Love, the other four letter word

     This week it's the Love edition of Listicles. Stasha provided this prompt, timely too. Last week was passion and of course Valentine's Day is tomorrow. Time to wax poetic about love and my beloved.

     Uh, maybe not. Seeing as how I have spent as many V-Days in the dog house or not speaking as relaxing over a nice dinner or bottle of wine, I'm not really qualified.

     Life has taught me, love is always saying you're sorry even if you don't know or remember what you are sorry for. That famous book, Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, mine would simply be called, Your head is in Uranus. Instead, here are a couple of tips to help avoid a domestic cage match.

     The first is here. Hard to work up or sustain an anger with this on the table. Nothing more to add there.

     Now for the really, really important part, my guide to domestic bliss via finally knowing how to load the dishwasher properly avoiding all of the associated angst it creates.

Not the most politically correct, but you get the idea

     Why does this create angst? (because knowing is half the battle) Money, that's right, the root of all evil.

Every time you run the dishwasher it costs in time, energy, detergent and breakage. For the busy, green or money conscious, an improperly loaded dishwasher is a hotbed of argument topics. Let's just learn how to avoid all that shall we.

     How does my dishwasher work? Well I'm glad you asked, let me explain.

big box with two rotating sprayer arms

heating coil in the bottom

three separate compartments for detergent/rinsing agent

     Your objective then is to get the maximum amount of dishes clean, using the minimum amount of energy, water and detergents causing no damage or breakage to what you put inside. Sounds simple right? Then why do I find my good knives in the dishwasher even though I've told you a thousand times they don't go in there I just spent a small fortune getting them sharpened causing me to look like this and if you ruin them, I swear to God there will be a reckoning ?

 I know, mad MS Paint skills right

It just gets better

Wrong

Wrong

and again, Wrong

1 Pre rinse. I know all those detergent ads say no, they lie. Your dishwasher is not a garborator. Olive pits, gobs of food or napkins will really not dissolve and be flushed away. You can in fact, clog the hoses and that is a very expensive plumber's bill in the making.

2 Load back to front. Keep it organized from the beginning. You're less likely to end up with wasted space.

3 Try and keep dishes of similar sizes and shapes together, not like the first photo. You want to get a good even spray of water so if you nest the dishes they don't come clean.

4 THE GOOD KNIVES DON'T GO IN THE DISHWASHER. Not everything can go in the dishwasher. Sad but true, some things need to be handled with care.

5 Separate your cutlery. It washes better. Heads up and handles down. Again better water exposure so it washes better. Points of the knives to the back, spoons up front. Less blood, always good.

6 Dishes don't go in cross wise. That bends the tines and makes me mad.

7 The heating element is in the bottom so soft plastic can melt or distort. It goes in the top rack or better yet, hand wash.

8 Do put soap in both detergent compartments. The machine is designed for a double wash cycle, use it. Nothing is more annoying than re washing an entire load because you tried to save a few cents on detergent. Rinsing agents are optional. None have ever worked for me but.... Strangely, plain old white vinegar is pretty effective.

Isn't that better?

Look at all that room.

All is right with my world once more.

     For what ever reason, dishes figure prominently in a lot of kitchen arguments. Loading them, running the dishwasher or emptying it, all topics that have created a lot of grief in the Kitchen over the years.

     What would make me happy this Valentine's Day? I'd love to come home to a clean house, with the dishes done. It's the little things.

     Maybe not totally on track with Stasha's Love prompt  (that just sounds funny some how) but avoiding a fight is half the battle. You're welcome.

     Don't forget to swing by and see what everyone has to say on love, I'm pretty confident they know more than me.