Great Questions Of Our Time

16 years ago

We're all familiar with the over or under toilet paper controversy that has wrecked so many lives, flushing countless relationships as it were.

Then there's the leave the lid up/leave the lid down paradox that's directly responsible for the surge in antidepressant usage.

And yet, there is another issue--far more insidious.

It's the: do the dirty dishes go into the sink that houses the garbage disposer or into the ordinary sink on the other side?

I'm sure all right thinking, spiritually intact, educated, productive, wholesome, people will agree that the dirty dishes go into the "plain" sink--and not into the sink containing the garbage disposer.

I do realize that the mere existence of a sink equipped with a garbage disposer activates some neural circuits that associate "dirty" with "dirty" thus promoting the automatic placement of soiled dishes and utensils into that sink most closely associated with the disposal of the mess.

However, those of us who've had algebra should know that f(x)=y and that sometimes what a thing represents is not actually what it is and that we must engage in as many as two structured thoughts if we wish to achieve one correct answer.

Yes, entertaining two structured thoughts is twice as much work as merely engaging in one thought, very wearisome and I grant you, seemingly life-threatening for some people.

However, it can save us from the even more debilitating and humiliating physical task of having to remove the dirty dishes from the disposer sink in order to gain access to the disposer function.

These are the basics.

At a more esoteric level one has to consider the effect upon the impulse/no impulse "go/no go" associated with impulsively cleaning the dishes when confronted with the opportunity, time, and desire to do so.

One must consider whether or not being confronted with a stack of dishes in the "wrong" sink is a powerful enough demotivator so as to provoke a response of: "-_-_ ---- _-_-," which is merely a cruder, more succinct version of the phrase "Oh, but hell no...etc."

I realize the issue is mind boggling with no clear answer and yet, I think by turning to the words of the prophet we can gain some insight, clarity, and yes, hope for the future:

I know what you're thinking. "Did he rinse six plates or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a Kenmore Super HD, the most powerful garbage disposer in the world, fully capable of grinding up a pork chop bone, you've got to ask yourself a question: Do I feel lucky?

Well, do ya, punk?

MichaelAT

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (16)

meredith_e Z7b, Piedmont of NC, 1000' elevation
16 years ago
Big ole LOL, MAT.

Actually, you've convinced me that the dirty-dirty impulse is the wrong way to go. Who knew I'd be convinced of anything today?!

Alas, no garbage disposal at the ol' homestead [literally]- septic tank. And that horrible memory of me trying to help my Grandmother out when it was her house and I was little... I put all the scraps down the garbage disposal like at home. Ooops.
kathwhit
16 years ago
Ha ha ha ha! No gd here either, in fact the whole thing kinda scares me. But if I had one, the dirty dishes would go directly into the dishwasher so to avoid the whole controversy.

