
When we moved into a house with an actual dishwasher, I swore that I would never let dirty dishes get out of control again.
Ha! The famous last words of a die-hard perfectionist.
Before too long, I fell into the bad habit of relying on the dishwasher too much. To the degree that I wouldn't wash dishes right away and instead, I piled them in the sink until they multiplied into a trail of dirty dishes strewn across the countertop.
The Real Reason My Sink Overflows
Why didn't I just empty the dishwasher right away and start reloading it immediately, you say?
Because I was…lazy (gasp!).

I pride myself on being a hardworking woman and I certainly know how to do dishes, but I'm going to guess that #1 reason why any of us skip tidying or cleaning as much as we should is because…well…we just don't want to do it. Pure and simple.
We'd much rather spend time reading, playing on the floor with our kids, snuggling with our pets, and out on coffee dates with friends. Those activities are much more fun than tackling the overflowing mound of dishes in the sink. And don't get me wrong, those things are more important. Self-care and investing in our relationships trump cleaning!
But the fact remains: if you're eating at home (whether you want to stay healthy or slash your grocery bill or both), you're dirtying dishes…EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.
So I'm going to try and make it as easy as possible for you to overcome this annoying chore. Yep, we're talking about how to do dishes (and fewer of them)!
The following tips might not sound like your typical Buzzfeed article; you won't find below “10 mind-blowing hacks to guarantee you never have dirty dishes again!” But done consistently, you'll combat the overflowing sink issue quickly, easily, and never let it get out of control again.
Laura says
Yes yes yes! I do most of these now and you’re right, it saves SO much time – my husband actually got me started on several of these when we got married a year ago. Although I’m a pretty neat person, letting (rinsed!) dishes pile up was my weak point. We wash all dishes after dinner that weren’t taken care of while cooking, leave them to dry overnight, and then unload while making breakfast (and then wash our few breakfast dishes right away).
I hadn’t thought of #5 and #6, but a similar thing I would add is multiple sponges – especially for those (like me!) without a dishwasher. We use a soft “non-scratch” sponge for most dishes, the green “heavy duty scouring pads” for stuck on food, and a stainless steel sponge (“steel wool”) for stainless steel pots & pans.
Kalyn Brooke says
It’s still crazy to me how fast they can pile up if we don’t stay on top of them. I think I may need to adopt your multi-sponge approach. Right now we just use one sponge but it can get nasty pretty quickly dealing with the caked on food or cleaning a frying pan that was used to make scrambled eggs.