Instead I, like you, wash all dishes by hand in the sink. There's only two of us and we eat simple meals with few dishes. My algorithm (I have two sinks):
1. Foreach dish:
- squirt dish with water-soap solution,
- stack dish into sink.
2. Leave dishes in sink for 5-15 minutes, allowing the water-soap solution to soak/penetrate food cruft, Good time for a cup of coffee!
3. Turn on (hot or cold) water and
Foreach dish:
- clean and rinse,
- set on drying rack or in 2nd sink.
4. Dry and put up dishes as required.
The trick is in step (2) to allow the soap solution time to penetrate oil-based food cruft. Once that happens cleanup and rubbing is minimal. I use a soap-water solution of 1 part dishwashing soap(e.g., Dawn) to 9 parts water.
I once was a firm believer in the dogma that
"civilization is based upon soap and hot water." until some Taiwanese graduate students took offense and insisted that hot water was unnecessary! Further experimentation indeed revealed that cold water sufficed with a slightly longer soak time.
I can wash our dishes in 10 minutes or less after dinner. If I'm cooking I can wash any dishes as required as cooking proceeds. There's no way I use more water than a dishwashing machine does.
Disclaimer: I should admit that from childhood until college I was the chief dishwasher for a family of 12 and so was obsessed with the optimization of dishwashing/drying, that several college jobs involved commercial dishwashing and that, at an early age, my father told me that "there is probably a best way to do anything, or almost anything!" (whilst showing me how to properly sweep a driveway).
Some disruption occurred when I left home for college since the primary dishwasher/clothes-folder/putter-upper was now absent. Those tasks and others were dispersed to younger family members whom I had unfortunately failed to train.
Instead I, like you, wash all dishes by hand in the sink. There's only two of us and we eat simple meals with few dishes. My algorithm (I have two sinks):
1. Foreach dish:
- squirt dish with water-soap solution,
- stack dish into sink.
2. Leave dishes in sink for 5-15 minutes, allowing the water-soap solution to soak/penetrate food cruft, Good time for a cup of coffee!
3. Turn on (hot or cold) water and
Foreach dish:
- clean and rinse,
- set on drying rack or in 2nd sink.
4. Dry and put up dishes as required.
The trick is in step (2) to allow the soap solution time to penetrate oil-based food cruft. Once that happens cleanup and rubbing is minimal. I use a soap-water solution of 1 part dishwashing soap(e.g., Dawn) to 9 parts water.
I once was a firm believer in the dogma that "civilization is based upon soap and hot water." until some Taiwanese graduate students took offense and insisted that hot water was unnecessary! Further experimentation indeed revealed that cold water sufficed with a slightly longer soak time.
I can wash our dishes in 10 minutes or less after dinner. If I'm cooking I can wash any dishes as required as cooking proceeds. There's no way I use more water than a dishwashing machine does.
Disclaimer: I should admit that from childhood until college I was the chief dishwasher for a family of 12 and so was obsessed with the optimization of dishwashing/drying, that several college jobs involved commercial dishwashing and that, at an early age, my father told me that "there is probably a best way to do anything, or almost anything!" (whilst showing me how to properly sweep a driveway).
Some disruption occurred when I left home for college since the primary dishwasher/clothes-folder/putter-upper was now absent. Those tasks and others were dispersed to younger family members whom I had unfortunately failed to train.