Dishwasher Hacks

One of the biggest perks that I’ve found of having your own space that’s not a college dorm room is that you no longer have to pile up dishes in the sink until it reaches that “Yeah….I should probably do these…” point. You now have a new place to pile up those dishes you’ll get to tomorrow, probably:

A dishwasher and it is amazing.

However, you may frustratingly find that you put a dish in, run the dishwasher, and pull the dish out to think “Did this even do anything?!” So I’ve compiled a few life hacks below from personal experience and advice I’ve been given on how to make your dishwasher work for you.

1. Run it 1-2 times a month with vinegar, citric acid or CLR. If you live in an area of the country that has hard water, there may be build-up that blocks the flow of water, preventing the dishwasher from doing its best job. Additionally, these will help get rid of soap scum build up. Always make sure you do this cycle without any dishes in there.
2. Put bowls in the bottom rack and have them face the middle. This is usually where the water flows best which is imperative for bowls where it’s harder to get the water to get all angles of.
3. Scrape off any stuck on food in the sink before you put the dishes in, but don’t make them spotless. This may sound obvious because why would you clean a dish only to put it in again but in truth, the soap needs something to cling out on to in order to work effectively. Scraping the stuck on food after eating will make sure you don’t pull a dish out afterwards only to have to do a more difficult scrape at that time.
4. Put your knives, forks and spoons in the utensil holder handle down. Having the head of the silverware out top allows for better cleaning. It’s also important to separate spoons so that they don’t stack and avoid getting cleaned.
5. Don’t put items that have anything attached to them, like labels, in there. I’ve had roommates put new cups in the dishwasher that had stickers on them still in the dishwasher, which meant that the sticker was then stuck in to twenty different dishes and was a pain to remove. Similarly, I once had a glass cup with a stone logo attached to it put in the dishwasher. It was just glued on so they separated and the logo caused damage to other dishes.
6. If you’re not sure if it should go in the dishwasher, do it by hand. I know how convenient it is to throw everything in there, but some things are better if done by hand. If most of your stuff goes in the dishwasher, it really shouldn’t take long to do a few special pieces in the sink.

Now that you’ve saved yourself 15-20 minutes each night, you can finally fit in that extra Friends episode that you’ll be binge watching later.