Doing Dishes

Veronica T · May 28, 2014

As a volunteer interpreter at Old World Wisconsin (nineteenth century European immigration and agriculture museum), I dressed as an eighteen-fifties woman to render the fat of a freshly slaughtered pig for making candles and a lye soap of lard, ashes from the wood burning stove and water (which presumably would have had to be fetched from a pond approximately a quarter mile away) and heated to boiling over a fire. The soap would have been used primarily for household chores as personal hygiene left something to be desired especially during the long winter but most people were more concerned with surviving than smelling sweet. There is a Finnish family represented at the museum that had the tradition of the sauna.

Another nineteenth century dishwashing tip: Rub the dirty dish directly with cooled ashes.

There was a general store in the village but it did not sell soap; mainly fabric, metal items, farm implements and coffee beans. And hats.

MissNathalieVintage · Jun 3, 2014

I too never owned a dishwasher. While thumbing through a 1960s copy of Good Housekeeping magazine I ran across an article on how to hand wash dishes. I tried this method of washing dishes and noticed I am done quicker than before. Here is the link http://s253.photobucket.com/user/ka...1009-00430_zps63bbbe45.jpg.html?state=replace

Dixie_Amazon · Sep 13, 2014

If someone in the house was sick my grandmother poured a kettle of boiling water over the dishes draining in the rack. I am trying to do things more like she did. She lived to be 93 so I figure she was doing something right.

sheeplady · Sep 26, 2014

Dixie_Amazon said:
If someone in the house was sick my grandmother poured a kettle of boiling water over the dishes draining in the rack. I am trying to do things more like she did. She lived to be 93 so I figure she was doing something right.

This is how I sanitize my sponges.... pour a kettle of boiling water over it in the sink. We don't own a microwave, and although I grew up with a mother who used a dish rag instead of a sponge, I like using a sponge.

lolly_loisides · Sep 26, 2014

There's a company in New Zealand that are making soap savers again. They are somewhat bigger than the older ones to fit modern (larger) bars of soap.
More info here

Mickey889 · Apr 3, 2019

TraditionalFrog said:
I am interested in how dishes were washed back in the day (1930 - ca 1945). By this I am assuming that dishes were done using bar soap rather than liquid detergent.

I am interested in the history behind the soap, the various brands, and how it was done. I am considering doing this, so am also wanting to know what brands are good to use that are still sold today.

I don't know much about the history of dishwashing (and I'm a little embarrassed about that as I try to use vintage methods for things when I can!) but I have noticed that a lot of the time more natural methods and vintage methods many times coincide, so let me tell you how I do it! I have to be careful about what I use as I do have a roommate who is particular about certain things. I use liquid dish soap (when we run out I'm going to run the idea of different types of soaps by the roommate) in one side of the sink with the water as hot as I can stand it. I do use gloves when I can, but most rubber gloves are too big on me and I spend a lot of the time fixing them when I do use them. Then, in the side closest to the drying mat, I use cold-but-not-too-cold water with about a cup of white vinegar mixed in. Then I wash in the soap side and leave them to soak/rinse in the vinegar side. Easy as that! I started using vinegar because I found that even when my sponge was clean as could be my dishes would smell like wet dog. Vinegar fixed that easy!

Mickey889 · Apr 3, 2019

LizzieMaine said:
You put a dishpan in the sink, drop in a bar of hard general-purpose soap -- NOT a moisturizing soap, or a deodorant soap, or a "body bar," -- and run some hot water on it to work up some suds. Run the dishes thru the dishpan and rinse them off.

The most common soap used for washing dishes in the Era was Colgate's Octagon, a large greenish-grey block with a faint lemongrass scent. It came in a wrapper printed with coupons, which could be saved and redeemed for merchandise out of a catalog issued by the company. You can still get Octagon -- I still use it, it costs about a dollar a bar and a bar lasts a month or so -- but the coupon promotion is long gone.

Some people used powder soaps like Rinso or Super Suds, but bar soap is cheaper.

Hi! I just quickly tried to search that soap and it says it's laundry soap, am I looking at the wrong one?

LizzieMaine · Apr 3, 2019

Octagon's not around anymore, alas, but it was an "all purpose" soap. I wouldn't take a bath with it, but it was great for dishes, scrubbing floors, stuff like that.

The one I use now is "Zote," a big block of plain white soap imported from Mexico -- has no extra ingredients, and gives a nice lot of suds. You can get it very cheap at Walmart, and one cake lasts about eight or nine months.

Mickey889 · Apr 3, 2019

Thank you so much!

Harp · Apr 3, 2019

Kitchen Police this weekend. the kitchen's a mess and the sink is chock full to the top with dishes,
utensils, pots and pans. Mea culpa.

