February 1st marks the end of January’s One Small Change and the beginning of what is shaping up to be an interesting and adventurous month.
Dishwasher Free Zone
In January, I abandoned my dishwasher and started washing all of my dishes by hand. First, I should mention that dishwashers are not evil. In many cases, using a dishwasher actually uses less water and heats the water more efficiently than you would washing by hand. Be sure to do your research first – by giving up your dishwasher you might be doing more harm than good!
In my case, giving up the dishwasher made sense. My dishwasher is crummy. It’s an inefficient model and we basically have to pre-wash our dishes if we want them to come out clean. Another factor in the dishwasher vs. hand washing equation is how you hand wash dishes. I’ve been paying attention to my water use and came up with a system that I am fairly sure is a big step up from using the dishwasher.
Twice a day I heat water on the stove or in the microwave (for tea and such). Now I heat a little bit of extra water for washing dishes. And by a little extra water, I mean a little: literally 2 cups of water. I add soap directly to my container of hot water, and use that for soaking silverware and scrubbing. I use cold water for rinsing, and if I am washing a large pan, I collect the gray water in the pan and use it on my houseplants.
Side tip: I keep a pitcher handy for any time I have to wait for the tap water to get hot. That’s not gray water, and I use it for drinking, cooking, and other things throughout the day.
Dishes? Cleaner than the dishwasher. Water use? Has to be way less. All in all, giving up the dishwasher wasn’t a big deal and I’m going to stick with it.
One particularly interesting observation — an instantaneous and unexpected change in my own behavior: I use fewer dishes. I use the same cup all day and go and find it when I leave it somewhere rather than dirty a new one. I find myself cooking more carefully and estimating container sizes better. Feedback loops in action, people.
February and the 28-Day Real Food Challenge
My One Small Change for February is a bit bigger than giving up my dishwasher. I am joining almost 600 other people in Nourished Kitchen’s 28-Day Real Food Challenge. True to the name, this really will be a challenge. But I think it will be a great way for me to learn the basic principles of a real food diet (and will provide me with a support group as I try to resuscitate my sourdough culture!). I predict that it will automatically impact my ‘ecological footprint’ in several ways:
- Less food-related packaging
- Less eating out
- Less processed food = fewer resources consumed processing food
As I complete my daily tasks, I’ll be paying attention not only to what I’m eating, but where my food is coming from – how and where it is grown or raised. Wherever I can, I will eat locally. Wherever I cannot, I will begin laying the groundwork for local alternatives in the future. I’m really looking forward to a month of culinary education, investigation and experimentation!
Related Posts
- Real Food Challenge Recap – Week 1
- Real Food Challenge Recap – Week 2
- Real Food Challenge Recap – Week 3
- Real Food Challenge Recap – Week 4
Cool! I look forward to hearing more about it.
This reminds me that a good challenge for me would be to work on reducing water usage. With a busy schedule and family of 5, I am hesitant to give up the dishwasher, but I can certainly think of other ways to save, like keeping a pitcher to catch running water.
I would definitely be hesitant with five people’s dishes! I live in a world where sanity counts for a WHOLE lot. If mom is happy, everyone’s happy, right? And particularly with that many people and depending on your dishwasher, your dishwasher is quite likely better than hand washing, environmentally speaking.
This sounds really cool! The benefits of being aware and conscious of everything you eat is going to be amazing. I look forward to hearing more about it!
Suzy
Thanks for stopping by! I’m already crying over this task. Day #1 — go through your cupboards and throw out anything that remotely resembles processed foods, including refined sugar, white flour and oils and any reduced fat dairy. Argh, my cupboards! What am I going to eat??
Loving your food challenge. I have found that with my own food rules, the more I understand, the better it is. Let me know if you’re interested in any food book rec’s. I have read way too many of these things
Good luck!! I’ll be rooting for you
I would love food book recommendations! I have a very long (and ever-growing) book list, but I’m slowly making headway.
I thought I was pretty good about food, and I think I am compared to most people. But cleaning out my cupboards sure was a bit of a shock!
You know, we gave up our dishwasher too. It was 30 years old so definitely NOT efficient like the new ones and I’m confident that we’re using less water by hand-washing, and definitely using fewer dishes too. What actually surprised me was that the dishes are much less likely to pile up now than they were when we used the dishwasher.
I’ve noticed that too! I have a much cleaner kitchen these days. Isn’t it weird how little things will change our behavior in unexpected ways?
When my husband and I moved last year, we also gave up using the dishwasher, completely without intending to. I don’t know why—we had a dishwasher there, we have a dishwasher here, in both places conveniently located right next to the sink. We used the dishwasher here once to make sure it worked, and then we just never used it again. Like you we re-use our glasses, mugs, and the spoons we use to stir our coffee and tea with. It’s so nice not to have to face unloading the dishwasher anymore!
When my son came to stay for the summer, I handed him a glass and said, “This is yours. Don’t lose it.”
I’m going to have to start making extra tea water–that sounds a lot better than standing around waiting for the water to get hot from the tap. I mean, if I’m having tea anyway…why not?
Hah! I can so tell that is going to be me when DH gets back. “Here is your glass. Forever. Deal with it.” When I think of how many passive aggressive battles I have had with roommates over who was going to empty the dishwasher… maybe I should have given it up long ago!
Good for you! I found in the beginning that my French & Italian cookbooks had the most seasonal combinations of food and then something like Alice Water’s The Simple Art of Cooking has many great from scratch recipes. It will be so much easier for you to feed just one this way too! Good luck!
Ooh! Thanks for the tips. I can’t decide if it will be easier or harder. I have way fewer mouths to feed, but I’ve found that I there is less incentive to cook actual meals when it’s just me. At least there will be no pickiness to contend with!