Water Saving Dishwashing

I was raised by a functional OCD parent, that means we had some odd rules at our house but no one was stopped by handwashing or rules about stepping on cracks on the sidewalk. The way that this manifested was in careful use of resources, we were environmental before our time! I didn't realize until halfway through high school that people were capable of taking longer than a 5 minute shower. We had a timer put in the bathroom as soon as we reached the daily shower age, and we felt certain our dad would follow through with his threat to turn off the water at 5 minutes so we never tried to go over. With the impact on our planet of so many people, and the focus on selling us wonderful water and energy saving devices, maybe the truly simple way will come back in fashion.

These careful tendancies were also influenced by a bizarre electrical billing system when we lived in the Colorado mountains. The highest usage period determined our monthly rate. I didn't understand it except that we had an energy usage meter in the kitchen that was set at a certain level. If we reached that level then it started to blare at us. We found quickly that the dryer could not be used at the same time as the oven and that running out of hot water too soon could through the entire deal into a tizzy.

As an adult I found I loved camping, cheap vacations, prime views, and some dirt. All those years of limits and careful conservation of resources were very helpful, even though my parents consider a town without a McDonald's roughing it. One limited resource while camping is definitely water. You haul it, pour it, boil it, and dump it out carefully. You also see something that most of us in modern cultures rarely see, exactly how much you use. Washing dishes is not my favorite chore in a modern kitchen, and outdoors it is even worse. I developed my prime camp dish washing techniques based on some elements of no trace camping (which you can never do with small children, we seem to always leave a few fishy crackers behind) and what I learned as a Girl Scout leader. After a camping trip I was so grateful for instant hot water but also very aware of how much water goes into washing dishes. So I used what I learned from camping to wash dishes at home. With no dishwasher for 2-3 years and one of the lowest water bills on the block I think I have a really good system.

Step one: get the dishes ready.

I fall into the bad habit of running water over the dishes and using the garbage disposal with even more running water but a simple solution is from Girl Scouts, use a spatula. You can use a dirty utensil or your finger if you are not squeamish, but scrape the plate well. You can use this whether you hand wash or use a dishwasher, and if you do not let food dry then you should need no additional water.

Step two: the washing bin

When I camp and at home I often use the largest cooking pot. Girl Scouts use a 3 bin system when they camp with large groups. At home you can use one sink, one large pan or a dish tub. You need a little bit of soap and really hot water, but where I differ from my grandmother's washing technique is in how much water I put in. I put in only a small amount, an inch or two, and then put in things like silverware or small plates. The hot water works the best even though that takes energy . One reason is that I have Raynaud's and my hands are not functional when really cold, and the other is that it really helps clean greasy dishes.

Step three: washing technique

I wash a few items and then run the water to rinse over them and into the washing tub. This adds needed water to the washing tub while rinsing but does not waste water by putting it down a drain. If you keep on using hot water then your wash tub should stay reasonably hot. When your wash tub gets full you can pour off some water into pans that may need to soak or you can rinse into another bin. If you rinse into a second bin you will collect enough water to rinse without running water too. The Girl Scout technique has three bins, a wash bin, a plain water rinse bin and a sanitizing bin with some bleach in it. At home we can usually skip the bleach rinse and just use two bins. By filling those bins with water as we rinse we are using minimal water overall.

If you find doing dishes about as dull as I do, and cannot coerce a family member into doing them for you, then this song should help you as you work.

"Scrape scrape scrape your plate, scrape it 'til it's clean. Wash it, rinse it, let it dry. That's the Girl Scout way!"