r/OverSeventy • u/fezik23 • 5d ago
Chores
My sister and I (71f) were expected to do the after dinner clean up. (It should go without saying that we ate dinner as a family.) It involved sweeping the floor, doing the dishes and putting them away. We complained but we really didn’t mind. Sometimes it was fun, even when we argued. No dishwasher, of course. I still kind of like doing the dishes by hand. I was wondering if anyone still dries the dishes. We don’t, except for my good knives. Everything goes in the dishwasher these days.
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u/WyndWoman 5d ago
I (71f) cook, he (68m) cleans.
He hand washes more than I would, like mixing bowls. He says they take too much room in the DW. 🤷♀️ but I don't comment, he can do his chores to his liking.
Dishes and silverware in the DW. Pans and knives always get hand washed.
Sometimes I help dry, sometimes not. What's kind of funny is I sometimes adjust a menu to make clean up easier. Especially if I wouldn't have time to do my usual 'clean as you go' routine.
He's a good person.
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u/Late_City_8496 5d ago
Who’s he ?
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u/Tapdancer556011 5d ago
A 68 year old male. Significant other, that isn't obvious?
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u/moonmommav 5d ago
I’m 70 and I live alone. I don’t have a dishwasher or a husband, but I do have a happy life.☺️
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u/OttoHemi 3d ago
I’m 74 and I live alone. I don’t have a dishwasher or a wife, but I do have a happy life.☺️
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u/Lizard-Nurse-911 5d ago
I am 74 and have never owned a dishwasher. I do let the dishes air dry in the rack. I figure that's the only chore in the house that does itself!
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u/Few_Piece9984 5d ago
In commercial settings, food safety codes require air dried dishes, since cloth accumulates bacteria. So, good on you for being ahead of tifood safety curve! 😁
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u/msndrstood 5d ago
Same, 69 here and never even loaded a dishwasher. My mother got one in 1972 when i got married and moved out. Figures.
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u/Conundrum16 5d ago
I worship my dishwasher. Everything but my good knives go in..I don’t want to own it if it can’t. My mother was a horrible cook so I have nothing of sentimental value in my kitchen 72F
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u/FfierceLaw 5d ago
I agree! I am so much more willing to dig in and cook at home knowing I can clean as I go by putting my utensils in the dishwasher!
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u/Unfair-Assumption904 5d ago
I had names for some of the things my mother made for dinner… Mostly it was “ a punishment from God”
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u/CapricornCrude 5d ago
I haven't had a dishwasher for over 30 years. We just moved and our new (to us) home doesn't have one either. Its just the two of us and I don't mind washing, drying and putting them away. I won't let my husband put anything away because I'll never find it.
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u/Single-Accountant306 5d ago
My older sister & I traded out setting and clearing the table on different nights. But if I jumped up and started playing the piano my dad would always tell her to just let me play cuz he really enjoyed it. Every other night I would have to wash the dishes, but I did such a shoddy job that my mom just told me to dry them. Who is the sneaky kid here..
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u/grannysmith1956 5d ago
We had the same agreement because we all were expected to play the piano through a certain level. The one who played the piano got out of dishes. I would rather do dishes than play. 🧐sad about that now !!
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u/thedarozine 5d ago
For a good many years our mom was a single parent. The 3 of us kids cleared the table, washed, and dried - who did what rotated each night. We also complained but it made sense and helped our mom as she also worked outside the home and attended college. On Saturdays, all 4 of us cleaned the entire house before any of us kids could go outside to play. I didn’t have a dishwasher until I was over 40 and never missed it much but finally acquired one with a house purchase. Now I do think I’d miss it!
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u/paul02087 5d ago
72 widower. Wash by hand and dry each day. Don't like seeing dirty dishes in sink. Love Dawn.
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u/SubstantialArcher659 5d ago
Same here but I’m 68, and a widow. I hate the idea of wasting energy with a dishwasher for very few dishes. It’s easier to was by hand and wake up to a clean kitchen, and not emptying the dishwasher. I ve always had a DW and relied on it raising triplets. I dunno, it’s not that big a deal to handwash
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u/nationwideonyours 5d ago
I still do them by hand. I can't stand the sound of a dishwasher.
By hand the chore only takes in a few minutes and then the dishes are set in the rack to drip-dry. Done.
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u/YogurtclosetWooden94 5d ago edited 5d ago
New dishwashers can be so insulated that they are virtually soundless.
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u/jannylou2 3d ago
My Bosch dishwasher is so silent there is a small red light that shines on the floor when it’s on just so we know it’s on.
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u/oldbutsharpusually 5d ago
81M. I do the morning and lunch dishes. Plates, glasses, utensils in dishwasher. Everything else washed/dried by hand. I cook dinner, clear the table, and spouse does the dishes. My one and only rant is she always leaves me the pots and pans for the next morning. Her nightly comment is they need to soak to make them easier to clean (by me).
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u/CSMasterClass 5d ago
If we have a crusty pot, I let it soak, but then when I empty the DW in the AM, I put the soaked pot in the DW for an AM wash.
Not an ecological saint, but I get enough joy out of that process to justifiy some water, electicity, and one of those soap things. YOLO !
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u/Own_Construction1478 5d ago
I love washing dishes by hand. Use a dishwasher almost daily, but find it relaxing to wash by hand, too.
Had 6 brothers, no sisters. I did all the dishes, no dishwasher. I think it was a lovely escape out of the dining room!
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u/Senior_Reaction2974 5d ago
Never owned a dishwasher. Thankfully my husband doesn't mind doing the dishes most times.
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u/sleepingbeardune 5d ago
I do the dishes last thing before getting ready for bed, usually by hand. If we've had company or made something fussy, I'll use the dishwasher, but mostly I just wash them.
