Seven people live in our house.
Seven people eat, and when they do, they often eat off of plates. They also use spoons and forks, and even cups and sometimes bowls! Shocking, I know.
To make the food for the seven people to eat, I use pots and pans and knives and cutting boards and mixing bowls and spatulas.
Do you know what happens when seven people eat the food that one momma made from scratch in her kitchen? We’ve got dishes, my friends.
DISHES.
And while there’s never a shortage of dishes to wash in this house, we are missing that coveted appliance of convenience: the dishwasher.
As much as I’d love to just wish for the dirty dishes to go away or clean themselves, they don’t. Dishwashing is one of those jobs that absolutely needs done, like I mentioned in the last post.
And since we can’t get away with hiding the dirty rascals under the bed, and I can’t bring myself to switch to all disposable items, we’ve had to figure out a way to make dishwashing work for our family of 7 when we don’t have a dishwasher.
What Hasn’t Worked for Us
We’ve tried a few different approaches to managing the sinkloads of dishes that just haven’t worked well for us.
Having Our Children Wash Them
I wish this worked better for us! I’m a big fan of expecting children to work around the house, but when we made them our dish washers, things didn’t go well.
- Dishes were often left with food residue.
- Dishes were often left with soap residue.
- Dishes were often broken.
The last reason was really the tipping point for us giving up on our children being the dishwashers. I rarely use plastic in my kitchen, and glass items were often dropped when they were slippery with soap.
Until they are a little older and have larger hands, we’ve decided to put a hold on them washing dishes. If we don’t have a dishwasher in a year or so, we’ll probably give this another trial.
Saving Them for the End of the Day
You can probably imagine what the result of this method was.
Mount Dishmore was so massive by the end of the day that it was utterly overwhelming.
I have to be honest and admit that sometimes, on really crazy days, dishes occasionally aren’t done until the very end of the day, but we typically make sure that doesn’t happen.
Doing Them After Every Time the Sink Is Full
I’m not a great multitasker when it comes to doing different jobs from different roles at the same time. I have to stay focused on one area of my life at a time.
If I try doing dishes after every meal, snack, and food prep time, I get stuck into cleaning mode and have trouble refocusing on the rest of our day. This method might work well for some, but it just doesn’t for me.
What Has Worked for Us
Instead of doing them all at the end of the day, or every time the sink is full, or just having our littles do it, here’s what we’ve found helps us stay on top of dishes.
- My son puts all the clean dishes away in the morning before we eat breakfast. It’s his special “Ways to Help” job from his weekly checklist.
- I let the dishes pile up after breakfast and lunch, and I don’t worry about them. I’m homeschooling, and I try to focus on that.
- Before I make dinner for the night, I wash the day’s dishes. Then I work on dinner.
- Dinner prep and dinner dishes pile up, and we wash them after we eat while the previously washed dishes are put away.
- Any other dishes that accumulate through the evening are washed before bed, typically piled up on the clean ones already drying.
Sometimes this doesn’t work out they way I’d like, but when we keep up on washing dishes at those 2 or 3 key times of the day, they aren’t as terrible as they could be.
This is similar to our situation: 5 kids, no dishwasher. Our 8/9 year olds have been able to handle everyday dishes fairly well, as long as we use a quality soap – the cheap ones don’t get the grease off plastic. They wash immediately after breakfast & dinner. I help with extra large/fragile items. But I struggle to keep up with pots & pans, they tend to be rinsed after using and washed as needed. I’m very much looking forward to the dishwasher at our new house when we move in a few months. Those younger years when I was the sole washer for 5 ppl was depressing.
Yay for getting a kitchen with a dishwasher soon! We were able to add one to our kitchen a couple years after I wrote this and I can’t imagine being without it now. It often runs twice a day! And our family is up to 10 people now, so it gets a workout. Glad you have a light at the end of your dishwashing tunnel!
Love this!! Our dishwasher hadn’t worked in a year and it’s definitely a challenge figuring out the routine with little ones. I try to get them all done at least 1x/day usually right before lunch and again right before supper. If I’m making supper I try to wash all the prep dishes before calling everyone to eat. Thankful my husband takes the little ones a couple times in the day which helps so much.
Sounds like you have a good system going! As our family grew, we were able to get a dishwasher. And the couple times its been out of commission I’ve missed it SO much!
