Cultural Gap

[beenee]

This has always bugged me - why do British people wash their dishes like they do - in a tub of soapy water without any clean running water. Surely the water gets dirty after the first or second dish.

I can imagine why they must've done this when large amounts of clean water were hard to come by. It makes no hygiene sense to me. Can someone explain?

[KEJ2000]

My parents also do this, and they are both Americans who have lived in the USA their entire lives! As to "why", they claim that it cuts down on their water bill. They live in a house, and must pay for every drop they use... But I agree that it is unhygenic, and when I am visiting them, I re-wash my dishes in a hygenic manner before I use them. (Now, don't tell them I do this! But I'm only there a few days every year.)

[sft42]

Right...if it was that unhygenic the country would have been sticken with food poisoning years ago. I have always wash the dishes in the sink then rinsed them under running water...but now I am lazy and use the dishwasher.

Customs and habits in other countries always seem slighty odd...Bidets are very rarely used in this country for example.

[woofgang]

excuse me but I do...and I do it because my mum did it....

[Pinotage]

I use a dishwasher

[Cetti]

Yes - I do as well. I clean the plates of all bits first.Wash with lemon Fairy Liquid sometimes adding a few soda crystals - then rinse under hot running water. Husband and son take over the evening shift and clean likewize. :D

[bernardo]

I'm astonished at the implication in the question. It's perfectly safe to clean dishes in a tub of soapy water - the whole point of the "soa[p" i.e. washing-up-liquid is that it separates the gunge ferom the plate. And the hot water helps to kill any bacteria. I often go for several days with the same tub of water before changing it. Why? because it's safe and perfectly normal. The correct question should therefore be "Why would anybody waste lots of water by doing it in any other way?"

[treaclefight]

theres no law saying you have to do ALL the washing up in the same tub of water, if you begin with glass stuff and end up with the cooking pots then everything is fine, perfectly permissible to change the very hot soapy water part way through. the unhygenic bit is the drying up, teatowels spread germs all over the otherwise clean dishes. and i would argue that dishwashers dont even get all the dirt of in the first place. ive been washing up for a large family everyday for over 20 years now, i will take serious issue with anyone who says my dishes arent clean.

[brawburd]

I rinse after washing, but not for hygiene reasons - purely because I don't like the idea of detergent coating my crockery etc. I have certainly tasted washing up liquid from clean cups which haven't been rinsed. Hygiene tho? - we need t give it a bit of a break ..... ma hoose is a midden and I'm fine!

[beenee]

Thank you all for your answers. But bernado - I find it terribly hard to believe that a few drops of detergent can make water that is otherwise brown-with-food-particles clean for other dishes. I don't even know how to react to the fact that the same 'water' goes on for days in some houses.

I don't think I'm meant to understand it - it will forever gross me out.

[gilf]

I think part of the problem is your saying that because the water is brown this somehow means its dirty, dirty in the sense its a dirty colour but unless germs are attracted to colour brown the fact its not clear is not really an indication of the number of germs. For the record I use a fresh load of water per wash but do as treaclefight suggested, glasses the plates the pots etc with a change of water if it gets a bit too dark (simply because you get bits hanging on to stuff).

[beenee]

Ok, I hate to be difficult, but any water that is not clear is not clean. It of course does not necessarily mean that the water is full of germs (thus explaining why people havent been retching their guts out for years) but it is also definitely not clean. Your 'bits-hanging-off-stuff' comment pretty much topped off my argument.

On a lighter note, TW: you're probably closest - I think some of us from the east are rather neurotic about these things (other things that bother us: soaking baths, plugging washroom sinks)

[smudge]

Talking of 'bidets', we have one but never use it because we use ASDA botty wipes instead - now that saves on water!!!! Mind you when the grandchildren pop round, they usually like to wash their doll's in it & that doesn't save water!!!!

[Quizmonster]

Surely washing dishes thus is no different from the way we have a bath. There, the only part of us that gets washed in clean water is the face. (Or wherever else any of us chooses to start!)

[gilf]

So gravey is dirty and full of germs is it, cos thats what makes my water go dark. If your happy wasting the worlds precious resources then go ahead I'm just trying to do my bit. Its people like you that makes the water bills go up dont you know :)

[woofgang]

beenee, water that is clear can be teeming with germs, I can remember seeing notices in the parks in New Jersey warning people not to drink from the streams and springs because of shigella I think it was, equally you can pour an eggcupful of milk into a gallon of water, the water will no longer be clear, but clean? I think so

[smudge]

'shigella' eh? P'raps Nigella had been in there having a 'proverbial'! Da da :-}

[beenee]

wooofgaang!!!! you know what I mean! I'm not talking about washing dishes in parks in NJ - the clear water that comes out of our taps here is clean (well, we drink it - I'd prefer to boil it first but nevermind :) and that's what should be used to wash dishes. Not a tub of recycled liquid which eventually becomes a smoothie of food-particles. So to make it clear: I'm not necessarily talking about germs, just unclean water. Might not be unsafe but it still is disgusting.

gilf - I'll say it again. Water this is brown with old gravy (ok, even new gravy) is no longer clean. I mean, would you drink that? Would you wash your hands in it?

Honestly, the 'bits hanging off stuff' comment is haunting me now.

[beenee]

Forgot to mention: all you lot using dishwashers are forgiven!

[Ember]

Ta Beenee, but I use a diswasher for laziness not hygiene, mucktub that I am