I don't like to wash dishes, and neither does anyone else in my household, but they have to get done. Since this is not an activity that I inherently enjoy, I try to put as little effort into it as I have to. This is the ethos of the Calculated Slacker: accomplishing the required goals with the minimum effort necessary to get the job done correctly.
So, first lets define our goals:
- minimize the frequency of dishwashing (how often we have to wash dishes)
- minimize the duration of dishwashing (how long it takes each time)
- maintain a pleasant environment (i.e. keep smells to a minimum)
- maintain a usable environment (i.e. keep clutter to a minimum)
Here are the rules:
- Dairy must be rinsed immediately - it will start smelling funky after a day or two
- Scrape off big chunks of food into dispose-all/compost/dog food bowl/whatever
- Put a layer of water in between dishes when stacking them
- Stack like with like (bowls into bowls and plates onto plates)
- Stack smaller things into bigger things, and things of the same size together
- Fill a glass with water for silverware
Following the rules above, we can let dishes stack up in the sink until it is full. We get to put in a minimum amount of effort for each dirtied dish - a simple rinse and stack them in the sink. Clutter and smells are kept to a minimum. When it comes time to do the final wash, you can either arrange them in the dish washing machine (if you have one) or fill the sink and do a quick soap-rub, and rinse for each dish, leaving them to air-dry on the rack, of course.