10 Reasons We Never Replaced Our Dishwasher

When we remodeled our kitchen, I decided not to replace our dishwasher for several reasons:

1. We pretty much had to babysit our dishwasher the last few years, coaxing the dial forward where it stuck in neutral.
2. Many times we had to rewash plates from dried on food because they sat too long before being loaded and washed. So, if we didn't pre-wash them, we had to rewash them. What's the point?
3. We will save money! There's one less soap to buy; therefore, we will save money on soap. I can't remember exactly how long a jug of soap lasted for us, but I believe it was between one and two weeks. A jug of dishwasher soap costs $3.04 including tax. So, if a jug lasts two weeks, at $3.04/jug x 26 weeks, that's a savings of $79.04/year. Multiply that a few years and we're saving even more money. And if we had gone through a jug a week, that's another $79.04/year!
4. Lightweight plastic containers always flipped upside down during the wash cycle, filled with nasty dishwater, and, once again, we were required to rewash more dishes.
5. We still had to load and unload the dishes.
6. We needed more cupboard space.
7. We had problems with the door seal which caused some water damage on the hardwood floor and cupboards. We didn't want to deal with that again.
8. We saved money! The two one-foot cabinets we replaced the dishwasher with were around $150.00 cheaper than the cheapest new dishwasher!
9. Simplicity is always nice. Seems like there is always one more appliance or gadget needed and sometimes it just causes more stress. More appliances and gadgets means more to maintain, more to clean, and more space to put it!
10. Dishwashers have now become a hazard to our health! Scientists have found that dishwashers are so sanitary that children are unable to build up their immune systems as easily as before dishwashers.

Well actually, the decision to not replace our dishwasher was made before hearing about #10. I doubt whether that point would have influenced our decision one way or another. Our children are all grown now, but when they were younger, that dishwasher came in quite handy. Now, we'd rather have our cupboard space. Happy dishwashing!

Note: This photo shows the new kitchen cabinets that replaced our dishwasher.

Disclosure: The Excalibur Dehydrator link under "Other Sites" is an affiliated link. If you make a purchase using this link ~ you will receive free shipping, along with other specials. I also earn a small percentage to help support my blog. Thank you, your support is appreciated!!

Organizing My Freezer

Today I had a snow day from work. What to do for a project with an entire day? Laundry and cleaning the bathroom just didn't seem like enough. I don't get many days home lately so I wanted to take advantage of it.

About a month ago, I had purchased some crates for organizing my freezer and today seemed as good a day as any to tackle this project. My son volunteered to help out and we accomplished the task in about an hour and a half.

Here's a before photo of what we're looking at organizing:

Let's get started. First we unplugged the freezer and rounded up the crates.

Next we emptied the entire freezer and layed everything out on the cement.

We filled a bucket with some hot, soapy water and cleaned out all the frost from the sides of the freezer. Then we washed the sides and bottom down for a clean finish.

We arranged two large crates in the bottom of the freezer and the small crates along the left side to see how they would fit. We found that we could easily fit three small ones on the side so I will purchase two more for this area.

We put the large meat items in the back since they would fill up one crate per item alone. We also put a tall box back in as I like to store my flour in it. One bag had gotten a hole in it because it had been tossed around so it was left in the bag on top and will be used first.

We placed like items together in the crates. It was amazing how many duplicate items we had that we were unaware of, since they all seemed to be hidden when we searched for them. For instance, I just bought four bags of semi-sweet miniature chocolate chips because I thought we were out! We use them quite frequently so I like to have a few bags on hand. We found eight more bags for a total of twelve!! Now there's a few!

I put my jars of homemade soup in between the two large crates and put larger items on top of them.

One large crate holds the fruit and vegetables; one holds the nut items (apparently I had several bags of them, too!); one holds the larger baking items; and one holds the instant meals.

All the smaller baking items went in the smaller crates on the left side. They seemed to be overfilled, so I will buy two more. The idea is that when you are looking for a specific food item, you can look in the crate needed. If it is in a bottom crate, you simply lift the top crate out, retrieve your food item, and replace the top crate. Simple!

Now we just plug the freezer back in and we're done!

Hopefully, you won't end up with a bunch of freezer burnt items like we did. This box is full of food that was at the bottom of the freezer. Mostly filled with all my hard work of peeled apples and a few items that had thawed when our power went out. Out they go!

The total cost for the crates will be $27.46 for four large crates and six small crates. This cost should easily pay for itself when finding and using items I need before they get freezer burnt.

Whew! A very productive day.


Disclosure: The Excalibur Dehydrator link under "Other Sites" is an affiliated link. If you make a purchase using this link ~ you will receive free shipping, along with other specials. I also earn a small percentage to help support my blog. Thank you, your support is appreciated!!