Never-ending Dishes

So who wants to come over and clean my kitchen? It seems like no matter how many dishes you wash and get out of the way they keep piling up. Although most days hubby does help me with the dishes, because it's one of my least favorite housewife duties to do, it seems like they are never-ending. Being a family of 5 with 3 hungry kids most of the time it seems like we are constantly dirtying dishes. And once they all get done and you are relieved that your dishes are finally done and your kitchen is all nice and clean, then that's when one of them decides it's a good idea to get hungry or thirsty for something and dirty some more dishes! It seems like doing dishes some days it's absolutely pointless. And not to mention that I do not have a dishwasher so we do all our dishes by hand which makes it much harder. If you can relate to this don't fret my fellow housewives and mommies because here are 7 tips for hand-washing dishes FAST, because nobody's got time for a slow scrub.

1) Switch to a soap with the right ingredients. Look for antibacterial soaps with lactic acid, which provides antibacterial benefits and gets the job done fast. Soaps with lauramine oxide have grease cutting power.

2) Use a sanitizing rinse. Dipping dishes in a sanitizing rinse will mimic part of the process they go through in a dishwasher, and it'll provide peace of mind that your dishes are clean, even if you don't scrub them for hours. After washing, dip your plates in one gallon of water with one teaspoon to one tablespoon of bleach. You can also use this solution to clean your dish sponge and your sink in a jiffy.

3) Be patient. Let dishes soak. It's tempting to start scrubbing cake-on food right away, but do yourself a favor and let pans soak in a sink of warm, sudsy water first. Those couple minutes of soaking time are going to go a long way in making things a lot easier to clean. It'll loosen food particles and save your hand from sponge-induced fatigue. For pots with burn marks on the bottom, soak in salt and cold water overnight, then boil the water to remove grime.

4) And while you're waiting, go get a serious sponge. I hear some people swear 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. Lysol's scrub sponges are also a strong, scrub-worthy alternative to the average dish sponge, for a comparable price.

5) Use cold water to un-stick dairy and starches. Rinsing ice cream and butter off a plate with hot water can cause it to gum up. Get these foods with a cold rinse before continuing to wash the dish in warm water.

6) And make baking soda your grease-dissolving best friend. Coat a sticky, greasy pan with one tablespoon of baking soda, and cover the bottom with water. Heat it up a bit, then scrub the gunk off in mere seconds.

7) Don't stack dirty dishes in your sink. It's a small tweak, to be sure, but have your guests or family leave their dishes on the counter next to the sink, not inside it. Remember, you need to leave your sink open so that you can actually wash those dishes. Unstacking and re-stacking is going to make washing your dishes take longer, and nobody has time for that.

I hope  these tips and tricks will help all my fellow housewives out there who are seriously getting tired of constantly having a never-ending pile of dishes. Applying these techniques certainly makes our lives a little easier at least because let's face it, dishes will always be there. They will never disappear for good.