I keep a small squeeze-type bottle full of bleach on the back of my sink. In the morning I put several inches of water in the sink, with a squirt of dish soap and a teaspoon of bleach. Throughout the day, any dirty dishes go in the water to soak or to be washed right away. The sponge sits in the water and is disinfected by the bleach, I use it whenever I need to wipe the stove, counter, microwave, etc.
I use an empty contact lens solution bottle, but any squeeze-type bottle would do. If I end up with a bunch of dishes that need to be hand washed, I will fill the sink with water, use the normal amount of dish soap and add 1 Tablespoon of bleach. The bleach helps to kill germs and bacteria on the dishes as they sit and keeps the sponge germ-free (I hope!). My mom started doing this many years ago when she developed an auto-immune disease. I started doing it when I had children who couldn't remember to wash their hands, bringing germs home from school to share with us. It seems like we are all less prone to be sick and pass it around among us when we remember to do this.
Caution: Dish soap and bleach will cause toxic fumes when mixed together by themselves. DO NOT put them together in the sink before you add water! Put water in the sink, add the soap and then add the bleach. DO NOT overdo the bleach, or it will still cause fumes - just remember that a very small amount will do, as I said, no more than a tablespoon for a full sink of water and barely a teaspoon for a half sink of water.
By Judy = Oklahoma from Tulsa, OK
Which liquid detergent can you use to wash dishes by hand in hard water? I need a product that will keep the suds.
By freda from Tulsa, OK
I have almost no counter space. I bought a small drainer but realized I didn't have the pan for it. While shopping lately, I came upon this tub for $.25 and thought it might work.
I have found that using a thick, well-wrung washcloth works very well as a dishrag. Use it to clean crumbs off counter tops.
If I wash dishes and pots with Clorox, does the glossy coating go away? Someone told me that using Clorox will make my dishes and pans dull. Is this true?
By george from Alameda, CA
Tips for handwashing dishes. Post your ideas.
Ahhh, my motto: A soaked dish never needs scrubbing!
When my kids were little they liked to help with the dishes and it seemed that they always used too much dish soap. Well I finally solved the problem.
Reducing Suds When Doing Dishes. When washing dishes and you have too many suds in the sink after draining wash water. . .
Living with a house full of guys who all are allergic to dish washing and lacking an automatic dishwasher, I find myself daily washing mountains of dishes by hand.
Do you have a dish rack on your countertop in the kitchen or do you use a drying mat? How does a drying mat dry dishes like glasses very well on the inside if the glass is turned upside down on the mat?
By Onesummer
Save your back by raising your dishpan. Depending on the depth of your sink, place something under your dishpan to raise it high enough that you can stand up straight while doing the dishes...
I have a tiny kitchen and when I moved, I lost my dishwasher. That used to be my dish drainer. Now I have to have a drainer, but I prefer to put it inside a nice tub.
Instead of my usual dish cloth, I use a crocheted doily to wash dishes with. The roughness of the material helps "scrub". When I'm done, I lay the doily in the bottom of the sink and it looks pretty there.
We have glasses that are just wide enough on the top that only 3 fit on 5 hooks along the side of the drainer. But if you have larger plastic glasses, you can set those on top and double the space you have.
I am disabled and have to use an office chair (I use it do do everything in the kitchen) to sit on while I do dishes. It puts me at a height that makes the water roll down my arm. I spend half of the time cleaning the dishes and the other half wiping my arm off.
By Dawn
Here's a water saving idea I have used over the years. Rather than filling the sink to the top with water, put in only a couple inches of water, and then rinse your dishes with a small stream of hot water, over your sink of suds.
When hand washing dishes, do you use the same dish cloth that you washed the dishes with to clean the countertops and stove with? I was watching a TV show and they said this method transfers germs all around your kitchen and it is best to use a dishcloth for the dishes and another one for cleaning. I would think 2 dish cloths in the kitchen could be a headache trying to remember which is for cleaning and which one is for washing dishes. What do you think?
By Onesummer
I use a separate dish cloth to clean counters and other areas in my kitchen after hand washing dishes or you can rinse your dishcloth with a disinfectant, place dishcloth in microwave, run microwave for about 1 minute to kill germs.
