Simplify Doing the Dishes

Step 5 Tackling Pots and Pans

We still hate having to wash pots and pans. I haven't figured out a way of reducing them yet. They don't get used the way dishes do. For now they're either put in the dishwasher or done later in the day.

If anyone has a suggestion for simplifying a stack of pots and pans leave a comment on how you would do it.

Comments

[terribug]

One thing we do to limit the amount of water used is to take one of the cooking pots and put the utensils in the bottom. Run a small amount of hot, soapy water, then wash (but don't rinse) the dishes one at a time, placing them in the other side of the sink (or just outside of the pot, if you only have one big sink). Wait till all are soaped and clean to rinse them all at once. If you're keeping up with the dishes, this takes no time at all, and very little water.

[wobbler]

I wash up in a large stainless steel mixing bowl in the sink. It saves a huge amount of water. I also boil the water in a kettle rather than run off hot water (you only need a litre) and then add cold water to it to make up the rest and bring it down to a usable temperature. In case you're wondering why I don't just half heat a bigger amount of water, it uses the same energy in total, it's just easier to let it boil. Of course, I do this for small washing ups, which is what most of mine are.

[Pieter909]

To save water you better do the dishes 2 times a day, first time after lunch(breakfast, lunch and some cups of the night before)and the second time after dinner( teatime and dinner). I see there are a lot of people in your household, just make a scheme so everyone has to do the dishes a few times a week. There are 3 tasks: washing, drying and putting it back on the shelf's. This way you only use 2 sinks of hot water a day instead of everybody running the hot water tap while washing his own things. You've also got time to discuss the day and ask your kids how it was on school. When I was young we did it this way and it worked pretty well.

[TamarGirl]

I was wondering when someone would mention the wastefulness of the water due to many small lots of dishes being done over the day. I live alone; I rinse every dish I use and wash up about twice a week. Works for me!

[EmmettO]

Water use is not as important a consideration as hygean in this situation. Although I do try to conserve when possible I frankly doubt that this takes more water than filling the sink. I'd have to test that to know for sure.

[studiostud]

There really isn't an easy way to do pots and pans, but there are some good tips for make the jobs infinitely easier. It mainly comes down to the earlier tip of "wash as you go". That and the fact that one of your best dishwashing tools is a strong spray of hot water, especially if you have a spray attachment as part of your faucet. The worst part of cleaning pots and pans is when you have to clean them after whatever was in them has already dried. What I do is turn on the faucet as hot and strong as it can get and then use the spray attachment to "hose down" the pot/pan as soon as I'm done using it. Since I don't want my food to get cold though, I don't often clean them right away, just rinse and put on the counter next to the sink. Then, when it does come time to wash, the job will be much much easier. If you do have pots/pans with dried food, just fill them with hot water and let them sit for about an hour and they will be a piece of cake to clean.

[MTJimL]

Good comment. I would add a drop or two of liquid detergent to the soaking water. Also, make sure all dishes and pans get rinsed at the same time, saving the wasted energy of running the water until hot. And speaking of energy savings, automatic dish washers can be energy hogs. Try to find one that is Energy Star compliant. Their insulation and creative use of hot water will eventually more than pay for the price difference.

[MyMenagerie]

Another way to save energy is to allow the dishwasher to air dry and not heat dry the dishes.

[EmmettO]

Thanks! Another tip for if the food does become stuck on is to fill it with water and add dishwasher detergent especially Cascade Complete. That gets anything the water touches loose. My mother will boil water in a pan with burnt on food and it generally gets most of the nasty stuff off. Keep em' coming!

[chrwei]

be careful with dissolved dishwasher power, it's highly caustic and can even burn your skin if the concentration is high enough. That's why it works without scrubbing.

[lintdrummer]

Would your dishwasher not take a full day's load? You must use an awful lot of crockery and cutlery! Anyway, this method probably saves you some money on the electricity bill and it's more practical all round. Ps. My name's Emmett and I'm an O'something too, go us!!!

[HawkinsRN]

Hey, Thanks for this instructable! I had a similar idea long ago, but it never caught on with my family. You've refined the idea somewhat in that you got a set of decent-looking dishes that everyone would be happy with. I just talked with my wife about it, and I think we just might do this. We have done this before when camping, especially with cups. As for silverware, my plan was always to get some of those stackable, stainless steel camping sets, one for each person. Someone mentioned using a dremel to mark the items, that's a good idea, too! As far as pots go, I'm a fan of cast iron. A quick rinse or scrape when it's still hot, it dries itself, and you're ready for the next time! Or occasionally heat it up and wipe it down with oil.

[jodiwer]

And the nice thing about cast iron - it leeches iron into your food. My husband is a triathlete and myself being female, we can use all the iron we can get!

[EmmettO]

I've always been afraid of rinsing hot cast iron (or hot pans in general) because of thermal shock. I wonder if it all depends on the pan or if any pan would eventually crack, and its a matter of time?

[MyMenagerie]

Allow the pan to cool to a temperature that is comfortable to the touch. This will allow you to hold the pan while washing/rinsing and will prevent any damage to the pan.

[Javin007]

Grrr. Instructables is being weird today. Keeps posting my previous post when I try to answer here... Anywho, what I was TRYING to say was that for over 10 years, I use the "get it super hot then hit it with super cold water" method to clean of particularly dirty cast-iron. It's completely safe to do. You just can't kill cast-iron.

