Thursday, November 24, 2011

I Am Thankful for Modern Appliances Because Sometimes Doing Everything by Hand Sucks

I finally caved. After five years of hand washing dishes, I couldn't take it anymore. I've always found dishes to be a most unpleasant task and my recent bout with that nasty virus really sealed the deal since even the most basic of activities became virtually impossible due to crippling viral fatigue. Also the mountain of dirty pots and pans on the counter that never seemed to shrink had become a serious point of contention between me and the hubby. It was either a dishwasher or a divorce. The dishwasher seemed like the least complicated option.


Isn't it beautiful? There's a part of me that feels like a failure for not being able to do my washing up the old school way, but then after I thought about it for a while I realized that I would never consider washing all of my clothes by hand. So why shouldn't I feel the same about my plates and glassware? There's something about the dishwasher that seems so bourgeois, just another First World energy and resource suck. Hopefully, the fact that the solar panels will offset the energy use will assuage my guilt on some level.

Because honestly, who wants to spend an hour at the sink with this pile





when your robot can do it so much better?




Happy Thanksgiving!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

9 comments:

  1. If you have an efficient washer, you usually use less water than washing by hand, which also uses less energy to heat the water. You just have to resist the urge to wash the dishes before they go into the machine.

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  2. An HOUR to do that amount of dishes? Really? I cannot see wasting electricity on a machine to washa nd dry dishes, how wasteful. Air drying takes NO electricity, and using two pans of water to wash and rinse in and then throwing it oin the flowers and veggies is WAY more sustainable.

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  3. I hear ya! As much as I admire a green lifestyle I also argue with myself that I live in a modern age for a reason. Might as well make life easier with the tasks you hate the most.

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  4. Congratulations! And you should never have to do all your dishes by hand as you do enough as it is being a Mom and home organizer, cook, animal caretaker, entertainer, etc.

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  5. @ Millie - what you can't see in the picture is the mound on the counter that is about 3 times as big. If I do all of my dishes by hand, I'll easily spend 1-2 hours a day at the sink. I cook a lot and am a slow dishwasher. I still do pots and pans by hand. The dishwasher definitely uses less water than I do handwashing and I NEVER use the dry cycle. I put the tough to wash pots under the outflow to soak. The solar panels take care of the energy use. Wow, I'm feeling less guilty already!

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  6. NO guilt. You rock. It does use less water to use an efficient dishwasher...and yes the dry cycle is a waste of energy.
    Your footprint is way way less than most here in the US!

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  7. Congratulations on your new Dish Robot!! This gives me hope that I might see one in the new year. I asked for one for my birthday last year, and it just did not happen. So maybe this year... The dood finally conceded that if dishes were taken care of for me (because I cook everything, too), I'd have a much cleaner kitchen and be a more enthusiastic chef. Just like HE would be, I might add. Dishes stink. To quote Phyllis Diller, they just don't stay done, dangit.

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  8. I kind of like handwashing dishes, but it is actually a better use of water to do full loads in a dish washer than hand washing; it uses less water.

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  9. No guilt at all - my grandma used to say all the time how everyone in their household (4 kids) got sick less after she got a dishwasher. Think of all the medical bills you're saving! Plus, I find I'm a lot more motivated to cook complicated, messy things if I know I can throw everything in the dishwasher. And it makes canning a snap - just put all your jars in the dishwasher to sanitize before starting. In summary, your time and sanity are worth something too.

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