My “If You Can Pick It Up” Rule for Washing Dishes That My Family Follows Every Single Day (It’s Amazingly Efficient)
Dishwashers, along with paper towels, have to be one of the hottest spots of contention in the kitchen. People have strong feelings about how dishwashers should be loaded, whether utensils go up or down, and even whether or not to prerinse your dishes. I don’t really care all that much about most of the dishwasher debates as long as the dishes get clean and nothing gets warped from being on the wrong rack — but if the subject of prerinsing comes up? You’ll probably get an earful.
I grew up in a household where we had to prerinse or the dishes came out of the dishwasher with baked-on food that required more work to wash off than if we had just hand-washed them in the first place. But, as I learned more about how dishwashers and detergent work, I found that in most modern dishwashers (which are much more powerful and efficient than the one I grew up with), dishes should absolutely not be prerinsed. There are two main reasons: 1. Dishes that the dishwasher’s sensors read as “clean” will not receive as strong of a wash cycle; and 2. The detergent gets activated when it comes into contact with food particles. (Learn more about the dirty-dish phenomenon here.)
However — and this is a super important point — not prerinsing doesn’t mean you can just put plates straight from the table into the dishwasher. If you put food with large particles into the dishwasher, these get stuck in the dishwasher’s filter, causing not only a much nastier task when it comes time to clean your filter, but odors and a less efficient dishwasher in the meantime.
How My “If You Can Pick It Up” Dishwashing Rule Works
To convey this nuanced approach to my family of seven, who know they’re not supposed to prerinse but who are sometimes guilty of putting dishes with way too much food left on them in the dishwasher, I came up with a household rule: If you can pick it up, don’t put it in the dishwasher.
The “it” refers to food particles stuck on dishware, and with this rule, the dishes that get put in the dishwasher can be dirty with things like soup broth or egg yolk, but bigger things like bits of lettuce or sunflower seeds don’t make the cut. Essentially, the result is the same as if I just told everyone to scrape their dishes into the sink so the garbage disposal would deal with the larger particles, but the “If You Can Pick It Up” rule has given everyone a visual metric that has proven much easier to follow consistently (even the youngest kids!).
A dishwasher loaded with dishes that are dirty but not too dirty means the appliance runs its best; it won’t recirculate germs, and it won’t have to work harder than it needs to because the filter will be clear. Additionally, this will help keep your dishwasher from emanating gnarly odors from old food bits, which will make your entire kitchen feel fresher. Ultimately, following the “If You Can Pick It Up rule” rule empowers us to take care of our dishwasher so it can take the best care of us.
What do you think of the “If You Can Pick It Up” rule? Let us know in the comments below!
Further Reading
The One Cookware Brand That Gordon Ramsay Can’t Stop Talking About
Tuscan Chicken Is the "Most Delicious" Dinner of All Time, Says Everyone Who's Tried It
Reese’s Just Launched a Limited-Edition Peanut Butter Cup, and It Tastes 4x Better than the Original
