Unspoken battles with your other half…

I know someone who will stack a draining rack from the front. From the second plate onwards every item gets banged into the first one, so ends up with a heap of porcelain chips on the drainer. This is why we can’t have nice things.

And when did TJ take a picture of our kitchen drawer?

Using a blunt 30 year old bread knife for ALL cutting tasks in the kitchen! How we haven’t had a major severing, blood spurt type injury is beyond me (we do have several very sharp knives of sizes and shape that are appropriate to each task). Oh and ripping open bags of frozen veg and extracting the contents through a tiny hole and complaining when they are spilt all over the floor.

As it’s now rate my kitchen drawer and i started the thread – here’s ours! Critique away!… :-)

That’s not a patina, thats a heroin spoon.

In the interst of transparency, feel free to rate my cuttlery tray…

I’m aware it needs work, but it’s pretty decent compared to some of the atrocity on here.

I think mines a solid six out of ten.

Its complete filth. Not even close to a 6/10. So many things wrong with it but, most critically, where are your teaspoons.  You animal.

As is tradition, we have a plastic washing up bowl in the stainless steel sink.

People can largely do what they want IMO, but plastic washing bowls – as opposed to washing things under running water like the rest of the world manage is without exception; minging. I’ve no idea why it’s still so popular in this country, but it’s gross.

Opening frozen veg has just triggered me – MrsMC’s disability affects her ability to open most packets – frozen veg, crisps, any sort of spherical confectionery.

She can use scissors of course.

Of course she doesn’t. She grips the packet with her teeth, yanks it with her good hand and tears the packet open, sending the contents all over the room, while also leaving the packet incapable of being closed shut in a secure snd airtight manner.

People can largely do what they want IMO, but plastic washing bowls – as opposed to washing things under running water like the rest of the world manage is without exception; minging. I’ve no idea why it’s still so popular in this country, but it’s gross.

Same. We have one and I have no idea why, it’s utterly baffling to me but I’ve conceded that particular battle for an easy life.  My OH and people on here, when this has been raised before offer unconvincing arguments about saving water (you are in control of the tap).  Or being able to move the bowl to use the tap (the kind of people who fill a bowl to ‘soak’ but never wash the contents).

They are gross, invariably become scratched in short order holding grime until they need replacing so more unnecessary plastic is produced.  They limit the capacity so washing larger or awkward shaped items is more difficult.  If you feel the need to put a washing up basin inside a perfectly serviceable washing up basin why stop there?  Why not keep going in some Russian doll style?  It’s bonkers and I bet most people do it because they’ve always done it, without thinking ‘why’?

If one washes up properly, then a washing up bowl is a must. Firstly one doesn’t scratch the stainless steel sink, or stain the porcelain sink.

Wash the cleanest items first, then a bit of a rinse. It uses less water. Simple.

Gosh we all seem to own a lot of teaspoons. My posh cutlery is stored in a box (steak knives, cake forks etc), otherwise they get abused by being thrown from a distance into the cutlery drawer from the dishwasher.

Youv’e put knives into a tray in a drawer… on this basis, we can never be friends.

You beat me to it. This is one battle I have finally won, persuading her not to ram my nice knives somewhere “for safety,” usually mashed up against something else metal like the slots in the draining rack.

She still puts table knifes blade-end down in the drainer “for safety” despite the forks being in the Newcastle position (tines side up) and thus far more dangerous should a small child suddenly develop the ability to leap four feet in the air and land face-first into a collection of slightly damp cutlery. However, I accept this as a reasonable compromise agreement if I don’t have to spend half an hour every day trying to repair cutting edges.

And as any fule kno: The order should be K F S, not S K F.

We had this discussion on Disproportionally Cross. I posit that it doesn’t matter so long as you maintain consistency.

Carrier bags. She can’t throw them out. Our cupboard under the stairs is full of them.

Bags For Life. They’re for life alright, once they enter the house they never leave. We have more Bags For Life than your average supermarket, but when I go to Tesco I have to buy more of the $%^&ing things because there’s none in the car. I leave used ones by the door to take out with me next time I go out, she (regular readers will notice a theme here) tidies them away somewhere. Where? The gods only know, “I haven’t moved them!” Right, maybe we’ve got a polterhideygeist.

I’m not allowed to throw them out.

It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.

If one washes up properly, then a washing up bowl is a must. Firstly one doesn’t scratch the stainless steel sink, or stain the porcelain sink.

