The Dishwasher - Friend or Frenemy?

So before everyone throws stones and accuses me of blasphemy, let me preface this by saying that these are the random thoughts and ramblings of a slightly overtired mom, you may take this with a grain of salt if you wish.

Ok, so this all started when some random piece in my dishwasher came off and we couldn't figure out how to re-attach it so we left it off.

 Poor, broken dishwasher

Soon I realized my dishes weren't getting very clean and obviously that little part was important.

There isn't money in the budget for a new dishwasher at the moment so I just started handwashing my dishes. So after a couple weeks of hand washing my dishes I realized something.

My dishes were always clean. 

Almost always put away.

I was spending less time in the evening washing dishes.

Very. Peculiar.

So here are some thoughts. How helpful are dishwashers really? 

We load it full of dishes throughout the day.

Meanwhile the number of spoons in the drawer is dwindling.

45 glasses are used in one day.

You usually forget to TURN IT ON.

If you remembered to turn it on, you have to UNLOAD all of those dishes.

This usually doesn't happen till the next day.

Here is what I am finding. We have breakfast. While the kids are playing I wash up the dishes and put them in the strainer. Takes about 5 minutes. A couple hours later i'll notice they are dry and put them away. Another 2 minutes. I do the same for lunch.

So here comes dinner time and I actually have eating utensils and glasses! The dinner dishes clean up surprisingly quickly and sometimes I'll even put them away before I go to bed.

 

Clean and happy dishes

I wake up with clean dishes and nothing to put away. Maybe it's all in my head. Maybe I am nuts. But I am kind of enjoying my dishwasher not working. It makes me wonder if we are just being duped into thinking that dishwashers save time. Is this some sort of ploy by appliance companies to sell a huge, space wasting, waste of time? 

I don't know, but I am starting to wish that I could put it away and just take it out for big family dinners and Thanksgiving dinner.

So who knows? Maybe I'll change my tune soon, but the overwhelming feeling of accomplishment (and the constant supply of spoons) is making me put off a new dishwasher for just a little longer ;)