Great ideas! We are a family of 6 and hand wash everything too. The key for me was to only keep out the amount of plates that we NEED for each meal- so we have 4 kids spoons, 4 kids forks, 2-3 adult forks, etc). That way, it only takes me less than 5 mins to wash up the dishes after each meal (dinner takes a bit longer bcs of pots/ pans) but forcing myself to wash up quickly bcs we will NEED them in a couple hours has helped me a ton! (I keep extra plates and silverware up high in the kitchen for when we have company. )
Great ideas for your family, Brandie!
I’m currently a family of 3. Soon to be 4, I don’t have that many dishes in general, but I e tended to get very far behind on my dishes since moving to a house with no dishwasher, in the country. I’ve told myself I’ll do them at night before bed or I’ll do them in the am or after lunch. I always end up doing them right before dinner and then half of them are left to pile with dinner dishes and the mountain continues. How can I keep up with these dishes before baby comes? Note: I’ve been very depressed throughout my pregnancy.
Hi Summer. It can be hard keeping up with jobs when you have a little one. I understand! My best suggestion, especially if you’ve been struggling with depression, is to talk to your husband about teaming up to stay on top of them. I saw your other comment about him being tired after working all day, but you’re also working hard all day to grow a baby. Depending on how old your other child is, you might also enlist him/her to work with you, even if it’s just drying and putting things away. Sending you support!
I whine and procrastinate… I have paid my best friend many times to wash them for me when she is broke… Win win… If I get over whelmed I pile a bunch in a tote and throw that bad boy in the shower to spray them all down to soak…. I wish for cleaning fairies… In the end… I just have to force myself to wash them… They won’t clean themselves:(
Oh Ginger… your comment made me smile because I so understand the dread! We do have a dishwasher now which I’m always so thankful for. A couple times it’s been out of commission and we’re back to handwashing everything it takes a bit of determination to stay on top of them all. I hope you’re able to find a system that makes it a little less painful for you soon.
LOL! I would take my silverware and throw them in the washing machine before we had a dishwasher! I don’t feel so bad now 🙂
That’s funny! I bet it was noisy when it went through the spin cycle!
Many hands make light work 🙂 . I always had them wash in pairs, and yes in my house it did work for the children to do it, there were a few mishaps, but overall it worked great. My best tip, get the metal camping dishes, usually blue or green or red speckled. The metal dishes were a cute look, kinda cowboy campfire style, and did not break. They are better than than plastic which was often hard to get anything with oily base cleaned. We also have an appointed cup per person. Now most of mine are grown and we have a much smaller task, but you know what,? Sharing here made me realize what fond memories I have of children in the kitchen cleaning up , and girls wearing aprons. Thank you Kristen.
Right before we got a dishwasher last year (and about 6 months after I wrote this post), I was seriously thinking about getting the camping dishes for that very reason! Sounds like it’s a great plan for big families with lots of dishes.
So glad I found this! My hubby went on a one night business trip so I am holding down the fort. I am a food/lifestyle blogger and my kitchen currently looks like I’m losing a game of Jumanji…at 9:15pm. I’m 35 weeks pregnant and standing at the sink is so uncomfortable but hubs isn’t home until tomorrow. I run a home daycare so it is just piles everywhere! We have a dishwasher but how a few toddlers can produce such a heap is unbelieveable! I need a better routine. Thanks for sharing!
Whew, Victoria, you are a busy momma right now! And I so commiserate with you about being pregnant and not wanting to stand at the sink. That was always the worst! I hope this gave you some new ideas to try so you can make a plan that works for you. Thanks for stopping by!
I totally get your struggle. I’m in the same boat though only difference is. I do all the cooking, dishes, cleaning & laundry all myself. My hubby works all day & is “tired” when he comes home. Sleeps in on weekends to catch up on sleep. & this mamas left doing it all. & currently 35 weeks pregnant on Saturday as well. Only problem right now is we just moved to a country house with NO dishwasher and we currently do not have a washer and dryer & im having a baby in 5 weeks. I am so stressed. I’m in nesting mode and I can’t clean or do anything right now until I do laundry and get a dresser for mine and hubby’s clothes. As ours broke during move.
Life of being a mom!!
I could have written this post (except we are a homeschooling family of 6 rather than 7). I tried the same failed methods and settled on the same successful dish washing routine. It just seems that if I’m in the kitchen making dinner, it’s a logical time to get the dishes done. I just haven’t figured out how to hide the huge pile of dishes when we have unexpected company before that time. To people who live alone, it must look like they’ve been sitting for days. I don’t think they realize how many dishes are used each day for breakfast, lunch and snacks!
