When we bought our first home 8 years ago it came with a dishwasher. No house I ever lived in up until this point had a functional dishwasher, so it was quite a novelty when we moved in. But it never really worked that well. I’d find myself re-washing many of the dishes and ended up only using it very occasionally. And in my present frugal state of mind I think a dishwasher uses far too much water.
Besides, our kitchen is small and space is a premium, so even though some people may think we have taken leave of our senses (hey, it’s not the first time, I’m sure it won’t be the last!) the dishwasher had to go!
What a lot of space a dishwasher takes up! I made a little curtain with some bright and happy fabric and I now have a storage space for bins, the dustpan and whatever else I end up storing there.
Good idea. We have a dishwasher and it gets used once a month if that.
Kelly,
We inherited a dishwasher too when we bought our home. And we never use it either. As you said, dishwashers use far too much water. Also our human dishwashers are far more efficient. The dishes are washed, dried and put away in much less time than it takes for the dishwasher to run through even a short cycle. Plus dishwashing time is family time, everyone working together and chatting or telling stories as the job is done.
I never actually considered removing our dishwasher. I guess it is taking up space that could be used for something else.