I still drive my car, and I use electricity, gas, water, all the things I'm probably not supposed to use if I'm truly saying that I'm going green, but here's the thing, I'm washing dishes by hand now. That has to count for something.
For years (and years) I lived in apartments and houses that came with a built-in dishwasher, so why not use it right? Well, I did, and without fail, literally every single place I ever lived that had a dishwasher in it, had a bad dishwasher in it. I've never once been in a place where the dishwasher did its job and I didn't have to literally rinse and scrub the dishes before I put them into the machine. Why do that?
This past month or so we had the ultimate happen to us, our dishwasher literally stopped and refused to go further. It had had enough. We've been in the unit for nearly eight years, but the machine was clearly older; it had a few missing prongs if you know what I mean. You had to dial the start thing to a certain point slowly if you expected it to work at all, and if you went over that tiny point, it wouldn't start. You had to try again, and again until you somehow made it happen.
When maintenance finally made it to our apartment their first line of action was to Jimmie-rig it until it clicked...didn't work. They tried to rewire something, didn't work. They finally decided to replace it. Several days later the man came back and he had a brand new in-the-box machine that was going to do the trick...until it didn't. He had to again rig it; the wires weren't the same. He tried to explain it to me, but my dad was an electrician and I wouldn't let the man try and fool me. I demanded that a licensed plumber come out and do the deed. Maintenance said I could do that but I would have to pay for it. I challenged, I won.
When the plumber came out and set it up he did so professionally, but the machine was the wrong size and he wasn't going to be able to fit it correctly. Maintenance thought they could just stuff foam in between the wall and the dishwasher, and I refused to allow that as well. What people think they can get away with amazes me. Most folks won't stand up for themselves I guess. Nevertheless, his next move was to try and bolt the machine using brackets that would stick out and I could hurt myself when I wiped down the top of the cabinet. Again, no.
They managed to get the machine to fit with some "blinders" or thin-looking material that would match the cabinets, but the machine wouldn't actually clean once we tried it. It spewed water and managed to melt the Cascade pellet, but the dishes were not clean. Not only were they not clean, they were drenching wet, as the new machine didn't have a means to dry the dishes, you had to open the door up and let them air dry....overnight. I called bull chips on all of it and just shut the door on the thing.
We managed to do our own dishes while we waited for the new machine to show up, so we just decided to empty it, never again use it, and do our own dishes. It takes less than 4-5 minutes a day, and I can know 100% that they are actually clean. I can stack them next to the sink and dry them or let them dry, but it's my choice. I can't stand it when people try to wrangle me or make me do what they think I should do. I don't need to spend an hour of my day listening to the dishwasher, which probably charges my electric bill (I don't pay for water, that's in the rent) and I can save a few bucks each month. Winner!
It may only be a bit, but it is a bit. I find that because I use the same dishes over and over again now, I could probably go through my cabinets and get rid of cups, tumblers, dishes, plates, and even cutlery. I only use the ones I end up stacking by the sink! I think I do that because I put them away I'll just pick them back up again. I am going to move in the spring, and I will no doubt take very few things with me. I will probably end up with 4 dishes, 4 cups, 2 tumblers, and 2 sets of cutlery. Why have more than you can use? If someone comes over they can have the other set. I don't mind washing two dishes since I'm probably always going to just wash my own now anyway...Gramma was right; she said the dishwasher was a stupid invention for a family since dish time can be family time too.
Booyah!
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