And as for the toilet seat up or down confusion, we decided that it depends on the male or female preponderance in the household. I live with two men and a male dog, so I am used to putting the seat down or living with the consequences.
Kathy
Related Discussions
Time to put our dog down?
Q
Comments (316)
This thread is bittersweet. Comforting to know so many others have struggled with “the right time”. I don’t know if anyone will read this, but I think typing this all out will help. I begged to get Luna for my 14th birthday and with my grandma’s help, my mom finally agreed. I had a chaotic upbringing/family and Luna often was my only source of peace in the darkest times. She is a very special dog and many people have said she’s a once in a lifetime type (you know the kind, naturally didn’t need a leash, very docile and sweet). She’s had arthritis for years and I’ve had her on prescription food and pain/joint meds for years. I’ve always been attentive of her health and was a vet tech for a few years so pet health is nothing new to me. Neither is euthanasia. This year, she lost weight, developed dementia, and started having accidents inside. I take her out multiple times a day (at least 6). She likes walks, but gets confused in the yard. I’ve noticed she also cranes her neck a lot. She also licks the carpet or her bed obsessively at times. The last two weeks, she’s had accidents inside almost everyday. We celebrated her 16th birthday on Monday. She couldn’t get up on Tuesday night and was really wobbly this week. I can see her front legs are also starting to shake. When she greets me, she wags her tail low and close to her legs. I don’t want to bump up her meds again because she sleeps all day anyways. When I look into her eyes, I can tell she’s tired. I thought maybe we could celebrate Christmas one more time. But maybe the best gift I can give her is peace…like she’s given me so many times. I don’t know if it’s the right time, but I don’t want her to reach that final stage (not getting up, seizures, crying/barking out of confusion/distress, etc). I am struggling with depression and the sadness I feel thinking about it all is heavy, but I am so grateful for this soul that showed me unconditional love and light.
...See More
Old time 'green' things our ancestors did
Q
Comments (26)
We compost all year long. When it snows, we save the compost in a small covered metal can and wait until the snow clears before we put it in the compost box. My DH used to be in the food business so we had 2 very large chest freezers. One finally bit the dust, so we took the top off, drilled holes in the bottom, put it on 2x4's to raise it up off the ground, and made it into our compost bin. We turn it every few days in the summer, and whenever we can in the cold months, and the compost that comes out of it is nirvana for our garden. We collect rainwater in barrels and use it in our bird bath and to water plants. I cut up old t-shirts and use the strips of fabric to tie up vegetable plants in the garden. I also use them as rags in the house. Old washcloths make great dusting cloths, too. I have a dryer, but I line dry our clothes in the mild weather. And there's nothing like the wonderful scent of air-dried clothes. We have a front-loading washer because it uses much less water. And it saves on detergent, too. If I have to run errands, I make sure I map out a route so that I don't use unnecessary gas. Plus it saves time, and time is $$$. We make our own suet for the birds. I bake bread, not only because it's cheaper, but it's healthier. I can vegetables from our garden, and what can't be canned is frozen. My husband calls me his "Renaissance Woman", and I sure take it as a compliment LOL. We keep the house between 66-67 degrees in the winter, and only use the AC when it's hot and humid. Our pug, Tootie, needs AC so we can't skimp on that. One of the specifics of the breed. We have raspberries bushes, and every year they produce an incredibly large amount. I make jam and freeze them for later use, but we end up with a dearth of them, so what to do? We sell them down by the end of our driveway. The money earned always goes towards something special. This year DS will be "manning the booth", so he'll get a cut of the action. Great stuff everyone!
...See More
Long time lurker...with pics of our finished kitchen.
Q
Comments (83)
Ok, I'll try to hit the questions I am seeing here. - Regarding door/drawer spacing for inset doors/drawers: I took the finished door/drawer opening on the cabinet and made sure to allow for an 1/8" gap when cutting doors and drawer fronts to fit in the opening. One of the learning curves for me building cabinets was understanding how even a 1/16" difference is visible. This was a difficult concept to grasp for someone who is used to doing rough framing (building decks and framing walls) where being 1/4" off is no big thing. Also, it was very important to make sure everything was perfectly square. Keeping things square and careful measurement meant everything fit when it was time for assembly. Minuscule adjustments were made with a hand planer. - Attaching drawer fronts was a little tedious. I wound up tipping the cabinet on it's back, and simply laid the drawer front in the opening (on the drawer box.) Once I got it positioned, it got clamped and screwed in with two temporary screws from inside the drawer. When it was time for final install after paint, I simply removed the temporary screws, drilled proper counter sunk holes, added some wood glue and the screwed them in from the inside. Drawer pulls were also installed from the inside which also provided more attaching points. I highly doubt these drawer fronts will ever come loose. - Installing doors and gapping them was pretty similar to the drawer fronts. One trick that I figured was using a finish nail like a shim; their diameter was about the exact gap I was looking for. I'd place them loose between the door and cabinet, position the door (which moved easily along the nails like rollers), clamped the door and screwed them to the hinges. I used an old school hinge to keep the traditional look but they were slightly adjustable for final install. - Regarding the lower cabinet doors being used as a drawer front and how I attached them: This was done just like the drawer fronts, except I simply used more screws to attach them from the inside. This, plus sufficient wood glue, held them in place just fine. Also, keep in mind, the drawer boxes themselves are hard maple....nice and secure for the screws to hold to. The drawer slides are also effortless so there really is no torque on the fronts when pulling them open. I was concerned about this, but even fully loaded, they open effortlessly and my concerns are assuaged. I'm confident they won't come apart. And thanks again for all of the kind words, comments and questions.
...See More
Oh Great...Even the Estate Sale People Don't Want Our Stuff :(
Q
Comments (16)
"I just know it's probably from the 1940's & most likely costume jewelry." You may be able to get big bucks for the stuff. Bakelite and Lucite vintage jewelry is quite collectible. Certain styles of the era are popular even it it is not true Bakelite. Google some of the places that sell it online and contact them. I would try to get another estate sale company in to go through things and see if there are any items worth it to be put up for auction. Do not rely on just that one estate sale company to give you advice. Way back when..........when my grandfather died, my mother did a bunch of rummage sales. It barely put a dent in the amount of stuff my grandfather had saved like a packrat. (Depression Era guy.) Then, my mom had someone come in to look at the stuff. This auction woman pawed through the stuff and found some valuable stuff that had gone unrecognized. For instance, my grandfather had a shoebox full of pens he had saved. My mom had put 50 cents on it for the rummage sales. No one bought it. The auction woman found a pen in there called *Big Red* from the late '20s and it sold at auction for a LOT of money. (This was before they reissued the reproductions) A little plastic box turned out to be an Art Deco celluloid cigarette holder. $$$$. A can opener was vintage Harley Davidson issue. It was sent to a store out East on consignment and fetched a pretty penny. I could go on and on. My point being that you could have treasure trove of collectibles. If you do not have the time or the knowledge of collectibles, have someone come in to look over the stuff again. There are places who will list things on eBay for you for a percentage of what it sells for. One persons junk is another man's treasure. My one cousin is always on the lookout at sale for old rusty, vintage tools she uses for decoration. She just cringes when at estate sales she is told "Oh yeah, we had a lot of old tools. They were all rusty and beat up, so we threw them out before the sale." Some things are only valuable to certain individuals. When my uncle died, there was an old, floor model radio in nice wood cabinet. My brother removed the guts from it and was going to use the nice Art Decor cabinet. Another cousin (who is into vintage radios) went ballistic finding this out, as it turns out the vacuum tubes that were tossed out and hauled away in the dumpster, were valuable to collectors who use them to recondition old radios, and worth waaaaay more that that crappy cabinet was. BTW, if there is a lot of stuff Goodwill and similar organizations will come to your house to pick everything up. They will give you a receipt for taxes.
...See More
moodyblue
16 years ago
Too funny MIchael. Ditto to Kathy re garbage disposal.

