Dear LPG readers,

I read with interest a recent post about the various attitudes we have towards the numerous dirty dishes that our habit of eating leaves us with.  I live alone, and I still have issues when it comes to putting them back in their places, ready for the next time that I use them.  I don’t think I am alone in thinking that we loan-livers never actually make ourselves a proper daily plate of food.  I wonder how many of us get so far and then find ourselves having done so much tasting that there’s no point in bothering to put it all on a plate anyway.  I admit to eating more takeaway and supermarket-bought TV dinners than I should, but I can still get out and find myself attending clubs where dinner is a major daily event or where there is a café of some sort, at least three times a week.   

Making meals can become a bit of a non-event for many people who live alone, so there are fewer dinner plates to consider and perhaps more teacups and plates that have been used for the afternoon sandwich or biscuits that accompany my cup of tea.  

I think that I am good because I do usually wash them up and put them on the draining board although, having looked up from my computer as I write I have to admit that my most used cup, saucer, butter knife and tea spoon are still ’busy draining’ and never really see the inside of the cupboard where all the rest are left.  

Living alone is not ideal in many ways, but there is something liberating about knowing that there is no one to argue with you about such little details, although I have to admit to being a bit of a hypocrite. 

I am still called upon from time to time to babysit both sets of my grandchildren when their parents are out for the occasional night, and I enjoy cooking something a little different for them.  But then, (once the little ones are in bed, and even though both their kitchens have a dishwasher), when I take a look around, the first thing I will do is wash up and put their dishes away.  I don’t know why I do the washing up of the dirty dishes I have created (and the ones that I have found lying around), but I feel compelled for some odd reason.  I often find myself asking why I am doing this and what I am trying to achieve.   

I am not only talking about my children’s’ houses, I have to include some friends’ and my siblings’ houses as well when I say it but one thing I have noticed is that, for the most part, in a house where there is a dishwasher, it is often used as a cupboard for the dishes the family use the most.  

When left alone in either of my children’s’ very modern kitchens I have to admit that I do worry about pressing the wrong button, or packing it wrongly, and my back is more ready to wash up while I am standing, as opposed to all the bending down and reaching in, that organising the machine’s contents provokes.  I don’t think I'm trying to offer them a subtle hint about where their dishes are often found.  

 The truth is that even though I spend a lot of time at home avoiding the ‘putting them away’ part of the chore, when I'm in there and there's nothing else to do and the children are asleep, I feel the need to find something to do with my time, and the washing up always comes first. 

I have come to the conclusion that when it comes to the washing up, I have double standards… 

LS, Hither Green

Ls found us a little online instruction on the subject of Dishwashing, just in case, after the pensioner’s years of practice, needs a bit of a refresher…

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