random poll

[ratcreature]

Like many other people, especially those without a dish washer, I'm not fond of doing dishes, and due to me lacking in discipline the dirty ones pile up, and I get to the point where no clean plate/fork/mug... is to be found when I need such an item to prepare and eat the food I want. And yet this does not always result in me just doing the dishes. So I'm curious about others.

Poll #5895 (not) doing dishes, how do fellow sloths cope?

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 53

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How do you cope with a lack of clean dishes/cutlery?

View Answers

I never let my dirty dishes accumulate to such an extent in the first place.
15 (28.3%)

Once it's come to that point I give in and just do the dishes.
32 (60.4%)

I invite over someone who I know can't tolerate the sight of piled up dishes, and hope they'll volunteer to (help) clean up.
4 (7.5%)

That's what the reserve stash of paper plates and plastic sporks is for.
10 (18.9%)

I go out to eat elsewhere.
8 (15.1%)

I switch to eating food that can be prepared/eaten without the dishes/cutlery. (Or eat things that way regardless of custom.)
14 (26.4%)

I wash the single plate/fork/mug/whatever I need and leave the rest.
22 (41.5%)

If still possible I use related items that are clean if not ideally suited (e.g. all forks are dirty so I make do with a cake fork, or use a large plate instead of a small one etc.)
24 (45.3%)

I try to find a used item that might still be reasonably clean enough to be used again without washing it.
9 (17.0%)

I buy new dishes/cutlery.
0 (0.0%)

Comments

[sholio]

Generally, running out of things is enough to prompt me to do dishes -- a sinkful, at least, if they've piled up to the point where one sinkful is not going to do it. (I'm actually trying to improve on this, because it bothers me that I can't seem to keep the dishes clean, but I am a very lazy dishwasher.)

Though at certain points, we have broken down and bought more dishes because we were constantly running out of something -- we have so much flatware now that it's basically assured that we'll have no clean dishes of any other sort left by the time we run out of flatware (which is good, since I hate washing it).

I have been able to combat my dishwashing sloth a bit by doing something else while I do dishes. Sometimes I'll move my laptop to the kitchen and watch a TV show, or talk on the phone -- dishes and other housework are GREAT activities to do while on the phone, because they don't require much thinking, and I never liked lying around not getting anything done while I'm talking on the phone. (All my family lives elsewhere, so I spend a few hours a week on the phone to them.)

[ratcreature]

I hate talking on the phone, so that would make dish washing truly horrible, and I don't think I could position a screen anywhere near the sink without risking it getting wet, but maybe I could listen to podfic... I've not really gotten into it so far because with most activities I dislike listening to stuff (words or music) in the background because it ruins my concentration, but for dish washing it wouldn't matter. Hm.

[sholio]

Ha, see, I hate talking on the phone too, but having actually accomplished something at the end of an hour and a half phone conversation (a clean pan of dishes, or a clean bathroom) makes me less bitter about the fact that I'm otherwise engaging in not just one but two activities I dislike. I can see how it could do the exact opposite, though. (The only person in the family who actually seems to believe that I don't like talking on the phone is my mom, because she's the same way. Otherwise they just think I'm avoiding their calls because I'm angry at them, so I've long since given up on trying to explain it to them, and just deal with it as a weekly obligation.)

Podfic might work very well! I'd never thought of doing that.