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Topic: Do all Brits not rinse there dishes?  (Read 8665 times)

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Do all Brits not rinse there dishes?
« on: July 28, 2009, 02:38:46 PM »
Hello all,
I've been in the UK 3mo. now after marrying a British gal and I love her to death...
But there are a number of daily household related things she does that absolutely
drive me crazy.  Rinsing, or should I say lack there of, dishes being one of them.
Why??? Does she do it?  I've tried confronting her in a nice way that soap left on
dishes is not only unsafe, but just plain weird.  Not to mention she insists on leaving
a plastic wash basin in the sink, so the dishes don't actually touch the inside because
she is convinced that it is actually more sanitary.  

It's a strange ritual really when she does them.  The basin fills up with dishes and when
you're in the kitchen making diner or cleaning etc...it seems to collect all the muck from
crumbs, dish towel residue, and anything else that falls into the pool of fifth.  Then when it's time for me to do dishes, I have to empty the sludge and fill up the basin.  I've made it clear to her that I rinse...but to do that? with the tap running due to space? only the smaller dishes like cups and silverware can actually get a full rinse.  Under no circumstances am I allowed to take the basin out because of her said sanitary application.  So???  If I go and try to rinse the bigger items like pots there is not enough clearance to properly get all the soap off without accidently dragging it into the basin which eventually just overflows anyway.

I find all of this excruciatingly weird.  The first time I had dinner at her Mom's I noticed
her mother did exactly the same thing.  Infact I've noticed that just about everyone I seem
to come into contact with washes dishes like this.  Functionally it makes no sense.
One thing I noticed on a "Fairy" TV commercial was someone washing dishes without rinsing.  And then it suddenly hit me.  But then again, I have met (some) people who have
no idea what I'm talking about because they rinse.

Is this a cultural thing?  I'm totally confused, and it's got to the point where I'm secretly
RE-washing dishes behind my wife's back.  It seems that when I mention my concerns about this to my wife, she becomes very reactionary and thinks that I'm trying to imply that she's unkempt.

Does anyone out there have any ideas on how to handle this?
« Last Edit: July 28, 2009, 02:46:31 PM by MD »


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Re: Do all Brits not rinse there dishes?
« Reply #1 on: July 28, 2009, 02:50:03 PM »
I feel for you. Even though I originally grew up in the UK and as far as I recall, I believe there was no rinsing in my parents' home either, I am now an avid rinser myself, and I'm grossed out by the habit of not rinsing the soap suds off. I LOVE the squeaky clean feeling of a thoroughly rinsed glass or plate.

I know a bit of dried up Fairy liquid is not going to kill anyone. But I'm with you. I don't get it.
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Re: Do all Brits not rinse there dishes?
« Reply #2 on: July 28, 2009, 02:57:59 PM »
Me either, actually, especially since I've noticed that my in-laws generally rinse, but my husband, the dishwasher, doesn't!  Over time, he's slowly come over to my way of thinking and MOST of the time, rinses.  I've helped him to understand that he spends time re-washing when he doesn't notice he's missed something because it's covered in soap bubbles!!

He laughs when I wash dishes because we do use a basin...I rarely fill it very full and he calls it 'washing dishes in a puddle'.  But, I need the space for rinsing!  :)

Since there are just the two of us and he is the neatnik of the two of us, dirty dishes are NOT allowed to accumulate in the sink/basin when he is at home!  That's one way to solve the problem, although it can be wasteful if you're washing dishes four times a day.  Still, we wash our breakfast dishes right away in the morning and then dinner dishes right away at night, and that really does solve part of the problem.

UK resident since 2005, UK citizen as of 2010 due to female British parent.


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Re: Do all Brits not rinse there dishes?
« Reply #3 on: July 28, 2009, 03:08:22 PM »
Hello all,
I've been in the UK 3mo. now after marrying a British gal and I love her to death...
But there are a number of daily household related things she does that absolutely
drive me crazy.  Rinsing, or should I say lack there of, dishes being one of them.
Why??? Does she do it?  I've tried confronting her in a nice way that soap left on
dishes is not only unsafe, but just plain weird.  Not to mention she insists on leaving
a plastic wash basin in the sink, so the dishes don't actually touch the inside because
she is convinced that it is actually more sanitary.  


My husband does exactly the same thing.  I thought his not rinsing the dishes was just pure  laziness (as he also doesn't like cleaning in general), but then I saw his mom wash dishes and not rinse them or even scrub them.  She just dunked them in the soapy water and put them straight to dry! 

And I agree that having the plastic basin is annoying.  It wasn't something I felt like mentioning to DH, so we use one, but I really don't see the point.


Re: Do all Brits not rinse there dishes?
« Reply #4 on: July 28, 2009, 03:11:10 PM »
The plastic basin is partially to protect glasses and other breakables from getting banged around in the metal sink.
It's also handy for keeping your dishwater clean, so that you can pour half-drunk cups of tea (and other stuff) down the side, directly into the sink, without getting tea in your dishwater.


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Re: Do all Brits not rinse there dishes?
« Reply #5 on: July 28, 2009, 03:19:19 PM »
The plastic basin is partially to protect glasses and other breakables from getting banged around in the metal sink.
It's also handy for keeping your dishwater clean, so that you can pour half-drunk cups of tea (and other stuff) down the side, directly into the sink, without getting tea in your dishwater.

