

A minimalist approach to washing the dishes - glomph
http://farbeyondthestars.wordpress.com/2011/02/11/a-minimalist-approach-to-washing-the-dishes/

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drostie
The story of the fastest enlightenment in Zen has to do with washing:

    
    
        A monk came to Joshu, asking, "Master, I just entered the monastery:
            may I have my first lesson?"
        Joshu asked, "Have you eaten your rice?"
        He replied, "Yes, I've eaten."
        "Then you had better wash your bowl."
        In that moment the monk was enlightened.
    

To also address the point of the blog, the basic reason to let dishes pile up
is to increase efficiency in their washing: but it also increases the cost of
doing the dishes. Right when the dirt is still liquid is the easiest time to
wash that dirt off; you often do not need soap unless there was something
unusually sticky (tomato sauce, turmeric, butter) involved in the food. Leave
it for several days and then you must soak it and then scrub each dried-leek
bit off of the plate.

In my last apartment, this was very clear. I was generally the only person who
washed dishes, so I always ended up washing a sink-full of my housemates'
dishes when I did my own. It was a good lesson in patience, since it is easy
to claim unfairness in such a situation: but the real core of the matter is
that you want a clean kitchen and it's not going to happen unless you clean
it, no matter who is "to blame." (In this sense I learned that blame is not
very practical and will probably need to be replaced in my life with something
better.) The whole house was like that, caked with years of grime built up.
Slowly but surely, one room at a time, it could all be cleaned. The stove was
the worst. "I thought our stove was yellow?" said my roommate. "Was yellow,
past tense," I said -- there was a beautiful white stove underneath yearning
to be set free.

The blog post comments that it's a problem with appreciating honest toil, when
you let the dishes pile up rather than just doing them. This might be true. It
might also be a problem with deferring gratification, as I noticed that the
dishes were neglected for the sake of watching television or YouTube. It might
also be that they simply treat these things as an abstraction layer; like
someone who does not sharpen their chef's knife, it implements the interface
`knife.cut(x)` in some functionally pure and undecaying sense; the idea of
`sharpen(knife)` is too real-world and stateful.

~~~
Chris2048
I had a house-mate who cleaned things by washing them under a running hot tap.
Doing this after every meal seemed like a massive waste of hot water because:

a) the running water barely touched the item before going down the drain

b) does it need to be as hot as the tap is able to produce?

On the other hand, I usually pre-wash stuff in warm water with heavy washing-
up fluid, to get rid of grease and large pieces of food, then a hotter, more
detailed wash to get rid of small stuck on particles and residue. Then maybe a
cold rinse to get rid of the soapy water. Then I leave things to air-dry.

A solution to things getting dried-on is to put dirty dishes in water to
'soak', then it should get easier to clean them over time, instead of harder
(although it does mean your dirtier dishes will dirty you cleaner one, but
maybe this is just more incentive to clean them properly?).

I try to 'batch' things when I can, rather than doing dishes as needed, but
the sink might need to be used in the meanwhile, and some people have a chip
on their shoulder about having dirty dishes in a sink.

Maybe this is wasteful too, but it annoys me when people dry things with dirty
residue on them - if you "clean" something with yellow, greasy water, it isn't
clean!

~~~
drostie
What's very common in the Netherlands is simply to have a medium-sized plastic
bowl which can take up a little over half your sink. (It can be square and
bucket-ish but it should not be inconveniently large.)

The idea is that you let a thin stream of hot water come out of the tap;
glasses and other aesthetic things get rinsed first, aiming the dirty water
that runs off of them down the drain. This is why the wash-bowl does not fill
up the whole sink. Once those are done the extra water is still clean and
clear in the wash-bowl, so you can add some soap and do the plates and other
greasy dishes: just let the dirty water fall out into the drain. This solves
the "cleaning with dirty water" problem; you never soak the dishes in the
water, so they never have to contaminate it.