But I do have to have the toilet seat down - too many scary moments when I have plonked myself down and almost fallen in then screams from me as my bare flesh hits the ice cold china bowl. It' a crime in our house. Toilet paper and paper towels we agree on, they feed from the top.:)
Thanks for your entertaining words.
Pauline
harryshoe zone6 eastern Pennsylvania
16 years ago
Go ahead MAT, make my day.
carla17
16 years ago
Dirty is dirty and why mess up the clean side. The dishes have food particles, right? What have you been drinking/smoking?

Carla
bettym_grow
16 years ago
And yet there is still another transgression often committed that many may not know about.

That is a person never placing the dishes within the sink, but rather placing them teasingly inches away from the sinks.
This has confounded me since the early days of my marriage. How can one manage to place them on the counter but not directly within the sink? Even if the sink is half filled w/ hot soapy water begging those dishes to take a dip. One of those eternal mysteries that you mull over on your way out the door but forget to bring up later on.

I finally once asked the point blank question to DH and he looked at me quite surprised and said "So that you might find it easier to place in the dishwasher of course".

I still have not been able to follow the logic there. Please tell me, am I the only person in this universe with this issue? I feel like I'm the only one. I feel like everyone else either places them in the disposal side, my favorite side, or the other side, the one that risks food getting stuck in the pipes. I feel like I'm the only one dealing with a counter-full of dirty dishes and empty sinks.
kittymoonbeam
16 years ago
This is how I've come to do it:
Dirtys must be scraped well with a rubber spatula over the trash and then well rinsed in the disposer side and then stacked
next to the clean side of the sink. The disposer side always is in use for rinsing and I don't like dirty plates rinsed over ones that are already rinsed and wating for a wash. I keep both sides clear because I like to put my dishpan in the clean non disposer side. Also I like not to have to cleanser the clean side as often. We have a porcelain sink and it's so much work to keep white. However, I can see when it's clean. A perfect situation would be a three well sink!

My old boyfriend had a dish drainer on the sink at all times. I prefer just to pull out the clean racks of the dishwasher and use that. I think he didn't like to put things away because he kept using the same 6 items out of the drainer over and over. I bet he is doing it that way still.

No one in the house is able to get the items rinsed and directly into the dishwasher so we end up with the pile beside the sink.

The exception is my china, crystal and sterling. I use it all the time and everyone knows to just leave it on the table and let me do the rinsing and stacking, etc. I put cheap washcloths between the plates and have never chipped one yet.

If you have a set of silver flatware, please enjoy it. Regular use keeps away the tarnish and the pieces get more luster with each use. Just remember, no lemon dishsoap!
meredith_e Z7b, Piedmont of NC, 1000' elevation
16 years ago
LOL.

OK then, down to the nitty-gritty. EVERYONE knows that the toilet seat must have the lid closed after each use. Solves the male/female thing and keeps dogs from drinking the water [ugh].

