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
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
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 don't know if it is my imagination or not but I have noticed that it seems to take more detergent than it used to, to make enough suds for cleaning. Has anyone noticed that? I usually use Dawn or whatever is on sale. I don't think there is that much difference.
I use the clear kind that has bleach in it. You can also add a little baking soda to your water. It will soften it, good luck.
Hi and thanks Laniegirl for saying that it appears to take more liquid than it used to. I just said this a few days ago.
I use Dawn and like it but it is watery now so I am sure other brands are also. It just takes a lot more to make and Hold any suds.
I use the Member's Mark brand from Sam's club and put it in a pump bottle (like hand lotion) about 10-12 pumps are all that's needed to do a whole days dishes for all four of us.
Our water here is like drinking rocks. I know of one woman who dissolves a little Epsom salts in a little water and mixes it into her laundry and dish soaps to "soften" the water that way. She says it works.
We have well water & I have always used original green Palmolive but the other day, I purchased the new Dawn (kind to hands) dish washing soap. I find it produces lots of suds & Dawn always gets rid of grease, etc. Although it was hard on the hands but I bought this one.
Cybergrannie, I see we are both grannies. Maybe we are the only ones who remember it used to be thick. Same here, most of the time when it was thick I had way too many suds.
As I am adding the hot water to the sink, I add about one tablespoon of baking soda to the water and swish it around to dissolve. I then add the dish detergent.
Baking soda will soften the water and cut grease. I keep the baking soda in an old plastic Parmesan cheese container near the sink and shake it in. This is also good when you need a little extra scrubbing power for those extra dirty dishes or pans.
I like Dawn also but the regular one was too drying to my hands. Dawn makes one that is gentle to your hands. It still cleans well but keeps your hands from drying.
Another tip that I read on this site is to mix liquid hand dishwashing detergent with baking soda and make a paste. This works great to scrub bathtubs, sinks, etc.
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.
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
I'm not sure what it will do to the finish of your dishes, but chlorine bleach is highly toxic. I wouldn't recommend using it for any household cleaning, but especially not for your dishes; you eat off of those!
How much Clorox do you plan on using when washing your dishes & pots? I do use bleach sometimes when washing dishes, especially if I'm washing things that have touched raw poultry and meat. I've been doing this for 35 years and am still alive. To a sink half full of water just a very small amount of bleach is necessary-about 2 tablespoons. It does not dull the finish of anything. Just be sure to rinse well.
Not only will a little bleach not hurt your dishes, it will brighten them if they have been dulled by coffee, tea, tomato sauce,grape juice, and other staining foods and drinks. In addition, the number of colds passed from child to child will slow,your countertops will be a little more sanitary if you use the dishwater to wash them,then wipe again with water and dry,your sink will be being disinfected while the dishwater is in it and your drain will receive the benefit of having soapy bleach water poured down it. I've been doing it for almost 50 years with no harm to anyone or anything.
Bleach is caustic, in more ways than one, so I wouldn't do it because it most likely would erode the finish over time!
With much respect to other posters, I am asking what is more important? Shiny dishes, pots and pans or your health? Bleach is highly toxic :-( Oh, you might not see or feel any damage now but it will happen eventually :-( First hand experience speaking here from breathing it's fumes over nearly five decades for cleaning/sanitizing.)
Another poster recommended adding bleach to your dishwater :-o NO! If you read a bottle of dish soap cautions they all expressly say 'do not mix with bleach'! The reason they caution this is because the combination can create Mustard Gas :-o
science.howstuffworks.com/
If anyone is super duper worried about germs in their home on their dishes then wash them in soapy water that is 110 degrees and rinse well. If one still wants to use bleach as a sanitizer after that then fill well rinsed sink with hot water and add only 1/2 ounce of bleach to 2 gallons of water. Soak and rinse well again.
Tips for handwashing dishes. Post your ideas.
Ahhh, my motto: A soaked dish never needs scrubbing!
Sometimes it is easier to wash dishes by hand when there are only two of you. Keep a square plastic storage-type container on the counter filled with water and place your silverware and kitchen utensils in there to soak until you wash all the dishes.
Dishwashers are nice but if it takes several days to fill it and in the meantime you are constantly taking out your favorite item to wash it and use it, it kind of defeats the purpose.
By Syd
If you add about a tablespoon of baking soda to your dish water it will add some cleaning power to your dish soap and it will also make your hands very soft.
By Robin
I had a dishwasher for 30 years and since I moved to the Netherlands I don't have a dishwasher. Correction, I do have a dishwasher.....me!!! Anyway, I always put vinegar in my rinsewater and the glasses just sparkle. I was surprised that most people I know don't even rinse their dishes here. They dry them straight from the soapy dishwater. Interesting, huh??
If you have a hose sprayer, you can use a lot less dish soap by "fluffing" it up with the sprayer in your sink. Spray hot water directly into the soap in the sink.
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
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
