How to load a dishwasher – part 1 (cutlery)

This obviously simple topic simply drives me nuts when it isn’t done right.  It’s just not that hard … well at least it isn’t when you’ve made all the mistakes at least once.  Astonishingly enough, this simple topic will cover a series of posts.  I’m sure all too frequently the dishwasher gets blamed for various failures – it’s only a tool with limitations.

Don’t:

• Throw all the silverware (cutlery for us Brits) in the silverware rack and hope for the best.

Instead:

• Try to put your sharp knives in their own compartment.
  • Why?  When the dishwasher runs, the cutlery moves.  The sharp edge of your (previously) sharp knife drags across all it’s little pals in the same compartment, slowly blunting it.  Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday it’ll no longer be a menace to an innocent vegetable.
• Place sharp knives point downards.
  • Maybe I’m the only one dumb enough to have skewered myself when unloading.  If so, feel free to ignore this tip.
• Separate knives, spoons, forks as much as possible.
  • Why?  The worst culprits are spoons.  Nestle them together and the washing spray isn’t able to dislodge all the crud packed between the nestled spoons.  Couple with an 11 year old unloading at a rapid pace and you have a little surprise waiting for your next dinner guest.  My strategy is to divvy up the forks (eg) between each compartment, same with the spoons, same with the knives.  When I have more forks than compartments I simply invert every other fork so I have one prongs down and one prongs up in each compartment.  It’s just as quick to throw in this way and prevents the dreaded “nestling”.
• Watch out for that scrappy little spoon.
  • We have one spoon which given the chance will slip through the bottom of the silverware rack, catching the spray arm mid-rotation and causing half-arsed cleaning.

Simple eh?