How to Wash Dishes By Hand

Wash dishes by hand when you have no dishwasher? Or how about when your dishes are not dishwasher safe?

Today on Ask a House Cleaner we learn how to wash dishes by hand, and the art of soaking pots and pans.

Angela Brown, The House Cleaning Guru answers questions on housekeeping. Should you wash dishes with running water? What kind of Dish soap or non-scratch scrub sponge should you use? Should you dry your dishes by hand and with what? What kind of dish drainer should you use?

When you wash dishes by hand does it consume more water? Or is there a better way to hand wash dishes? All these tips and more. Right here, right now.
#WashingDishes #Sponges #CleaningTips

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Ask a House Cleaner is a daily show where you get to ask house cleaning questions and we provide answers. Learn about decluttering, cleaning, and how to run a cleaning business.
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[tracesee]

I put the dish detergent diluted with water in a spray bottle with a touch of vinegar. I squirt the dishes with it and use a sponge to scrub, I stack them up, and then rinse them and put them in the rack, quick dry and put away. I saw my family in South Africa doing this and was amazed with how little dish soap they used. It also made keeping the kitchen clean amazingly simple and fast!

[gayemarianesfox]

Angela, the more videos I watch the more I love you. You cover everything! We hand wash our dishes even though we have a dishwasher.

[Irene-gqjr]

Never had a dishwasher and only use one when it's available if there's more than half a load as it takes so long. For me, it's fill the sink half full of hot water with a squirt of washing-up liquid, then start with the cleanest things first: cups and glasses, followed by cutlery, plates/bowls, then pots and pans. Anything greasy (e.g. breakfast fry-up pan) I scoop out the gubbings and wipe around with a paper towel first then squirt washing-up liquid in neat and wipe to break up the remaining fat before dooking in the soapy water. For plastic animal food bowls I keep a separate brush and wash them last in a smaller amount of soapy water, as they deserve clean dishes and grease clings to plastic, especially the underside. I give everything a quick rinse too. Dried-up pet food also sticks like shit to a blanket so I usually leave them to soak for 10 minutes before tackling them ;-)

Btw Angela, I'm not stalking you, just been binge watching your videos as I really enjoy your take on things. I deal with a lot of illogical, crazy-making people in my working day, so it's a sanity check to listen to your common sense and I'm sure I've said before most of your advice can be applied to life in general. Thanks sister!

[jeansavoy]

I love your idea of using the dishwasher rack when washing by hand. I took it a step further....pulled out the top rack and laid a towel on the opened door to catch the drips. I’m throwing away the dish rack I had in my double sink...yay!!!

[essiennetsolumba]

Great dishwashing tip! Such an awesome idea using dishwasher drain as dish drain too. Water conservation, who knew? Thank you!

[lovefortruth]

I literally saw someone comment on another video, who described a housecleaner who does this-use the bottom rack of the dishwasher! Thanks for this tip! I'm going to try this tonight! I still have a Foodi oven rack on the bottom of the wash side of my sink, and a very small cooling rack on my dirty side. I pre-rinse on my dirty side, move them over to the wash side, and clean the dirty side. Then I have a small dish with water and just a small drop of dish soap, for my dish cloth only, to keep the dish water clean. I wash a dish, THEN turn the water on to rinse both the cloth and dish at the same time. Then turn off the water while I place the dish on the pre-rinse side (now clean). Then I wash the next dish the same way. I do not leave water running between rinsing each dish. The reason for the racks is to keep from recontaminating or cross contaminating any dishes during each stage. Once the done side of the sink is full, .those dishes go on the drying matt. Having a rack at the bottom of the sink helps the washed dishes drip dry a little before putting them on The matt. When the matt is full, I can either dry them and put them away right away to continue washing dishes, or I can walk away and do other things and put them away later. It sounds like alot of work, but it's actually quite easy.

Oh, and one really weird tip, that actually works: wood ash from a wood stove or fireplace works really really well at removing coffee or tea stains, sauce stains or other food stains from porelain or ceramic dishes and cookware. And it's a great de-greasing agent as well. I keep a small plastic container in a dry cabinet next to my sink, and I do have rags saved specifically for really greasy or grimy kitchen jobs (dishes and stove top). So, on The pre-rinse side of the sink, if I have any greasy or stained items, I sprinkle some dry ash over the items . I'll wet the rag (do that before you sprinkle the ash)., and wipe down the dishes really well. Sometimes I need a little elbow grease, but not much. It de-greases and de-stains in seconds. Just be sure to wipe off any excess visible grease first, if there is any. Once I've treated them all, l spray them down with the faucet sprayer and move them over to the wash side.

