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
I have found that using a thick, well-wrung washcloth works very well as a dishrag. Use it to clean crumbs off counter tops.
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...
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.
If you want your dishes disinfected (especially if you don't have a dishwasher and someone in your household is sick), after washing them in dishwashing detergent, run them through a rinse of 1 gallon of water with 1 tablespoon of Chlorox added to it.
To save time scrubbing the silverware and other utensils I take a bowl or cup, one that's already dirty and fill half way with hot water and a tiny bit of dish soap. I let them soak till I'm ready to do the dishes.
I live in a complex that redid my apt. It's newer and such, but I would have loved it if I could have had the older style double sink. Recently, someone left a tiny drainer in the community center.
Add about a teaspoon of baking soda with your dish detergent when filling the sink to wash dishes. It softens the water, helps the detergent clean better and makes the suds last a lot longer. I do this all the time and found it makes cleaning the dishes easier and helps reduce and remove hard water stains.
Don't wash dishes with the water running. If you leave the tap running, you'll use an average of 30 gallons of water to do dishes!
Reducing Suds When Doing Dishes. When washing dishes and you have too many suds in the sink after draining wash water. . .
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 use dishwasher cubes to do my dishes by hand for hard stuck on food. I just fill the sink with hot/warm water and my soap and add a little dishwasher soap, as well.
When I was a little kid I was always underfoot while Mama was doing chores. When washing the dishes she had a really peculiar (to me) habit. This was eons before dishwashers became commonplace. She always ran her hand over a dish before putting it to rinse.
Dishwashers use from 9 to 16 gallons of (very) hot water. You can wash your dishes using three sinks/tubs and 3 to 5 gallons of 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.
Instead of my usual dish cloth, I use a crocheted doily to wash dishes with. The roughness of the material helps "scrub".
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.