If you hold a thing under a running tap, it also doesn’t get scratched by the sink, and after you’ve finished cleaning it, you can rinse it to get rid of the dirty water and soap. The rest of the world (I’ve surveyed them*) think that washing up bowls are minging, trust me.

* At one practice I worked at we had a united nations of GPs and nurses, I think only the UK and Irish GP had bowls (the Irish GP had used his since his under-grad days, and thought it might have been an inheritance even then…) the Europeans and rest of the world were both amazed and disgusted in equal measure

This thread is therapeutic for me.

Instead of covering things already mentioned I’ll add a new one. Water temperature, the sainted Mrs Hoppy argues with herself over this but it’s my problem. I turned the outlet temperature on the boiler down because it doesn’t need to be scaldingly hot just to add cold in but apparently this is a problem because of potential legionalla build up in the tank (we have a combi boiler) no amount of explaining will persuade her so I turned it back up and the hot water was too hot despite being where it was before I now live a life of disapproving looks as I try to find a satisfactory temperature that needs to be lower than 46 but higher than 50.

Oh and Spoons, Forks then Knives in the drawer.

I try to find a satisfactory temperature that needs to be lower than 46 but higher than 50.

I had to check ours.  I turned it down when we first moved in, you could’ve brewed up with it.  The previous occupant “liked it warm” apparently.  It’s currently set at 50’C in “comfort mode” ie heat-on-demand.  Target temp for the central heating is 70’C.  These seem to be about right, you can run a bath too hot to get into and fill a washing-up bowl – erm, sink – with water hot enough to wash properly.

Knife , fork , spoon . Fine.
But there are obviously 2 sizes of spoons.
Large for shovelling cereal into ones month.
Small for yoghurt and removing tea bags from mugs .
So should it be knifes, fork , big spoon , little spoon.
Big spoon , knife , fork , little spoon .
Little spoon , knife , fork , big spoon?
Oh the dilemma

Can I just add – tipping half a mug of leftover coffee into the sink before putting the mug in the dishwasher.  But not rinsing the coffee down the plughole, so I find dried coffee stains all over the sink a bit later.

Knife should be to the right of forks because that is how you hold them. Spoons I’m ambivalent about as long as it’s to one side or the other, never in-between.

Knife should be to the right of forks because that is how you hold them.

There is some logic in that but you’re still wrong. I think because it’s always said “get the knives and forks” and never “get the forks and knives”, the knife must always be to the left cos then you get knife > fork > spoon.

That is the order.

In much the same way that the number three shall be the number thou shall count.

Big spoon, little spoon, cardboard box?

I have the OP’s problem (not his wife, obviously). The draining board rack fits best in one direction, wife must have it perpendicular to that. No words have ever been exchanged about that, even when I just wander up and reposition it right in front of her.

I have mentioned pouring coffee down the bathroom sink drain, couldn’t deal with that one.

Would post a pic of the cutlery drawer, but since I just open it and pour the contents of the drying rack into it, then close it again, I think it might prove upsetting.

it’s always said “get the knives and forks”

Always?  “Get the cutlery.”

the knife must always be to the left cos then you get knife > fork > spoon.

But then you have to have to swap them over. For that logic to hold you’d also have the knife(s) on the left when place-setting.

I know you right-handed weirdos switch hands routinely with forks and spoons depending on whether you’re also using a knife or not, but it makes no sense.

@tracey …

Youv’e put knives into a tray in a drawer…

I did twitch when i saw that… Couple of weekends after my ex moved out i actually went to buy a magnetic knife board so i could get my decent knives out of the draw.

I then bought a proper whetstone set and, unfortunately, needed to buy a few new knives…

If you hold a thing under a running tap, it also doesn’t get scratched by the sink, and after you’ve finished cleaning it, you can rinse it to get rid of the dirty water and soap

If I am reading this correctly this means that the tap is running continuously whilst washing? Surely this uses a lot of water and energy to heat it. I would have been told off for this as a kid, and having spent many weeks as a teenager ( formative years) on small boats washing up with the minimum of water was ingrained as we were the ones who had to carry all the water to fill the tanks. Same with brushing teeth, the tap is only running when cleaning the brush not during the brushing.

Nothing wrong with knives in the drawer out of the way. Cant see the point cluttering up the work tops with blocks or walls with hanging strips ?

