
On Rotating The Dishes - blasdel
http://greg.org/archive/2010/01/08/on_rotating_the_dishes.html
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DLWormwood
The guy who wrote this must have forgotten what it's like to be single...

As a "convicted bachelor," I can tell you that I don't just use one dish at
the top of the stack. I go through the stack over the course of a week, and
put a week's worth (or more) of dishes in the wash bin or dishwasher
(depending on current apartment amenities) all at once. In other words, I
treat the existence of a stack of dishes in the cupboard as an excuse to put
off doing dishes in the first place...

Or to put it back on HN terms, I don't perform garbage collection until
memory's full...

~~~
traveler
> I don't just use one dish at the top of the stack

I'm a bachelor as well; you should re-consider how big your stack is in the
first place. Why do you have more than 2 of anything?

~~~
nfnaaron
Hope springs eternal.

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drewcrawford
My plan is as follows:

1\. Get two dishwashers

2\. Put all the "clean" dishes in one dishwasher

3\. As the dishes are used, put them in the other dishwasher

4\. Once they're all dirty, run the dishwasher

5\. Repeat from step 3.

This system has the following advantages:

* Even rotation of dishes (and dishwashers!)

* Cupboards available for other storage--all dishes in a dishwasher

* No time spent putting away and getting out dishes

Surprisingly, my girlfriend approves.

I am currently practicing this algorithm with dirty+clean hampers for my
clothes (I travel a lot). I've saved myself the aggregate time of moving my
clothes from closets to boxes and back once a month.

~~~
joshu
There's a dishwasher from Fisher/Paykel that has two dishwasher drawers in a
normal-sized dishwasher container.

[http://www.fisherpaykel.com/product/dishwashing/dishwashing/...](http://www.fisherpaykel.com/product/dishwashing/dishwashing/index.cfm?productuid=8ADF6D84-ECDA-64A2-D9252486AAD0A762)

I've heard they leak a bit, though.

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joshwa
My algorithm:

1\. 4-6 dishes are kept on the shelf (household size: 2)

2\. When we eat, I pull the top 2 dishes from the shelf

3\. Dishes get washed and put in drying rack

4\. Next time we eat, we pull from the shelf.

5\. In order to wash the dishes, we have to remove the dishes from the rack
(our drying rack is pretty small). Sometimes we can fit two or three cycles on
the rack, it doesn't make that much difference. When pulling the dishes off
the drying rack back to the shelf, a random picking order is used.

6\. Sometimes the dishes get left in the sink for a few cycles until they get
washed

7\. We have parties once every few months where all the plates come out, and
go to the rack, then get randomly picked and split to the shelf and cabinet.

After a few cycles the wear should be evenly distributed.

\---

* shelf => L1 cache

* table => cpu

* sink => L2 cache

* rack => write buffer

* cabinet => non-volatile storage

(or something like that.)

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wallflower
I employ my drying rack as a cache of frequently-used dishes and utensils.
Items are usually retrieved using a LIFO scheme (easier to get items near
top). Only occassionally is there a cache-miss requiring a cabinet lookup and
retrieval. Every once in a while I have to empty the cache completely for
guests but the cache is refilled after the exception condition.

At the bottom of the article, there is a link to a well-written essay by Roger
Ebert on losing his ability to eat and drink.

<http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/01/nil_by_mouth.html>

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arohner
I have the more generic version of this neuroticism. I see things in real life
that use one data structure, and should be using another. This is clearly an
example of using a stack, when he should be using a queue!

~~~
Devilboy
A queue is more expensive because you either need more shelf resources or you
need to do more work.

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chronomex
My parents have this solved. They always put the dishes back on the bottom of
the stack. It takes a bit of juggling but it ensures completely even wear.

But then, I grew up in a large household and it wasn't uncommon to go through
nearly the whole stack in a day.

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philwelch
You could circumvent this problem entirely by not owning too many dishes in
the first place. Some problems don't _need_ to be solved.

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GavinB
If you randomly shuffle them every few months, that should do it. Each dish
will get roughly equal time as the "frequent use" dish.