Another water-saving measure I've seen is simply not to _rinse_ soapy-water
dishes but to let them briefly drip-dry and then dry them with a dishcloth:
this gets the soap off without using extra water. I mean, it's a first-world
country and they've got lots of water to spare but I'm glad to see that the
Dutch "no inefficiencies" demeanor means that they make an effort anyway.

~~~
Chris2048
I try to avoid dishcloth drying, as they can harbour germs :-D That said, it
can also wipe of minerals (hard water)

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shawabawa3
Holy shit why has everyone on this website become such a dick?

Almost every article is instantly bombarded with "holy crap this is terrible"
style comments.

The article is based on his observation that people who do the dishes being
happier/more organised/more productive people. Anecdotally, I've also noticed
this.

You don't have to listen to his advice but you also don't have to insult
people who are giving advice based on their life.

~~~
pedalpete
Language Shawa, I get your anger (well, I don't but I think some people do),
but I don't see the need for such profanity and name calling as it brings you
down to the level of those you're targetting.

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eertami
>Make the decision now to start doing your dishes after every meal

Or I could just.. not, considering it harms nobody and then I don't have to do
chores immediately after eating my dinner. I get the impression the writer has
a case of OCD here.

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bjourne
I fall firmly in the "can't do dishes" camp with week(s) old dishes in the
sink. I've been this way in over 30 years so I'm beginning to think that the
condition is uncurably permanent. Blog posts like this telling me that doing
dishes more frequently is good has not helped. Thing is, it is hard or even
impossible for a disher to understand a non-dishers perspective, so their
advice may not be applicable. I wonder if anyone as an adult has successfully
transformed themselves to a dish-after-every-meal type?

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willemmerson
Finally, something on HN that I actually understand. I get what the writer is
saying but have a few reservations:

\- sometimes it's easier to wash things after you've left them to soak
overnight or for a few hours

\- it doesn't make sense to do the washing up for one teaspoon, it's better to
wait until it all accumulates and then do it all in one go (that's my excuse,
anyway)

\- I highly doubt that doing other people's washing up will make them do their
washing up

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michielvoo
As an experienced procrastinator I can tell you that doing the dishes is an
excellent way to procrastinate. Yes, my kitchen looks great, but I'm just
trashing (e.g. not executing, after the dishes are done I will clean up some
more, then get a cup of tea and pet my cat). So that's another data to
consider...

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Zarkonnen
Wow. This is incredibly judgmental. You're assuming that everyone else
functions and succeeds in the same way you do. If I knew that someone I was
going to work with even half-seriously judged people on the status of their
sink -- I'm not sure I would want to work with them anymore.

~~~
verbin217
If I knew someone judged my judgement of their petty behavior -- I might not
want to work with _them_ anymore!

That was facetious and ostensibly hypocritical but in all seriousness I judge
people constantly and they rarely measure up. This should be true for most
people. We can only judge what we're aware of and what we're aware of we're
usually good at. I realize (everyone's different | ymmv | to each his own |
etc). I still think I know whats best for people in a few domains. Sometimes
I'm wrong but that hasn't stopped me. I've encountered enough people like you
to know that if I try to help them, even if it's completely earnest, they'll
think I'm being condescending. Now I bite my tongue and worry about the person
who could be helping me but is instead silently judging.

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gori
Yes, life is that binary, either you're with us or with the terrorists, either
you do your dishes or you don't. Wat.

~~~
verbin217
It wasn't _that_ rigid. The dishes dichotomy is likely some indication of a
person's conscientiousness and most the observations are merely an extension
of that. Also, it was all prefaced with this: "Please note, I’m being a little
silly here. Don’t take me too seriously. I do believe doing the dishes is
beneficial, but I got a little carried away in how I explained things. Please
forgive the slightly humor that attempted poorly to employ."

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mvkel
As a minimalist, I just use my minimal dishwasher.

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DoubleCluster
My sink is dirty, but my work is clean.

