Washing up bowl...yay nor nay?

pigpen

No..bin it, they are disgusting.. I haven't had a washing up bowl since I got a dishwasher in 1996. Before that it was constantly full of festering stinking slimy water because I had far more important things to do that stand washing pots. The underside was always swimming in tea/coffee dregs and grease.. I do not miss it one bit!

I binned the bowl and freecycled ALL the excess pots so I had no choice but to load the dishwasher or we had no plates.

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've just been through to the kitchen and realised... if you do keep things "in soak" in the sink, then to pull the plug to empty it you might have to put your hand into grubby/cold unwelcoming water .... because I just emptied my bowl of water to start the washing up and realised that if I'd not had the bowl that's what I'd have had to do.

My plug is on a chain.. quick tug and it is out.. and floaty grot in the bottom of the sink I use a soiled spoon to swich it out so the sink drains properly .. I have never had to put my hand in slimy cold water!

Handwashing/dreg emptying halfway through pot washing isn't a deal for the OP.. she has a dishwasher... and there is always the bathroom for handwashing and with drink slops you pour them out before you start pot washing or have a jug to empty them in.. mine then get emptied down the drain outside. My sink is occasionally filled with soaking laundry/newly dyed items.

I have a huge belfast sink and a bowl would be a) too low and b) tiny in it.. the only thing we handwash are the BBQ grills and occasionally the oven trays, everything goes in the dishwasher, absolutely everything. I also have no draining board.

PasturesNew

pigpen wrote: »

My plug is on a chain.. quick tug and it is out..

Mine has no chain, it's one of these in the plughole - you have to touch the middle thing and pull it out. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stainless-Steel-Kitchen-Strainer-Stopper/dp/B005GNQ56O

pigpen wrote: »

... and there is always the bathroom for handwashing ...

Not sure whether this means "washing your hands" or "handwashing clothes"... but, in many modern bathrooms, it'd just be bizarre, distant, too small.

It is always difficult to answer questions online as houses and facilities vary so much.

[Deleted User]

Thanks everyone. It seems as though washing up bowls are like marmite. I could put it under the sink and see how many times I reach for it before making a final decision.

trailingspouse

I have two. There, I've said it.

One is kept under the sink in the kitchen - I used it this very morning for cleaning the filter from the dishwasher. All the gunk got rinsed straight into the sink (where it was caught by the plug), leaving nice clean hot soapy water for the actually washing.

The other is kept under the sink in the laundry room. I use it for pre-soaking and for washing voile curtains, handwashing (not that it happens often!) and for putting underneath things that I don't want to spin and therefore would be dripping on the floor.

Even back in my pre-dishwasher days, I never left the bowl in the sink. Tip out the washing up water, quick rinse under a hot tap and dry with a wrung-out dishcloth = nice clean grease-free washing up bowl ready to put back under the sink where it belongs.

Primrose

I have a washing up bowl and wouldn,t be without it, despite having a slimline dishwasher. I often leave it full of soapy water and dunk cups or beakers in it to quickly rinse and reuse. I also find that its plastic surface mean less chance of breakages of odd plates or cups than if they were dumped straight into a hard stainless steel sink.

I also use my bowl for quickly washing small items of clothing which for some reason ai don,t want to wait to include in a big wash in the washing machine, and for carrying items out from the washing machine to hang out outdoors.

Oh, and for occasionally soaking tired feet in some comforting cool or warm water depending on the reason why they ache !

Bogof_Babe

I have two too (lol I sound like an owl) actually. We have twin sinks in our kitchen, which was installed nearly 30 years ago - I don't think you can get twin sinks now. We keep the two bowls nested in the left hand one, and mainly use the right hand one for emptying the teapot, handwashing etc. When we wash up properly we move one of the bowls to the right side, use it, clean it and re-stack it on the left. Simples .

The left hand sink is used infrequently, but sometimes if there's a lot of washing up we fill it with clean water to rinse the washed dishes rather than keep turning the tap on.

However in my next incarnation I AM having a dishwasher!

[Deleted User]

Perhaps my problem is that I don't have enough washing up bowls then.... :rotfl:

YORKSHIRELASS

Yay here. I have a dishwasher but there are some things I dont put in it (like non stick baking trays, wooden spoons and some glasses).

Dont know why, I just like a bowl. It never gets left with dirty water or pots in it and gets bleached regularly.

I have another bowl under the sink for indoor cleaning jobs like windows, paintwork etc.

allybee101

It's a yes here.
Aside from benefits of being able to hoick the dishes out in one easy go if veg needs rinsing, for example, there is another benefit in terms of back strain.

I am tall (5' 10") and the handles of my washing up bowl sit on the edge of the sink which elevates the bottom of the water slightly. Sounds daft but that inch or so extra height takes the strain off my back when doing the dishes.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Bogof_Babe wrote: »

Google "Joseph Joseph wash and drain bowl". Best of both worlds, although you do have to pop your hand in to let the water out the bottom. But only quickly!

I googled.

I saw.

I swore profusely at the price.


If we have just the nasty steel sink, not only does a standard plug not fit properly (the plunger type thing fell to pieces within three days), the entire sink, with a small mug used to provide a seal, just ends up full of slimy water and all the plates for ages.

I attribute it to our upbringings - his was on the moors in an ancient cottage and much of mine was in an unmodernised 30s property - both had Belfast sinks and the usual approach was to chuck crockery/cutlery into a small bowl, shove the pans into the sink to soak, drain the veggies over it whilst things sat in there, and then washing up done only when necessary using the - almost - free hot water from the Rayburn. We both remember being sat on our respective draining boards being 'washed' by grandparents with flannels, too, and a vague knowledge that we had previously had baths in the things.

I remember Home Economics lessons where I first encountered a steel sink - every lesson finished with washing up, drying up (which was also new, we just put plates in the wooden drainer that stood on the wooden slats after rinsing under the tap) and then wiping over the sink and bowl before placing it tilted to drain and air dry for the next lesson. It's therefore automatic for me to deal with it - his Home Economics lessons didn't seem to do that, so I'm constantly having to drain the bowl of evil thick soup and clean the sink and bowl before anything is washed - it's still easier to clean the bowl than it is to potentially block the entire sink with the bits that tend to accumulate when *somebody* still hasn't got the hang of scraping plates properly and not being able to get away with dumping it all in a Belfast until you get around to dealing with it.


I suppose if you have difficulty lifting a bowl and don't have a spare, smaller one for household tasks (Tupperware that has lost its lid is normally used for those jobs here), an insanely expensive lump of plastic is a good idea. But not at nearly thirty quid.


I think, if there was the money and the circumstances to allow it, I'd rather have a Belfast sink again than a dishwasher. Our DW packed up a couple of months ago and whilst it was very easy, even that involved cleaning crud out of the filter, which I'd rather not have to do. Normal washing up is fine if you have room to do it. But we don't.

In the meantime, I'll stick to the cheapy plastic bowl in the horrid small sink that used to be shiny and is now matt from scratches and cleaning - and a few mutterings about how he needs to remember we're not living on the blimming moors again - yet.