Don’t let minimalism overtake common sense

When reading about practical minimalism, one topic that comes up again and again is hand washing dishes.

I know what you’re thinking. We have come so far with modern technology. Why are we regressing?

The idea is this. Less things equals less dishes. Less dishes equals less clean time. Hand wash and dry. Be done with your dishes. Get them off of your mind. Move along. You’re a minimalist!

This thinking is all well and good, but for me, it was totally wrong.

I kept coming across articles that touted “never do dishes again,” or, “minimalist time-saver tips.” Hand washing dishes is always on this list.

So I tried it.

After every meal for two weeks I hand washed my dishes — regardless of how long it took me. I wanted to test this theory out.

I kept charts — I determined the length of time bringing the dishes to the sink. Rinsing them off and washing them. Putting them on the counter. Hand drying. Air drying.

I compared all of this to the time it took me to rinse the dishes, load the dishwasher, run, and then unload the dishwasher again.

Here is what I found.

Clearing the table, hand washing dishes, setting them to dry, (subtracting dry time) and putting them away — I found myself spending an average (high and low time eliminated) about 35 minutes doing them by hand.

Comparing this to a quick rinse and loading my dishes into the dishwasher? Eight minutes.

(Not counting wash time — with unloading, you can add another 10 minutes to this.)

So what’s my point? My point is this. In your pursuit of minimalism, don’t force “simple” in place of what you know works. Like I have always said, my goal in minimalism is to find more time to spend with my family. In an effort to “simplify,” I was spending twice as long on an everyday task and actually removing time spent with my family.

The one benefit that I did notice over this time period was the absurd amount of dishes we went through in a day. I regulated our kid’s cup usage and now they only get one per day. Their cup of the day can be hand washed at the end of the night and reused again the next morning.

I will also add that we usually cook large meals. Pots, pans. Baking, boiling. My wife is a great cook and she pulls out all the stops at least five nights a week. On afternoons when grilled cheese sandwich crumbs can be rinsed of a toddler plate, I did find that hand washing was applicable.

Overall — Don’t force simple. Don’t be a martyr for minimalism.

Use your dishwasher and go play with your kids.

This post originally appeared on Minimalist Today.

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