Wednesday, November 21, 2007


You simply won't believe this. If you ever wondered at my sanity, well, you will wonder no more...

Fourteen years ago when we bought this house, it had a rather old built-in dishwasher. I'd already stopped using dishwashers because, 1.) I preferred to wash dishes by hand, 2.) with just three of us it took ages to fill it with dirty dishes and 3.) my least favorite thing in the world is unloading the thing. So the following year when Tom asked if I wanted a new dishwasher I told him, no thanks. Don't need one. Don't want one.

But what did Tom do? He went out and bought a new dishwasher. Argh. I hate it when he does things like that.

We'll just skip over my (rather livid, how-could-you?) reaction and I'll just say, instead, that for thirteen years that new dishwasher just sat there. Unused.

No, technically that's not right. I did use it as a cupboard for dishes I otherwise had no room for.

I know, I know... Crazy. (I warned you.)

So last week we finally got around to testing the dishwasher to see if it even worked. I mean, someone told me a couple years ago that most likely it wouldn't because she'd heard that--when it comes to dishwashers--if you don't use it, you'll lose it. And they should be put to use at least once a month.

And here ours had been sitting all lonely and unused for thirteen whole years.

Well, guess what? It works! And something else... I've used it every day this week. I mean, er, after all, it just seemed like the easiest way to wash all my hundreds of dusty decorative white dishes and knick-knacks from our hutches that way before packing them in boxes.

And ok, I threw in a few of our regular ol' everyday dirty dishes from the sink as well. Sue me. :)

All week I've felt like such a Suzy Homemaker! Like a new bride, or something. You know, like I'm playing house and having, well, ok, I'll say it... fun. The kind of fun that spills over into every task and every room and makes me feel like a 21-year-old newly married gal again. (Gotta love that.)

So, well, maybe it was worth the wait. Maybe the dishwasher didn't sit there for thirteen years in vain after all.

4 comments:

Judy said...

I LOVE my dishwasher. Love it. There are many modern conveniences I do without, but the dishwasher? OOOoooo. I do love my dishwasher.

You are a hoot, Debra.

Ann said...

I love reading about the little daily things! I don't have a dishwasher. Been washing them by hand for 25 years. Well more then that cause I started helping my sister at about age 13. And you know how long that's been.

Donetta said...

Your so cute girl. Well enjoy it and have fun.
Happy Thanksgiving. I love your good attitude. Hang in there.

Anonymous said...

You are so much like me in so many ways! I was married 2 years (sans dishwasher until we moved to a house that had one.) We lived there 5 years & I used it. But then we moved again. This house had a DW but it was a portable one and we never used it. Not once! I, like you, felt it was a pain. I was always grabbing dirty dishes out of our other one when we ran out of something before the thing was too full to load! So we decided to sell it ...ran it EMPTY to see if it worked!

We moved to yet another house that didn't have one! My folks give us one for Christms...we go to have it installed and it won't fit anywhere so we had to send it back to Sears!

So I live 8 more years without one and don't really miss it. After my husband passed away I remarried....and new hubby had a portable one at this house and insisted I allow him to bring it here. And so I've been using a dishwasher for the past 3 years.

And like you...I kind of like it!