life as miserable for everybody as it feels for them!

Mike W. said...

There's a dishwasher in the apartment. In the past 6 months I think my roommate and I have used it perhaps twice.

It's just simpler to handwash the handful of dishes you use. Plus we figure it saves on the electric bill.

Mad Saint Jack said...

I don't think you would get your close very clean in a Cleveland river, and they may catch fire. :P

Guffaw in AZ said...

I've never lived anywhere that had a working DW!
And, I'm compulsive enough to clean-as-I-cook, usually, so there's not much stacked up.
My grandfather used his to store his bag o' potatoes - cool and dark.
gfa

Don M said...

I won't worry until you give up indoor plumbing, and perhaps the microwave...

Bubblehead Les. said...

Hung up the Clothes Line yet? Just did mine today. Of course, with the rain scheduled for later in the week....

Kristophr said...

Go to a hardware store or a paint store, and buy a big box of tri-sodium phosphate wall cleaner.

Replace 10% of your dish detergent by volume with the TSP.

Laugh at the hippies.

PPPP said...

When I was single, in the couple of apartments I had that had dishwashers, I used them as drying racks for when I washed the dishes by hand. I think I only used them as intended a couple of times in over three years, when I had enough company over to make enough dirty dishes to justify using them.

Toni said...

I have a dishwasher His name is Mark.

JB Miller said...

I have an epic dishwasher. I never rinse a dish. I have twelve TVs and 7 Tivos.

Sabra said...

I long for a dishwasher. Aside from Erik and the two oldest kids, that is. Five people (Marie uses no dishes) make bigger messes than two, though.

And I dearly wish we could hang a clothesline, but even if the landlord would let us, the neighbors' kids would tear it down along with everything else. They even tear up plants. So instead we have to heat up an already-hot kitchen with the dryer. Sigh.

Old NFO said...

It's called a no win Breda... I'm another one that cleans as I cook, so I seldom use the dish washer...

Dannytheman said...

4 kids equals 31 glasses a day if I did the math right?!?!? I love the dishwasher, I fill it and empty it every morning and then put on the 2 hour delay timer and it cleans while no one is home! Someday I hope to get to only run it once a week.
Us puddle pirates abhor dish pan hands. :)

greg said...

The apartment complex we are living in has THE WORST dishwasher I have had to suffer through for a long, long time.

On my night to do dishes, I much prefer just to wash by hand instead of having filmy, nasty dishes that have to be rewashed.

Firehand said...

Times I've had one, I've always had to remember to use it occasionally. As you say, washing for myself- occasionally a guest- it's just faster and easier to wash them in the sink and use the DW for a drying rack.

RedeemedBoyd said...

So when will you start hand-writing your blog posts on notebook paper, and mail them by hand to all of your loyal readers? Don't forget to write one copy per reader.

A friend of mine commented on my thoughts about the EPA the other day, stating that 'part of their mission is to return us to the 7th century.' Sadly, it's working.

FatWhiteMan said...

I never loaded a dishwasher ever until I was almost 40.

I would unload Mom's if she asked but I never loaded one, even in the apartments I had that had one built in. It was always easier for me too just hand wash some dishes.

Then I had kids.

Sid said...

I am sorry. We had to rope off the river for your safety. You see, the rocks were tested for impact attentuation and failed. If someone should slip and fall there was a real risk of injury. You will have to find another location to wash your clothes. Have you considered shipping your clothes to a Third World country to have them cleaned?

Mose Jefferson said...

Next up: plastic wrap is out the window. Hello wax-paper!

Tango said...

breda, if it helps, you can still replace the TSP that the hippies had removed. TriSodium Phosphate is a chemical still easily available for pretty cheap. IIRC, Harbor Freight and other hardware stores still sell it in big buckets.