how to clean dishes

[ArtW]

Buddy gets the grease off, the bleach gets the dog slobber off, easy peasy
Besides, dog slobber is an antiseptic in and of itself

 

[Trebor English]

There are several companies that make excellent solvents and cleaning fluids located in Tennessee, Kentucky, and western Pennsylvania. You only need a few drops and smear it around with just a corner of a paper towel.  The stuff evaporates quickly.  The Beam, Daniel, Williams, and Turkey families have been in the business a long time.  If you prefer imports there are some Scottish companies that make effective cleaners.  I think the Black & White brand has a cute label with the two little dogs.  A pair of scotties could do a pretty good job prewashing the dishes.

 

[purplepeopleeater]

Neither vinegar nor bleach will clean off grease or oil.  If you  have either of those on your dishes, use regular soap and water.

Never tried it alone but a number of websites recommend using vinegar to cut grease. I add it to my dish water.

 

[purplepeopleeater]

Scrape off all food well from dishes. Take a small cup,add a bit of water and a splash of biodegradable soap,dip a corner of a small dishcloth into the water and wipe dish off front and back. Stack up dishes. Take another cup of water and over a clean container slowly pour the water onto each dish,turning it to rinse it putting the excess water into the container.
Do each dish at a time slowly,add clean water as needed. When done use the rins water to hand wash some small items,add to a portapotty or to dilute urine before watering a bush.

 

[ChickadeeJP]

This gave me some good ideas, thanks!

 

[XFILE36]

Buddy gets the grease off, the bleach gets the dog slobber off, easy peasy
Besides, dog slobber is an antiseptic in and of itself

Even after doggie just cleaned his butt?

 

[sugafreefairy]

I don't think that it is ok to use plastic or paper plates for this purpose. You can just buy some special reusable bowls only for your pets and wash them apart the other dishes. Before washing them, I use antibacterial wipes or spray them with a disinfectant. Still, when I'm travelling, I entrust this work to a cleaning company that also provides end of lease cleaning South East London. They are in charge of cleaning the whole house and feeding my dog when I'm gone. They are really good specialist, so you can save their contacts for later.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

No problem with dog slobber: soapy water, vinegar, or bleach cleans that off.  And I don't have any grease to worry about after da beagle is through.

 

[Zmann]

Dawn dish washing is best..

 

[Freelander]

Dawn dish washing is best..

Yea but getting Dawn out of bed long enough to do the dishes is a real chore!  LOL

 

[BelgianPup]

I've repeatedly seen the videos and forum entries recommending cleaning and disinfecting dishes with vinegar, so I looked it up. Yes, vinegar can be used for disinfecting, but the more scientific sites say you should soak them FOR 30 MINUTES to get the job done right.

 

[NctryBen]

No problem with dog slobber: soapy water, vinegar, or bleach cleans that off.  And I don't have any grease to worry about after da beagle is through.

Ok, I let my old Chesapeake lick my dishes a couple times. Yeah, that lickem doesn’t come off that easy with some dogs spit!
antiseptic? Good luck getting that fda approved! Haha!

 

[jacqueg]

If I were feeding other people, I'd be a lot pickier. But I'm not, so I'm not. My germs are my germs, not a lot I can do about it.

I wipe my dishes clean with a wet scrubbie, then spritz them with vinegar, let them air dry, and call it good. Once in a while, I boil up some water and give them a real wash with dish detergent and everything.

I use about a dozen items on a regular basis. Including the cast iron skillet, which I just about never use water to clean.

 

[vanbrat]

Great stories here. Cold water!
This may not help but it is a good dish washing story.
When we went camping one time we had just a small box of stuff for foods and one small ice chest. Lots of fire wood. I clipped 2 long straight sticks off my own apple trees. I packed 4 big shrimps and 4 slices of bacon, 2 smallish tatos, 2 bread rolls and 2 mid sized apples. Just a few spices etc. and a few paper plates. Some good bread rolls and a few wrapped tatos. Placed the tatos (recyclable aluminum foil wrapped) on the grill of the fire pit, after the fire was good and hot. Wrapped the shrimp with the bacon slices and cut up some veggies to eat raw, carrots etc. made the sticks really sharp with my pocket knife and stabbed the shrimp on them. While we slow roasted the bacon wrapped shrimp the tatos cooked, the veggies where eaten. Then we ate the tatos, rolls, shrimp and roasted the apples sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. (Peel the apples about 2/3s through cooking time.) We sat around the fire the whole time.

Right across the path from us was a HUGE RV with a HUGE covered area. They had a few folks out there and a very fancy table that was really loaded down with 'stuff'. We all finished eating about the same time and the ladies all got up and reminded the fellas that they are on dish duty tonight. I told hubby time to load the dishwasher. We added the paper plates to the fire and then the sticks. Wiped down the knife and put away the cinnamon stuff and asked if hubby had anything else. OK then dishes are done. I happened to turn and the fellows at the RV were giving both of us the evil eye. And nope not because of smoke, it was their fire that was smoky not ours, but they all had big arm loads of dishes. We had a fork each, but they where small burnable wooden ones left over from a party at some time or other, no other dishes. Drinks cans/bottles went in recycling bin in the van.
Our dinner smelled great, bacony and garlicy tatos and cinnamon and sugar. Their dinner smelled good too, but I can imagine those poor guys did dishes for at least an hour.
I don't always do paper plates, but sometimes we need the paper for kindling... That's my reasoning and I'm stickin' to it.

Moistly it is figure out what your environment is and work accordingly.
Were water is tight, cook so there is not as much need for lots of water. Where no fires allowed don't use paper plates (and never use single use plastic plates). Don't cook with tons of pots and pans if there isn't going to be a place to wash them. That is something I need to remember, I can really trash my kitchen.... Keep disinfectant/germ killing stuff handy no matter what type of cooking you do.
I have the 2 dish pans for when I do wash dishes and use them when I can. Sometimes I may pack my dishes for the whole day into a plastic bag until evening when we stop for the night. Always use paper towels to clean 'stuff' off the plates etc. before washing so not much 'stuff' in the water when done. Nope never done the dog prewash, but have done the doggy food disposal thing.

 

[Boutdun]

Dawn dishwashing has come out with another product, “Powerwash”, I have been using a month know and it is saving me 50% on my water usage. You spray this on your dirty dishes/silverware. Wait a minute or two, scrub then rinse off. It removes the grease etc same as plain dishwashing liquid.

 

[HappyLife1977]

I found that it takes less soapy water than I was used to. A little grease cutting soap and water in a spray bottle with your dish rag go a long way, save the basin of water for the rinse.
Oddly when i tried using a spray bottle as someone on YouTube did to rinse, i used more water.
I clean greasy things with straight vinegar spray, paper towels, then swish in soapy water and rinse. The less grease, the better, but butter is a minor god in our little house.
If you're in the desert, scour with hot sand and wipe with some vinegar.
I use vinegar to get cooking smells out of my silicon pan liners, too. Wonderful stuff.