We here at HuffPost Home want your adventures in entertaining to go as smoothly as possible this holiday season, so we decided to call in the experts to dish (see what we did there?) on the best way to go about the dreaded task that is hand washing stacks and stacks of dirty plates.
We spoke with Jolie Kerr, Deadspin columnist and the author of “My Boyfriend Barfed In My Handbag … And Other Things You Can’t Ask Martha,” as well as Dr. Kelly Reynolds, a professor at The University of Arizona and a public health educator specializing in food safety and disease transmission.
Behold, eight things everyone who doesn’t own a dishwasher should know.
1. Start with a sanitizing rinse.
Creating a sanitizing rinse will mimic part of the process dishes go through in a dishwasher. (If you don’t use a sanitizing rinse, your dishes will be clean, but just won’t have as much bacteria removed as if they were in a dishwasher.) Before washing, dip your plates in one gallon of water with one tablespoon of bleach. Reynolds says you can also use this solution to clean your dish sponge and your sink.
In fact, it’s a good practice to sanitize your sink before you start washing your dishes, both for odor removal and cleanliness. “We’ve done lots of studies at The University of Arizona looking at bacterial buildup in the sink,” says Reynolds. “If you’re not sanitizing your sink before you actually wash your dishes, then you could be contaminating your dishwashing water with whatever contaminants were already in your sink.” Reynolds says they have found that E. coli and Salmonella bacteria accumulate in dirty sinks.
2. Make sure you use the right kind of dish soap.
Look for antibacterial soaps with lactic acid, which provides antibacterial benefits, and those with lauramine-oxide for good grease-cutting power.
“Essentially you want something that has good sudsing power,” says Kerr. “If you’re using a dish soap and you’re noticing that you’ve cleaned one dish and you’ve already had to put soap onto your sponge then it isn’t the best dish soap. More diluted products are generally not as effective at cutting grease and producing suds.”
3. If you have a lot of dishes, fill up your sink with sudsy hot water and wash things under the water.
Before you do this, Kerr smartly advises to make sure to take out anything sharp that may be hanging around at the bottom of your sink. Then you should scrub all the dishes under the water, unplug your sink and let the water drain out. “Those couple minutes of soaking time are going to go a long way in making things a lot easier to clean,” says Kerr.
Reynolds also says that having this hot water bath will help remove food particles that may be stuck to your dishes. (Use cold water if you’re washing off a lot of starchy foods.) However, she advises to make sure you watch what happens to your water over time. “If you’re washing a lot of dishes that have grease and food particles on it, then you’re going to have that greasy residue in your water,” says Reynolds. “So it’s a good idea to wash your cleaner dishes first, like cups, and then move onto the pots and pans that have more residue.”
4. To get stubborn food off pots and pans use a special scrubbing pad and baking soda.
You could try doing what the person above did with a screwdriver, but Kerr swears by the Dobie Pad sponge. “It’s covered in a plastic netting that allows you to scrub like a Brillo but it doesn’t cause any scratching,” says Kerr. “They are great for your roasting pan and your casserole dishes that have food stuck to the side.” For really bad sticky food, Kerr says you can sprinkle baking soda over the areas that have caked on food and then pour boiling water over it. “I’ll just keep water in my tea kettle and then pour it on the dish,” says Kerr. “You let it sit until the water is cool enough for you to handle and then you just go in with your sponge and the food should literally just fly off.”
5. Avoid piling things up in your drying rack.
It may be obvious, but there’s a method to avoiding the dreaded “mountain of dishes” as you clean up: Dry as you go instead of piling wet dishes on top of one another? “It sounds worse than it actually is,” says Kerr. “It’s actually not as much of interruption as you think it would be. And it gives your hands a break.”
6. Change your dish towels as much as possible.
Reynolds says to be wary of dirty dish rags as there have been many studies on “common use towels” in the kitchen for hand drying and dish drying that “accumulate germs over time.” Reynolds says you should use a clean dish towel every single time you wash your dishes. And here’s Kerr’s rule of thumb on dish towels: “Figure out how many dish towels you need and then double that amount.”
7. If you’re having a get together, don’t let people put their dirty dishes in your sink.
Have your guests leave their dishes on the counter next to the sink. Remember: You need to leave your sink open so that you can actually wash those dishes. The other reason why you need to keep your sink open and organized is that if you’re using delicate dishes for a special event, you want to make sure you can efficiently separate your silverware from your dishes in order to prevent scratches. “You don’t want to wash all of your silverware while all of your fine China is sitting in the sink right next to it,” says Kerr. “If a knife slips out of your hand and lands smack on one of those plates, now there’s a chip in your good China and no one wants that.”
8. If someone offers to help you with the dishes, take them up on it.
While there is such thing has having “too many cooks in the kitchen,” Kerr says this really only applies to clearing the table. “If someone offers to help, take them up on it, but give them a job,” says Kerr. “One specific job I like to give to people is help me dry the dishes. And if no one volunteers, volunteer someone.”
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