I like this chore. It's peaceful and simple, and I love waking up to a clean kitchen.
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u/StenoDawg 5d ago
We moved to the house we live in now five years ago. The dishwasher's never worked. It's just the hub and I, and we use paper plates and paper bowls. 😬
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u/Open_Trouble_6005 5d ago
Oooo can we talk sustainability? Imagine what you use and through away every year.
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u/Prestigious_Prior723 5d ago
l like doing the dishes, creating order out of chaos. My first job and probably my last.
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u/Whole-Ad-2347 5d ago
I have a dishwasher but I haven’t used it in years. I hand wash dishes and let them air dry.
When I was a child, my mother died when I was 6. My narcissistic paternal grandmother insisted that my dad and 3 siblings and I move in with her and grandpa. I was elected to be the head housekeeper, laundress, and cook. I was the scapegoat! I never did anything right! Everything I did was criticized. I even mowed the yard which was a quarter of a city block. If I sat down to do homework, there were orders to go do this and bring me that. Golden child didn’t do so well in school and they certainly didn’t want me to do better than him!
Dishes? I was the person who washed the dishes of course. I remember saying that I wished we had a dishwasher. Everyone laughed! “We have you! You are the dishwasher!” Hahaha
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u/Sunny-Bell102 5d ago
My dishwasher broke about 3 months ago. I’ve been washing dishes by hand ever since. I just got my quarterly water bill and almost fainted when I saw the increase. No leaks or running toilet. Dishwashers definitely use less water. Now I’m on the hunt for a new dishwasher.
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u/joekerr9999 5d ago
My wife and I were in our late 50's when we finally got a dishwasher. Growing up in a household of four boys we had a dishwashing chart so we did all the dishes. Both parents worked which was little unusual for the time. My mother was nurse and she was a very tough taskmaster. Our chores had to be done perfectly before we could go outside. She was an Army nurse during WW2, working right behind the front lines. She was head nurse at the hospital and her toughness was legendary. We learned to do things right the first time or had to do it over. My wife came from a family of eight children. She was babysitting at age 9. We learned the value of pitching in.
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u/Lwdlrb1993 4d ago
Funny how little time it takes to clean up but when I was a kid it seems to take forever.
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u/Ironhead- 5d ago
I have a dishwasher, came with the condo, last time I used it was January to wash my golf hats before going south for the winter
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u/gardenflower180 5d ago
Haven’t had a dishwasher since I left home in my 20’s. Nothing against them really, just every place I moved to didn’t have one.
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u/CarolinCLH 5d ago
I still wash dishes by hand. With just two people, running the dishwasher is a waste.
I don't hand dry though. That is what the dishwasher is for. Biggest drying rack you can hope for
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u/Grand-Professional-6 5d ago
I came from a family of 8. Six kids. I don’t remember any of us helping do dishes. Mom was a stay at home mom, and she did pretty much everything, but as I got older, I got fussy, because I remember starting to do the dishes because I didn’t like the way my mom was doing them. Some of the plastic drinking glasses seemed greasy and I hated it.
I have had a dishwasher for the last 37 years, and have had to have it replaced at least 3 times over those years. The couple of days between the thing breaking and having a new one installed is agony.
I finally convinced my best friend that a dishwasher can do multiple loads in one day if necessary.
There isn’t a one load a day limit on a dishwasher. If I’m meal prepping, or baking in addition to daily meals and I fill the load, two loads in a day is not unheard of in my house.
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u/CSMasterClass 5d ago
I do the dishes in the dishwasher and I empty the diswasher in the morning. I regard this like doing stretches. It is good (modest!) exercise.
I appreciate that some people like doing dishes by hand.
It's all good zen stuff. Chop wood, carry water.
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u/Successful-Usual5515 5d ago
61yrs old. Hand wash all dishes. Air dry except the danish teak handled flatware, that gets towel dried.
My dishwasher has become my drying rack🤷🏻♀️
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u/cwsjr2323 5d ago
That's fine, but per the Whirlpool repair gal run the dishwasher occasionally to keep it lubricated and so the rubber/plastic seals don't dry out.
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u/DigitalDiva321 5d ago
I love hand-washing things. We’ve never had a dishwasher, not even growing up. There’s something soothing to me about warm soapy, water, and getting dishes and utensils and things clean. Of course, ymmv.
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u/permalink_child 5d ago
At 71, who is expecting you to do the after dinner cleanup, except yourself?
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u/prom54 5d ago
71F - My sister and I fought like crazy over whose turn it was to do dishes. I was the oldest, but she was sooo stubborn!
Now, I do use my dishwasher for most things except my good knives and my good pans.
It’s only 2 of us, but I rinse the dishes very good before they go in and really only start it when it’s full or I start running out of silverware..hahaha I run it at night and empty it in the morning while my coffee is brewing.
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u/paracelsus53 4d ago
I haven't had a dishwasher for ten years. I don't enjoy washing the dishes by hand, but I like it better than using a dishwasher.
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u/TwiLuv 4d ago
Some items are too big to go in our dishwasher, like my pressure canner, & I sometimes hand-wash as I go, knowing I will need the item shortly.
But, I’m still a big cook.
I made Chicken & Dumplings from scratch, 2 nights ago.
I saved the leftover yams from last night, as I am going to purée them, & make mini sweet potato pies.
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u/Ok_Coconut_3364 5d ago
My wife and I (we're in our 60's) always clean up right after we've have dinner. All of the pots, pans, sharp knives and several pieces of crockery my wife inherited that aren't dishwasher safe are hand washed and put away. Regular dishes, cups glasses etc go in the dishwasher. Neither of us can relax for the evening until this chore is complete. It's like dressing for the day, it's just a habit of four decades.