I got that idea when I was frustrated over the coffee and tea stains in my mugs. I tried vinegar, baking soda, salt, and different combinations of all 3. None of them were working. Then, it dawned on me to grab my charcoal-based toothpaste. I figured, if it worked on teeth, it was worth a shot. And it worked pretty well. So, I decided to try wood ash, since you use wood ash to make a bed of coals for a fire. And that worked even better! All my dishes and cookware look brand new or virtually brand new, depending on how set-in the first stains were before I started doing this. And, they're grease-free on a mayter of seconds Just make sure to keep the ash in the container dry at all times, and don't leave wet ash on dishes too long.. it will harden, and can be toxic during the drying process. But if you are just doing the pre-treatmrnt and rinsing it off right away, it's perfectly fine to use. Also, if my regular dish cloth gets a little greasy inspite of efforts to de-grease dishs before washing them, I will sprinkle a little dry ash onto the cloth, rub it in a little then rinse it thoroughly. Then, it's ready to go into the wash.

[galemaurer]

The rules I learned for dish washing. 1. Crystal/cups/glasses 2. Plastics (because grease sticks to it) 3. silverware/cutlery, 4. Plates 5. serving dishes 6. Pots and pans.

[donnamcclish]

I live in a small house with a large sink in the kitchen. I can fit a dishpan in the sink and still have enough space to separately rinse my dishes, etc.

[glynette]

For baked-on food, I toss a clean dryer sheet in the pan with a little hot water. After a few minutes, it’s very easy to clean the pan.

[denisehill]

Tip I came across many years ago for burnt-on food in saucepans - use a tablespoon or less of biological soap powder and leave it to soak. This also works with non-bio powder and you can set the pan on to boil. This tip came in so handy when I worked in a school kitchen as potwasher - you can imagine huge vats with burned-on custard at the bottom :(

[catinahawkins]

Super Simple is my ideal as well. Believe it or not I don't Evan use my dishwasher and it's brand new. I believe strongly in washing dishes by hand. It's an old habit. Comes from my mom, and it makes me feel like I'm not lazy.

[josephward]

I do a lot of heavy cooking and baking, so some food is going to get baked on, regardless of how fast I get around to washing. For these baked on messes, I can't live without my plastic dish scraper -- it's the only thing that works on some jobs. A metal scraper is even acceptable sometimes. For regular washing, I use a non-shredding aluminum sponge. I personally just hate when sponges shred because it destroys my motivation to wash dishes, and then they stay dirty, so I found a special kind that doesn't shred. A lot of the time, I like to "pressure wash" my dishes with a high-pressure faucet spray because it gets a lot of the food off without scrubbing and also keeps my sponge cleaner; this is especially effective if you can do it before the food dries on. To prevent spray from getting everywhere, keep the spray low down into the sink when you use it. For tall glasses and bottles, I love my bottle brush on the inside (not the outside). Finally, I have 2 dish drying mats. When one mat is dirty, I put it into the washing machine and switch to the other one. That way I always have a clean mat ready to go. And mats are good looking enough that I don't have to worry about hiding them when guests come over.

[NdnUrbanCat]

But Angela. If I turn the water on full blast as I rinse the dishes, I clean my shirt at the same time!

[cindycox]

I do dishes similar, to Angela. I have a basin with plug that I put dishes in to soak and I put soap on scotch Brite sponge then scrub dishes, then rinse with hot water then put in dish rack. Also at night, I clean dish rack sponges and basin and rag and set on paper towl to dry overnight.

[JennyB]

Got some great tips, for no dish washer . Thx

[jndominica]

The dish drainer pan can be cleaned by leaving citric acid in it for a day. The dripping water isn't entirely clean, but contains small amount of dish soap or soda, which I use often for cleaning coffee stains. I use nitrile household gloves to avoid hurting my hands in the cold season, except with very greasy items because the rubber will soak up the smell. The gloves can be used to scrub hard and don't stick to glass.

[poetc]

Use bottom rack...towel...change it on the reg....You changed my life....Thank you

[lovefortruth]

I tried the bottom rack of the dish washer idea. I love it! When I only have a few small dishes to wash (like after my Morning tea, or when I wash pet fishes), I still will just use the drying mstt. But when I'm making dinner or doing any kind of prep-ahead food prep, I just pull pull out the bottom rack rack before I start the prep and place it on top of the drying matt. It fits perfectly on the matt. It fits wz6 more items than a bad8c dish d4ainvwithout 5aking up much m9re space on my counter.

[johndeaux]

College kid "h". How bout us old guzzlers who now hafta do the kitchen thing on our own. Used to be someone else--now...thats me. Love your channel. Tells me useful stuff....

[Oontaka]

Some good ideas. I would wash the dish, rinse it and put it on the drainer. Then with the water off, do the next dish. This way, you are not handling each dish twice.