You can save money by saving time when you perform your ordinary household chores. Did you know that if you simply organize the dishwasher in a certain way you can trim minutes off your unloading time? This frees up that time for you to do other things and it really adds up day after day.
Most people load the cups and plates in the dishwasher in an orderly way but tend to ignore the cutlery. Have you found yourself putting the cutlery in the little basket in any slot your hand comes closest to?
Think about when you have to unload and have to spend time sorting the cutlery into spoons, knives and forks before you can put them away.
Why not sort the cutlery as you load the dishwasher and save yourself some time and headache in the end. Put all the spoons together, then the forks in another compartment and do the same for the knives.
That way they all go into their own little slots and then when it is time to unload you can just grab a handful from one slot and they are ready to be put into the drawer.
I started doing this some time ago and it really does help.
That is very true, I often rearrange the dishwasher if I have to because the more you can wash at once, the less washing you have to do. It certainly saves some money and is good for the environment as well.
Ok Mark. What you say certainly makes sense. Now I only use my dishwasher to dry my dishes since I wash them by hand in the sink…but I think other people who run their dishwashers need to take note.
I was going to ask you about handwashing! I handwash because my mom always said it saved money (on water). I was wondering if new dishwashers saved more money, but wasn’t sure.
By the way, you’ve been tagged for a meme at my blog!
One thing to be careful of if you organize your silverware is that they don’t stack on each other. I used to separate the forks/spoons/etc. into separate sections as you suggest, but often times the spoons would rest inside each other and then not get cleaned, forcing me to rewash them by hand anyway. That certainly didn’t save me any time!
I always hand wash my dishes. I don’t think the dishwasher can get things clean enough unless it is an industrial dishwasher.
If you handwash your dishes, you can save several hundred dollars by not buying a dishwasher in the first place. 🙂
My parents have a dishwasher now, but didn’t up until about 5 years ago. When I was a kid, we handwashed everything. We had a double sink – one half was for the washing, and the other half was for an in-sink drying rack. It worked out just fine – and even now my dad still handwashes the dishes that are “too dirty” for the dishwasher.
I did not buy the dishwasher. I live in an apartment complex and it comes with one. I only use the dishwasher to dry my dishes because I do not have a lot of counter space.
So 11 years later I am going to try to use my dishwasher for one full month. I will see how I feel and if I will go back to hand washing!