Mickey889 · Apr 6, 2019

I'm using Zote now for handwashing dishes, but is there a certain way it should be done? I'm finding myself having to rewash them due to white filmy spots left on the glass, and even some grease left? I've never had an issue before with regular liquid dish soap.

LizzieMaine · Apr 7, 2019

I put the dishes in the dishpan with the soap and run up a big head of suds with very hot water -- and then take the soap bar out. That's very important -- if you leave the bar in the dishpan the water will be much soapier than it needs to be, and your soap bar won't last as long.

I wash with a sponge and rinse again in vigorous hot water and leave in the drainer to dry -- I don't wipe dry. I don't notice a whole lot of spotting, but then again, I have very poor eyesight. Sometimes that can be an advantage.

PrettySquareGal · May 7, 2019

VintageBee said:
I think she said dishWATER.....I had to Reread it a few times....these eyeglasses aren't helping me at all

Thank you. Yes, I see that now, five years later and a few eyeglass prescription upgrades later.

GHT · May 7, 2019

LizzieMaine said:
I wash with a sponge and rinse again in vigorous hot water and leave in the drainer to dry -- I don't wipe dry. I don't notice a whole lot of spotting, but then again, I have very poor eyesight. Sometimes that can be an advantage.

Most of our every day dinner plates have spotting, it comes about due to my placing the plates in a hot oven prior to serving. It will come off but to do so, it's best left overnight to soak in a very weak bleach solution. The next morning, rinse off the solution and then leave the plates in a bowl and pour over a kettle full of boiling water, leave for a few minutes before removing plates. This will dissolve and remove all traces of bleach. You should never use a scourer on crockery, it creates microscopic scratches that can become a breeding ground for bacteria.

MissNathalieVintage · Sep 17, 2020

The way I do dishes when I am in a hurry is I just rinse the dish under the faucet and leave it in the sink for later.
if there is food on it I wipe it with a sponge under a running faucet.

Bushman · Oct 3, 2020

I don't know why, but I've always found an odd satisfaction with hand washing dishes.

Hercule · Oct 3, 2020

We just bought a house (4 months go) that has a dish washer and a single sink. It has been the hardest thing to get used to. It seems that there are always dirty dishes in the sink waiting to go in the washer. I still prefer washing in one sink, rinsing in another and drying in a rack.

Tiki Tom · Oct 9, 2020

Bushman said:
I don't know why, but I've always found an odd satisfaction with hand washing dishes.

I also find dishwashing therapeutic. Not to over think it, but I get a sense of having accomplished something when I whip through a sink full of dirty dishes and they are all now sparkling in the drying rack. Beginning, middle, END. A tangible task has been completed! Well done! So unlike my nine-to-five duties that are never truly done, are always threatening to bounce back onto my desk, and which require multiple sign-offs from multiple ~~idiots~~ colleagues. In comparison, doing dishes is therapy that does my soul good.

clementishutin · Mar 22, 2022

Bushman said:
I don't know why, but I've always found an odd satisfaction with hand washing dishes.

But i always found it more relaxing, watching them wash by someone else.

tonyb · Apr 11, 2023

LizzieMaine said:
It's never taken me more than ten minutes to do a load of dishes. The trick is not to let them accumulate long enough for the residues to dry onto them. My grandmother used to say that if you had a chance to burp after the meal before the dishes were done, you were waiting too long.

I’ll never win any Good Housekeeping awards, but I can’t abide piles of dirty dishes left for any length of time in the sink and on the counters and table or anywhere except where dishes belong, which is clean and in the cupboards and drawers.

I recoil at the sight of dried-on food on dishes and cookware. That failure to expend a little effort in rinsing off that stuff right away makes for much more work later. My dog generally does a pretty good job of it, and I have yet to hear a good reason why he shouldn’t. Whatever food residue remaining on those dishes that might be harmful to a dog is so minimal as to be of no real concern.

Our dishwasher is run almost daily. It uses less water than is typically used washing dishes by hand. Knives and pots and pans I wash by hand, especially those with wooden handles.

I take a similar approach to laundry. Don’t let it pile up. Dirty clothes go in the baskets and I rarely let more than a couple loads accumulate.

Dishes and laundry are the first matters that must to addressed in keeping any semblance of a clean and orderly home. I’ve known people who habitually don’t. Every horizontal surface is covered. They can’t effectively vacuum for all the clothing and bedding and whatnot on the floors. Counters and tabletops can’t be truly cleaned with all the dishes and cookware in the way. They have to wash the cookware and dishes BEFORE using it.

Some of these people have some pretty nice stuff, but it can’t be appreciated because it’s buried under all their other stuff.

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