The Math of Dishes

 

 

One of my "when I retire I'm gonna" plans was to keep the dishes washed, dried and put away on a consistent basis.  Our kitchen is small, with limited counter space, and only these not-so-modern but perfectly serviceable dishwashers:

 



 

 

 Shortly into retirement, upon noticing how many and how rapidly dishes accumulated during the day, I started doing some math.  Ron and I mostly eat at home, and we both have a habit of three squares with snacks in between.  That's each of us eating....wow! 6 times a day, making it 12 opportunities for dishes to be used daily. 

 

Here's what the day can look like:

 

First thing in the morning:  the sinks are clean! 

 

 

We have breakfast:

 

 

We have morning snacks, then lunch:

 

 

We have afternoon snacks, dinner, and after dinner snacks:

 

 

One of us washes dishes:

 

 

Which gets us back to:

 

 

Whew! 

 

After some time, more math occurred to me.  Just how many times does any given dish get handled during this daily process? 

 

Let's see what it looks like for a plate:

 

 

 

 

1.  Plate is taken out of the cupboard.

2.  Food is placed on the plate.

3.  The plate is taken to the table.

4.  Food is eaten from the plate.

5.  Plate is removed from the table to the sink.

6.  Plate is placed into hot, sudsy dishwater.

7.  Plate is washed and placed into rinse sink.

8.  Plate is rinsed and placed into dish drainer.

9.  Dish is dried and put back into cupboard. 

 

So if every dish is handled 9 times, 9 times all those dishes in the sink at the end of the day is....oh my!  I don't want to know the answer to this math!

 

 

 

Thank goodness for dirty dishes;
They have a tale to tell.
While others may go hungry,
We’re eating very well
With home, health, and happiness,
I shouldn’t want to fuss;
By the stack of evidence,
Life’s been very good to us.
–Author unknown