I can see why we have hosepipe bans. It’s all these people having taps constantly running down the plughole as they wash up.

With modern on-demand hot water, you generally can’t have it slow enough for this method and still be enough to make the boiler kick in. Huge waste.

I have a bowl but set the hot tap as slow as possible into it as I wash. A hybrid approach. I rinse as i go but if the bowl fills up i turn the tap off (I’ve washed and  rinsed the bulk of the big ticket items by then) and then it’s usually only cutlery left so they get a quick rinse in the draining pot and job done.

If something has been soaking, you still have space around the bowl (with a single sink) to pour it away at the side of the bowl. There’s always someone who’s left a couple of swigs of tea in a cup you come across. Where does that go if you’ve filled up the sink without a bowl?

1. How on earth do you all manage to stay married/co-habiting/living in sin etc with all this low grade passive aggressive warfare going on?
2. I’m beginning to understand why some people are the way that they are on here. ;-)

Nothing wrong with knives in the drawer out of the way.

Well, yeah. If you’re into having self-serrated and/or blunt knives it’s fine.

How on earth do you all manage to stay married/co-habiting/living in sin etc with all this low grade passive aggressive warfare going on?

Constant, low-level bickering has been part of our relationship since day 1.

It’s our 34th wedding anniversary this year! :-)

Congratulations. 34 years for us as well.

Knives are as sharp as some of the wit on here

38 years married, the bickering is what keeps us together! ;-)

 Surely this uses a lot of water and energy to heat it.

Less than filling a plastic bowl. It doesn’t need to be coming out of the tap like a hose pipe, just a bit more than a trickle is sufficient, and you can turn the tap on or off as you need it, it doesn’t need to be running constantly.

How on earth do you all manage to stay married/co-habiting/living in sin etc with all this low grade passive aggressive warfare going on?

Have you seen the cost of a divorce?

Besides, we have to stay united to defeat The Kids.

Less than filling a plastic bowl.

I would be very interested to know that if the next time you did the washing up using your method with a bowl collecting the water what quantity you ended up using. Try it and report back? Genuinely interested in the result.

i could get my decent knives out of the draw.

You’re all just doing it on purpose now, aren’t you. *twitch*

Nothing wrong with knives in the drawer out of the way.

*twitching intensifies*

On our recent water bill it gives tips for keeping water use low, it states do not run the tap when cleaning teeth, this probably applies to washing up using the ‘rinsing under the tap’ method.

In a bowl (which I only fill to half way) you have both hands free to scrub the scrambled egg pan, or get the sponge (eco friendly plant based) into the corners of a tupperware or non-dishwasher proof creuset dish etc.

One last thing, in a washing up bowl one can get the water quite hot, apply the marigolds and as Kayak says pour dirty swilled bits into the sink before plunging into the bowl itself, scrub,scrub.scrub, pop onto draining board and a swill over at the end to rinse. Voila!

it’s always said “get the knives and forks”

Yeah, it should never be “get the fork ‘n knife” which I, apparently, as a kid exclaimed loudly at my posh granny and grandad’s house.

I’ve noticed a lack of cutlery tray cleaning on here

Tut tut

apply the marigolds and …

This usually doesn’t end well

Constant, low-level bickering has been part of our relationship since day 1.

Mrs f likes to wander in and ‘adjust’ the draining board rack while I’m washing up, giving me a slight side eye whilst she does it before wandering off, always makes me smirk, it’s basically foreplay :D

On our recent water bill it gives tips for keeping water use low

There was for a while some ‘campaigning advertising’ in the restrooms at Fairholmes CP at Ladybower. to the tune of “do you know how much water etc etc” It’s recently been painted over. My answer to that and the sorts of advice that they put on water bills, given their own recent behaviour isn’t really repeatable on this forum.

you have both hands free

So you hold the sponge in both hands? You hold the thing you’re cleaning with both hands and the sponge in your teeth? Or more likely, just like me, you’re holding the thing in one hand and scrubbing away at the thing with the other, right? The only difference, is all the crap from my cleaning goes directly down the plug hole, and yours goes back into the same water you’re going to ‘clean’ the next thing with.

@jimw, it’s about half a bowl.

38 years married, the bickering is what keeps us together! ;-)

I’ve pretty much decided that marriage is in fact just two people who’ve decided that a relationship is just shouting “what?” at each other from different rooms.