I think it makes a lot of sense to work with them this way as a busy family. Oh boy… when company comes, they just have to realize that big families make bigger messes! 🙂
Well, not everyone who lives alone is stupid. 🙂 I’m sure most people can do the simple math that more people = more dishes, and that no one is judging you as harshly as you fear they may be.
While I don’t think Sandra meant to imply that those who live alone are stupid, I will say that on many occasions, my single friends that have come to visit have actually pitched right in and helped me get caught up on dishes. So appreciated! The mound by and in the sink could sometimes seem quite shocking. 😉
I put a dish pan under my sink to hide and hold dishes in between washing times. Don’t know if that might work in some way?
That’s clever, Kayla!
I guess I am the only insane one WITH a dishwasher that I never use. We also have 5 kids (all under 7), and I just don’t like to use it. Our system is that we only own a small number of dishes and we wash after every meal. Our older two switch meal duties between drying and putting away dishes and cleaning table and sweeping. This way it only takes about 10 minutes after meals to clean up, I get to spend a few minutes with whichever is dish helper, and we all get a little break from school. It has worked really well for us and I don’t miss my dishwasher at all! In fact, my husband is going to take it out and put in one of those pull out garbage cans instead!
You have my sincerest admiration, Robin! I think it’s awesome if you’ve found a dish washing routine that works for you and your family, and I like how you have a teamwork approach to it. I hope it continues to work well for you! I have heard from a few other ladies now and then that just really prefer hand washing dishes to using the dishwasher. So you’re not totally alone and insane! 😉
My mom refuses to use the dishwasher I gave her. She says she LIKES washing dishes… while I think she may be slightly nutters, I like doing laundry…. 🙂
Like you, I put the clean dishes away in the morning. I let breakfast dishes pile up and while Im prepping lunch I go ahead and fill the sink with hot water and wash the fee breakfast dishes and whatever I use for lunch and after weve eaten lunch I go ahead and get those out of the way too. Usually the sink is pretty empty when I prep dinner- maybe a few occassional cups or plates but I start another sink of dish water and wash as I go for dinner so that after dinner I rinse everyones plates and start washing those while everyone else cleans up the table and floor. The sink isnt constantly empty but it stays managable that way for me.
That sounds very much like us! With this many people in the house, the sink doesn’t stay empty long. But we do try to keep it as manageable as we can!
I can’t even imagine! I told my husband we could by our house ONLY if he put a dishwasher in. Even with only 4 of us, I still do dishes a couple times a day. It’s crazy.
When we bought our current home, I mentioned not having a dishwasher and wasn’t sure about it. My husband wasn’t concerned a bit. Things changed once our fourth and fifth children joined us! We are so ready to redo our kitchen and add one, but projects have to be ordered. So until then… we scrub, scrub, scrub! The older are children are starting to get better at it, too.
Funny when Ive left town I will put away alot of dishes so the men are only facing cleaning the same few. Also, not breaking any of my favorites.
When I was growing up–starting when I was nine or ten–I helped with the dishes, and then my siblings did too when they got old enough. My brother and I each had our assigned days to do dishes, usually every other, and then Mom did them on Sundays. But we didn’t just do dishes. On our “day” we would put away food after meals, clear and wipe the counters, wipe the table, sweep the floor, and wash all the dishes and rinse out the sink. If we happened to go to bed with any dishes left in the sink, Dad might come get us and make us finish up!
As well-trained as I was, since being married I’m not quite as disciplined with the dishes. When I was in college but only working part-time I kept up with them pretty well, but that has not been the case since I’ve started a full-time job (and I’m still working on my master’s besides). We probably have too many dishes, despite a pretty small kitchen, because with just the two of us dishes can pile up for two or three days before we start running out of things. Then, of course, it’s a huge gross pile and I dread attacking it. But I LOVE going to bed–and even more, waking up–with a clean kitchen, so I do try. 🙂 Right now my kitchen is pretty clean, other than the floor, and I am a happy camper!
I found it funny that your routine, is the same general dish washing routine at our house! =] I do feel overwhelmed, if I let a huge stack pile up-so sometimes while cooking supper, I will wash a few of th dishes before I sit down for supper IF I have the time. Sometimes the “after dinner slump”, doesn’t make me feel so energetic and a big pile can seem so daunting. =]
There have been a few times though, that our 7 year old son has washed dishes when we are getting ready to go somewhere in a hurry-I always feel better to have dishes done-even if I have to check over them later as I put them away. =]
Yep, just like our family!