Betty, you are SO not alone. Lucky, even?! There is apparently a genetic mutation in the human species that makes some folks unable to EVER get a plate into the sink or dishwasher.

My ex could get it as far as the counter where the sink was - the farthest corner - often still teetering off the edge slightly in an obvious act of rebellion and cat-temptation. Never scraped, toying with my temper a casually crumpled napkin atop... the trashcan 2 feet away and looking so friendly and approachable.

Like the mail service, any weather or situation, any stength and patience-zapping malady on my part notwithstanding, THIS one could count on.

Ah, being single. Thanks, I needed that!
ronda_in_carolina
16 years ago
Wait...we must add a kid quotient!! The kids...who theoretically are supposed to 'clear their places' manage to do this...but with the caveat that dishes are randomly piled into the sink on the disposal side with plenty of food and/or silverware left on them. I have begged pleaded and even made them reclaim the sink from its dirty demise...and yet...no one remembers the 'scrape and rinse' rule.

How can one start from the top when you can't be sure there isn't a butter knife in the well? Reclaiming the disposal side is like working backwards....everything takes longer. Apparently the kids need to progress on to algebra.....they clearly cannot solve for x. Sigh....

One day, when I grow up, I am going to have the sink all to myself and I probably won't even use it to set a dish in. Straight to the dishwasher I say!!!

Ronda
Molineux
16 years ago
I hate dishes in the sink. Last night I got up for a something to drink. The lazy man I live with had left some dishes in the sink. It was 3AM. I couldn't go back to bed until I had washed the dishes and stacked the dish washer. Yeah you read it right. I always wash them them first before putting them in the dish washer for "sterilizing". It is the only way to get them REALLY clean.

Rob says I'm prone to "Virgo Cleaning Frenzies". Strange thing is, I'm a Leo, but so is Martha Stewart.
kathwhit
16 years ago
Very similar to the "dishes don't quite make it to the sink" problem is the "pop cans don't quite make it to the bag" problem. Why is it that the men in my family can bring the pop cans into the kitchen, and put them on the counter, but not carry them the extra two feet and drop them in the paper bag conveniently and seductively waiting for them. Everytime I come into the kitchen, I have to toss pop cans into the pop bag. It is an eternal mystery, akin to the "garbage bag not replaced in the can" mystery. Am I the only one that can do these things?
Kathy
harryshoe zone6 eastern Pennsylvania
16 years ago
Damn Patrick. DW is just like you. She makes me wash them clean before they go into the dishwasher to be sterilized. Should I be frightened?
kittymoonbeam
16 years ago
Patrick, will you please tell my virgo boyfriend to not put stuff in the dishwasher with food stuck all over it. He says the dishwasher will get it off anyway. But I KNOW that that isn't always the case. I am a complete rinse beforehand fanatic. We don't always run the dishwasher right away so the thought of the old food sitting on the dishes for a while drives me nuts.
Molineux
16 years ago
Next time the lazy slob doesn't rinse his dishes, run the cycle. When it is finished separate out the encrusted dishes, silverware and glasses. Next night cook a delicious meal with a spicy sauce. Sneak in a teaspoon of syrup of ipecac into his portion of the sauce. Serve his meal on the dirty plate. Give him a dirty glass and silverware. Later that when he is puking his guts out rub his back gently and say:

"Oh baby I'm so sorry. It is all my fault for serving your dinner on one of the filthy plates that you failed to rinse before putting it in the dishwasher."

He-he-he-he-he...
hoovb zone 9 sunset 23
16 years ago
My dishwasher has a 'rinse and hold' cycle, we just rinse in there if necessary. Dishes in the sink makes me want to scream.
iowa_jade
16 years ago
When visiting, I watch how my host handle the journey of the dishes from the table to the washer before I offer to help with their transportation.

Toilet seats are assumed down & with TP one hopes there is enough left to give one a clue and its' replacement is in ready view. Otherwise it is a "Hep me!" for sure.

F.L.

Great Questions Of Our Time

Comments (16)

meredith_e Z7b, Piedmont of NC, 1000' elevation

kathwhit

Related Discussions

moodyblue

harryshoe zone6 eastern Pennsylvania

carla17

bettym_grow

kittymoonbeam

meredith_e Z7b, Piedmont of NC, 1000' elevation

ronda_in_carolina

Molineux

kathwhit

harryshoe zone6 eastern Pennsylvania

kittymoonbeam

Molineux

hoovb zone 9 sunset 23

iowa_jade

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US