I had one in the US! I didn't think it was that uncommon there!
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Re: Do all Brits not rinse there dishes?
« Reply #6 on: July 28, 2009, 03:21:54 PM »
The plastic basin is partially to protect glasses and other breakables from getting banged around in the metal sink.
That makes sense.  I hadn't thought of that.

Quote
It's also handy for keeping your dishwater clean, so that you can pour half-drunk cups of tea (and other stuff) down the side, directly into the sink, without getting tea in your dishwater.
We have a tiny second sink that we use for that.  I can see the logic in using a basin now though :-)

I had one in the US! I didn't think it was that uncommon there!
I usually had a dishwasher in the US and when I didn't I had two large sinks so you could do dishes by hand easily and have plenty of room to rinse the dishes in the second sink.  And oh how I miss garbage disposals...
« Last Edit: July 28, 2009, 03:28:49 PM by LeisaB »


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Re: Do all Brits not rinse there dishes?
« Reply #7 on: July 28, 2009, 03:43:49 PM »
I'm British and was brought up to rinse when washing dishes by hand, but we may be unusual. Have never used a plastic bowl for dishes either.


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Re: Do all Brits not rinse there dishes?
« Reply #8 on: July 28, 2009, 03:45:31 PM »
My husband (the UKC of the family--for now!) does rinse the dishes, although he doesn't really scrub them like I do.(this might be because I am a dishwasher girl at heart and a bit paranoid about hand-washing).  I think I'll have to pry his beloved plastic "washing up basin" out of his cold dead hands though.  He is quite attached.


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Re: Do all Brits not rinse there dishes?
« Reply #9 on: July 28, 2009, 03:59:59 PM »
My husband (the UKC of the family--for now!) does rinse the dishes, although he doesn't really scrub them like I do.(this might be because I am a dishwasher girl at heart and a bit paranoid about hand-washing).  I think I'll have to pry his beloved plastic "washing up basin" out of his cold dead hands though.  He is quite attached.

It's funny, I'm the opposite, a little paranoid about dishwashers!

Depending on whether or not someone places things badly in the racks, I don't like how sometimes a dish can come out of a washer not clean at all! I've seen so much of that with dishwashers that I've always been much more a fan of hand-washing (at least when it's me who is doing the hand washing!!) because I can see and feel to my satisfaction that the item is completely clean, or keep at it until it is. I'm a "scrub-examine-scrub-rinse-finger squeak test-rinse-examine" kinda handwasher!  :P
*Repatriated Brit undergoing culture shock with the rest of you!*


Re: Do all Brits not rinse their dishes?
« Reply #10 on: July 28, 2009, 04:06:53 PM »
We have a washing up bowl...in fact we have 3. My MIL keeps giving them to us. My husband says they are gross and dirty (he's the Brit). So we don't use one. I've notice he doesn't rinse either. Which was a main gripe of mine when our daughter was very small and was bottle fed. I'd fill her bottle with water and get bubbles. So I just LOUDLY MOANED that I must not have rinsed them properly and if I hadn't noticed the bubbles it would have given her diarrhea...ever since HE RINSES!...though I noticed bubbles on a spoon yesterday... :-\\\\
« Last Edit: July 28, 2009, 05:09:55 PM by WebyJ »


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Re: Do all Brits not rinse there dishes?
« Reply #11 on: July 28, 2009, 04:13:20 PM »
A bit off topic but that's another US-Uk difference - over here  it's more usual to sterilise baby bottles (ie no dishwashing bubbles!).


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Re: Do all Brits not rinse there dishes?
« Reply #12 on: July 28, 2009, 04:17:01 PM »
This discussion comes up quite frequently on here.  It's pretty funny.  i've encountered both rinsers and non rinsers in the UK.  I don't care that much if they actually clean the dishes in scalding hot water and dry with a clean cloth.  Well I do care, but it's not my place to say anything.  When they come to my house they know we rinse.  My SIL knows it grosses me out so she always rinses when she's with me.  My husband is a converted rinser as well.  
 
I did have to replace our kitchen tap immediately though...I just hated having two taps and so low down.  (Then again we moved into an older home here in the US and I had to do the same as it was a mixer tap but it was low so you couldn't rinse or fill a pot properly.)
The wiring in our brain is not static, not irrevocably fixed.  Our brains are adaptable. -Mattieu Ricard

Being ignorant is not so much a shame as being unwilling to learn. -Benjamin Franklin

I have long since come to believe that people never mean half of what they say, and that it is best to disregard their talk and judge only their actions. -D.Day


Re: Do all Brits not rinse their dishes?
« Reply #13 on: July 28, 2009, 04:19:28 PM »
A bit off topic but that's another US-Uk difference - over here  it's more usual to sterilise baby bottles (ie no dishwashing bubbles!).

Oh we did that as well, but only every other day on the advice of the Heath Visitor since doing it each time after use was causing my hands to crack and bleed.
« Last Edit: July 28, 2009, 05:09:25 PM by WebyJ »


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Re: Do all Brits not rinse there dishes?
« Reply #14 on: July 28, 2009, 04:24:51 PM »
Oh we did that as well, but only every other day on the advice of the Heath Visitor since doing it each time after use was causing my hands to crack and bleed.
What on earth were you doing to get that?  The old scalding water method?  Ouch!  We got one of those steamers as we did not have a dishwasher. 
The wiring in our brain is not static, not irrevocably fixed.  Our brains are adaptable. -Mattieu Ricard

Being ignorant is not so much a shame as being unwilling to learn. -Benjamin Franklin

I have long since come to believe that people never mean half of what they say, and that it is best to disregard their talk and judge only their actions. -D.Day


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