Washing dishes

[LWinters]

We are on our first trip with our 2016 25' international. We have a single round 16" sink. I am having trouble organizing my dish washing system. Any suggestions?

[SeaLevel]

Originally Posted by LWinters

We are on our first trip with our 2016 25' international. We have a single round 16" sink. I am having trouble organizing my dish washing system. Any suggestions?

We wash the dishes and place them on a dish drying mat on the closed stove top - sometimes in a drying rack on the mat. From there we just dry them and put them away. Here is a mat on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Norpro-18-Inch...s=drying+cloth

[dkottum]

Develop a new system than the one at home, unless you have a single sink like mom (grandma?) had. We wash, rinse on the way out of the dish water, and hand off to the dryer (me) or drying mat.

These round sinks are big and deep enough for big pots, but there's only room for one in the mid-size Airstreams. Adapt a system for it and it works fine.

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by LWinters

We are on our first trip with our 2016 25' international. We have a single round 16" sink. I am having trouble organizing my dish washing system. Any suggestions?

The sink in an Interstate is about the same size, or maybe even smaller.

I use a plastic dishpan for washing dishes. I found one at Camping World that collapses when not in use for storage.
http://www.campingworld.com/shopping...ible-tub/54469

[Lily&Me]

I bought a round, plastic bowl at WalMart and use it as a dishpan in the sink, then a drying mat on the counter.


Maggie

[overlander63]

You could install a real dishwasher, like one of our forum friends did:
http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/parts/r...dishwasher.htm

[LWinters]

Thanks for all of the ideas. I just bought the collapsiable dish pan at a camper store. It uses less water than filling the deep sink..seems to be working😊

[IanPoulin]

and the benefit of using the dish pan is when you're done, you can dump the water down the black tank which fills less quickly than the grey.

[PKI]

The double sink in the FC23FB was a hook feature for us when we were looking at the available models. We think having two sinks is the best solution for food prep and dish washing. We might trade for a dish washer, but we don't think so. Those 20 folks just might have felt the hook as well.

Travel safe. Pat

[LBOskiBear]

After living with the tiny single sink in the 19', one of the big joys will be the large, deep sink in the 27'. I still intend to use my separate tub, but it'll be a treat to actually submerge an entire plate or pan - and also not splash water everywhere. I'm happy to have the single deep sink.

[Cannonball]

FYI, our very unscientific study seems to indicate that washing dishes can produce more grey water than a couple of showers, unless you are prudent as suggested above.

[KJRitchie]

We have a double sink which one side always has the sink cover on it so we typically just wash in one sink.

Scape off food scraps into garbage.
Wipe of plates with paper towel
Fill the sink with an inch or two of soapy water.
Stack the plates, normally only 2, in the soapy water.
Use a sponge wand to clean plate.
Rinse plate from sink sprayer for a few seconds
Dry and store
Repeat for other dish
Wipe out fry pan with paper towel
Use left over dish water in sink to clean off pan.
Rinse under spray faucet
Dry and store
Repeat for pots used to steam veggies. I usually drain the water into the soapy sink, scrub with sponge wand, rinse with spray, dry and store.

I've measured where 1 gallon of water comes up in my sink so I can usually wash the dishes with 1 gallon or less of water.

Using paper plates cuts down on dish washing.

Kelvin

[Len n Jeanne]

A young Swedish woman once told me that their system was to put a small amount of soapy water in a small container (like a bowl,) and then dunk a long-handled dish brush into it for dish-washing, while a larger sink or container is used for rinsing.

This low-water system works well for boondocking where there's no immediate water supply, also. Even better is to wipe off the dirty plates with something like a Lysol wipe.

We have no space for a dish drain, and find that draining dishes on a spread-out dish towel on the dinette table works just fine.

When the weather's nice, you can do this outside on the picnic table, if you have a plastic dish pan.

P. S. We actually have an inboard dishwasher. He's called Len.

[TCA and GPO]

Lots of good suggestions on this thread.
We like to use real dishes rather than paper plates. We always get food off with paper towels and soak in hot soapy water in a plastic tub with final rinse in the sink then dry on a towel.
I keep a colander in my sink and a filter on the drain. No food particles go down into the gray water tank if I can help it.

annie

[Goal15]

Originally Posted by Lily&Me

I bought a round, plastic bowl at WalMart and use it as a dishpan in the sink, then a drying mat on the counter.


Maggie

Ditto on this method. I looked in vain for a round wash basin. Showing my age.

Dana


Sent from my iPhone using Airstream Forums

[Zybane]

Originally Posted by Len n Jeanne

A young Swedish woman once told me that their system was to put a small amount of soapy water in a small container (like a bowl,) and then dunk a long-handled dish brush into it for dish-washing, while a larger sink or container is used for rinsing.

This low-water system works well for boondocking where there's no immediate water supply, also. Even better is to wipe off the dirty plates with something like a Lysol wipe.

I definitely would not recommend wiping dishes with Lysol wipes. Those very strong anti-bacterial chemicals aren't meant to be ingested (they leave a film when dry).

I've been contemplating whether I want to go with disposable paper plates and cups etc vs using water and soap for normal dishes.

Both have their pro's and cons of course.


Dishes Pro's:
1. Unless you break them, they should last forever.
2. No recurring costs besides soap.
3. No extra trash (besides food scraps).

Dishes Con's:
1. Must manually clean every piece after use.
2. No Dishwasher machine in Airstream
3. Heavy water use. Decreases boondock capability.


Paper dishware Pro's:
1. No cleaning, just toss in trash.
2. Much less water use.
3. Less time investment dealing with cleaning dishes.


Paper dishware Con's:
1. Recurring purchase cost.
2. Larger storage volume due to consumable nature.
3. More trash.
4. You still have to clean cutlery, pots and pans with water/soap.
5. You physically have to go out and replenish stock (can be done when grocery shopping).
6. Isn't as nice or sturdy as proper dishes.


I think I may have to settle on having disposable for boondocking, and regular dishware for travel camps. Any thoughts?

[Plasma800]

Originally Posted by Zybane

Paper dishware Pro's:
1. No cleaning, just toss in trash. toss in campfire
2. Much less water use.
3. Less time investment dealing with cleaning dishes.

We wipe, save in bag - use as kindling along with toilet paper rolls, paper towel rolls, and saved dryer lint.

depending what was on the paper plate, we might actually re-use it. For instance.. sandwiches? Wipe and re-use that night.

[Hittenstiehl]

Plasma 800 you made me laugh.

For a moment I thought you were saving the stuff you wiped off a plate for eating later. Read it a few more times and got it. The plate, when wiped clean can be used for later.

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by Hittenstiehl

For a moment I thought you were saving the stuff you wiped off a plate for eating later.

That could happen, too. Leftovers, doggy bag, call it what you will.

One thing I do with paper plates is this— whenever anything goes in my microwave (at home or in my Airstream), the real plate (cup, bowl, whatever) goes on a sturdy Chinet paper plate of a larger diameter. Not only does it make boil-over spills easier to clean up, but it gives me something to grab that isn't hot when I'm reaching in for my heated food. Those paper plates can be reused until they do catch a spill, and only then do they get discarded.

[Paddledipper]

Somewhere on these forums I read a recommendation to keep a refillable spray bottle of Dawn and water to spray the dishes wipe and rinse. We've done this a while and it seems to work well.