[cfuse]

Cracking occurs due to a rapid differential in expansion or contraction. I seriously doubt that you would be able to manage to produce the required thermal differential to cause damage to metal cookware with a conventional oven and quenching in water.

Damaging a coating on cookware is far more feasible (due to differentials in expansion and contraction between dissimilar materials), that being said, I think it is probably unlikely in practice.

[Jennigma]

I've been washing hot pans IMMEDIATELY off the stove for 20 years now. They wash up so much easier. This goes for teflon coated aluminum and ceramic, pyrex, cast iron, plain aluminum, and any other pan that has ever entered my house. the cheesy aluminum baking pans get a little stressed by this treatment, but they are semi-disposable anyway, since their coatings never last. So as soon as food comes off the stove, it gets transfered to serving dishes or plates, and the pan gets washed. All the pans are stored on hooks in various places, so they get put immediately away to dry, as well. My sink is always empty, with the exception of gnarly baked on stuff (lasagna, etc) which gets left to soak over night, and cleaned the next morning before breakfast is cooked.

[MTJimL]

Who washes the pans while everyone else is eating, and their own food is getting cold?

[Jennigma]

Usually the cook is washing up while the rest of the household is setting the table and pouring drinks and whatnot. It only takes a minute to wash the pan if it's right off the heat. We all start eating at the same time, so cold food is a problem for all or none, depending on the level of organization that evening. :-)

[peacenique]

Ditto! I find that the hotter the pot/pan the easier it comes clean. For example, it takes mere seconds to wash out a teflon pan after frying eggs. I give the pan a little squirt of soap and use a brush while the water's running and it comes out so quickly and easily. Heck, it even dries quickly that way... I just set it right back on the (now cooling) burner. As Jennigma says, I too fill messier pans with water and set them aside to soak.

[Jennigma]

If for some reason a pan is extra gunky, or gets left dirty through the meal, I find putting it back on the stove with a little soapy water really helps, too. Makes it much easier to clean off!

[whitewolf88]

as far as i know your not supposed to wash them straight off the heat if they haven't had anything in them, that's how you temper steel! stuff thats had water or similar in is fine

[AwajiMan]

This is sort of true. Plunging a hot pan into cold water (or running it under a cold tap) will cause a normally flat bottomed pan to warp and develop either a raised mound or shallow divot in the middle. This is especially true of thinner steel or aluminum pans. Adding water to a hot pan on a stove is perfectly fine though (you'd have to do this while cooking often enough)- a cup or two of cold water won't lower the temperature too quickly. If I have a gunky pan, then I'll usually let it rest on a cooling burner with some water and dish washing soap in it - the water will heat up a bit and loosen the gunk quicker. After it's cooled, scrub, toss out the gunk, then give it the full wash in the sink.

[Jennigma]

I've only seen that with very thin pans-- like the aforementioned cookie sheets. All of my pots and pans have thick walls, to better distribute the heat, and the only ones I have that are warped are a couple saucepans that got dropped on the floor. :-)

[Jennigma]

My position is that this is what works for me. If it's damaging the pans, well, pans are replaceable. That said, I've been managing my kitchen this way for 20 years, my cast iron has been with me that long, and it's all still in fine shape. I've been through a couple sets of teflon, but that's due to scratching or burning the pans during cooking, not cleaning. YMMV, but at least in my kitchen, this works fine.

[jodiwer]

I'm with Chrwei - I could not eat with foons (we cal them sporks). How about going to the Good Will and get unmatched silverware sets so each person has their own pattern?

[mamarati]

Sometimes we use compostable plates when I'm feeling super lazy. That might be an option for you. We have a compost pile and do vermicomposting and the kind I get make great worm bedding, so it's a win / win. One way to reduce the pots and pans would be to find ways to make more one-pot meals... The only thing I would worry about with all the plastic stuff is to make sure it's BPA-free.

[ubermama]

Hi! This is a great idea! I think this could work with my 3, 4 and 7 year olds... Husband might rebel. I want to try it! I have never seen a foon before, although I am familiar with sporks, LOL. I will have to see if those are available to us. We actually just bite the bullet and get disposable silverware, but why spend if we don't have to? Oh and we do not have a working dishwasher. My sister recently gave me a wonderful tip about pots. As she prepares to cook, she starts an empty sink full of hot soapy water. As each pot is no longer needed, she puts it into the soapy water and takes care of it right then, DURING the cooking process. Not only is the food not set, it's really more like rinsing it than washing it. As for pots that have been baked in... just line them with tin foil first. This works great with lasagna and such.

[chrwei]

tell your husband that he can wash all the unclaimed dishes, he'll rebel less. I find foons to be a bit odd to eat with, just tolerable for backpacking and such. Higher quality plastic can be reused several times though.

[EmmettO]

I'd definitely go with the assigned silverware then! If you don't want plastic foons, you could buy/borrow a dremel and engrave an initial in the bottom of the handles of a few spoons and forks. (maybe knives if they're old enough)

[lyndaljane]

Or you could do what my home economics teacher did -- use a dab of nail polish on the ends, everyone has an assigned colour, and it lasts for ages.

[espdp2]

I love your assigned sets of dishes! I think I'm going to try it. Our kids are finally getting old enough to wash their own. As for the pots and pans, these are the same techniques I use. Hot or boiling soapy water and a little time will loosen up anything. My wife cooks, so it helps if I clean the some of the prep tools while she finishes and the kids set the table.

[EmmettO]

We had to look around to find something durable and didn't look like mom and dad were eating off of kiddie plates. Let me know how it works or if you come up with any refinements.