How to Hand-Wash Dishes Better
If you own a dishwasher but are washing your dishes by hand to save water, it may be time to rethink that. Today’s machines use much less water (and energy to heat the water) than hand-washing dishes does. Depending on the load, it might even be more efficient to run a half-full dishwasher than to wash those dishes by hand. That said, sometimes hand-washing is truly your only option, and you can still save soap and water by applying a few simple strategies.
If you’re grasping a slippery, unwieldy bottle with wet hands and squirting soap onto the sponge for each dish, it’s easy to dispense a bigger blob than you need. A pump dispenser can mete out a more-manageable dollop, but it can get tedious reaching for additional soap between scrubs.
We think it’s more efficient to wash your dishes en masse by filling a tub or sink with soapy water. (I like to plug my sink with OXO’s sink strainer and stopper, which has a silicone knob you can twist to stop or drain the sink.) To preserve the soapy water for as long as possible, start with the least-dirty dishes first. Once your water starts turning brown or losing suds, drain and replace it. (If you soaked crusty dishes to start with, drain that water first and fill it afresh.)
If you don’t have a tub or a double sink, you can dilute a small amount of soap in a container and then dip your sponge into the suds as you wash. Often you can get through an entire load of dishes with only one or two changes of this diluted soap.
