Is there a sanitary way to reduce our daily dishwashing?

Seconding David Fleming. We use one glass per day, sometimes two days, although we mostly drink water which may help. I also wipe the rim of mine occasionally with a napkin to keep lip balm from building up there, but I'd probably do that even if I only used a glass per hour. I'll also use a plate for crackers, or a dryish sandwich, then keep it in "plate purgatory" (a spot on the counter) until I need a plate again. But, if you're not eating very greasy food (we're vegan, so that happens a lot), you can just rinse the plate. This is quicker than washing and will save lots of water. This method is made possible because we're lucky enough not to have ever had bugs in the kitchen at this place. If I were living in some of my college accommodations, I'd probably keep my plate in the refrigerator. I'll also put a big serving of something in a bowl, eat part of it, put the bowl in the refrigerator with a cover on it, then have the rest for a later dinner. I'll re-use plastic containers ...  more

Use less dishes, stack neatly in sink throughout day rinsing off anything that could dry and become difficult to remove, wash the lot at night - nothing bad is going to come from those dishes sitting there unwashed for a few hrs - the exact same process as waiting for the dishwasher to fill up before turning it on.  more

Is there a way we can wash dishes straight after using them that is sanitary without having to fill the sink up with boiling hot water and suds every time? Yes. Get a <a href="http://www.plasticboxshop.co.uk/rectangular-washing-up-bowl-74-p.asp">washingup bowl</a>. Fil it with water and soap and put your dishes in it. Let them soak until you want to wash them - all day, overnight, whatever. You can put a drop (literally a drop) of bleach into the bowl if the idea of resting your dishes in standing water freaks you out. Put soap on a sponge, scrub them (you can put the washing up bowl on the counter and transfer the scrubbed dishes to the sink if you like) and then rinse them one by one under hot (ish) running water. Dry or drain and stack away. Were this method unsanity, 56 million British people would be dead.  more

I'd look at the way you're using dishes now. I found I was incredibly inefficient while cooking and instead focused on creating fewer dishes to wash. I, generally, use one glass a day which is rinsed several times (for the various things I drink during the day) and washed at night. The same goes with bowls, plates and cutlery. A quick rinse/once over with the cloth and a good scrub once a night helps keep things under control. Also, in case you're not doing it now, soak and wash dishes while cooking food. It makes the whole "build up" thing not happen as much.  more

Is there a way we can wash dishes straight after using them that is sanitary without having to fill the sink up with boiling hot water and suds every time? I don't know if it is "sanitary" (people use that word to mean very different things), but I usually handwash a dish or two at a time (as compared to handwashing a full day's worth of dishes, which I do by filling up a tub with hot soapy water) by running some warm water, putting dishsoap on the scrubby-sponge-thing, and washing the dishes sort of under and sort of next to the stream of running water, but without soaking or filling up anything with soapy water. The total water used is a lot less than filling up the sink, though the hot-water-per-dish ratio is probably going to be higher than doing a whole sink-full the regular way. I'm sure it doesn't kill every microbe, but I haven't died yet, either, for whatever that's worth. Of course, the best way to reduce the amount you wash is to focus on producing fewer dirty dishes in ...  more

I never fill the sink with water. Dishes that I don't wash right away I pile in the sink and fill the dishes themselves with water as required to soak the stuff off. (So I fill bowls/dishes with water and stack them, so dishes are on the bottom and bowls on top, so everything is always soaking but the sink is not "filled" with water. And I fill glasses w/water just to keep liquids from drying onto them, etc.) Then when I go to wash them I just turn on the hot/warm water and soap up a sponge, and wash/rinse each one at a time. And that way I can just clean a few if I only have a few minutes and not worry about draining the sink or whatever. It's perfectly sanitary and my dishes are exceptionally clean. (I'm really anal about clean dishes. I have many friends whose dishes I feel the need to wash before I use them.) But the best way to keep the dirty dishes from piling up is to just wash them right after you use them! And lunalaguna has a good method of forcing you to do that. Because ...  more

If you have a lot of dishes, filling the sink uses less water than washing under running water. I assume you don't actually fill a full-sized kitchen sink. I just get enough water in there to dunk the dirty dishes before I scrub them, repeating as necessary, until they are clean (but sudsy) and then putting them aside to rinse all at once. For things that aren't very dirty, like glasses/mugs and plates for sandwiches or crackers, I just rinse them right after using them so the food doesn't have a chance to harden. A quick swish under cold running water does the trick. This applies to anything I would just leave in the sink before I started trying. For example, when making tea I'd just drop the teaspoon in the sink after - now I take a couple seconds to turn on the water, rinse it, and then drop it in the drying rack instead. Also, if you haven't already, get a drying rack so you don't have to towel-dry the dishes (which seems unsanitary to me anyway) and then get clean dishes from ...  more

I use cloth napkins and will sometimes eat off of them for sandwiches, crackers, dry snacks, etc. A quick shake over the sink to get rid of the crumbs and it's good to use again until it's soiled or until I do a load of laundry.  more

If you are not a fan of sponges (I'm not), you might want to get one of those <a href="http://www.stacksandstacks.com/oxo-soap-dispenser-dish-brush/">soap-dispensing brush things</a>. Back in the days before I had a dishwasher, that's what I used. The brush head detaches, and every week or so I'd put a splash of bleach in a bowl of hot water and toss it in. I felt pretty good about how clean my dishes were.  more

I sometimes do the once-over with a soapy sponge right after using a dish, quick rinse, dry and put away. On the sanitary front, <a href="http://www.webmd.com/news/20070124/microwave-kills-germs-sponges">microwaving your sponge will kill lots of bacteria</a>.  more