Twinkie Mom: Dish Detail

No one enjoys washing dishes, right? If they do, they should have their head examined. Well I am one of the few who likes doing dishes. Call me crazy but I would rather wash dishes than vacuum the floors or fold laundry. There is something about the warm water and smell of dish soap that puts me in a good mood.

When it comes to baby dishes I wash them separately. I am not sure why I continue to keep them separate from the rest of the dirty dishes, but I do. We have a one gallon Schwan's Ice Cream container that we leave on the sideboard and fill with dirty baby dishes, everything else goes in the sink. When the sink and/or container gets full it is time to scrub!

I always wash the baby dishes first using liquid Ivory soap and a Munchkin Deluxe Bottle Brush. Why Ivory soap? It is what the hospital gave us to wash bottles and breast pump parts with so I stuck with it. It smells nice and doesn't dry out my hands, which is a bonus since I wash dishes once a day or every other day. The Munchkin Deluxe Bottle Brush is great for scrubbing little bowls and sippy cups as well as bottles. It has a small brush hidden inside the handle to scrub bottle nipples and the rubber parts of sippy cups where milk likes to hide. It has a suction cup end to stand up and drip dry on the side board so I am not constantly searching for it under the sink. I tried the Munchkin Bottle and Nipple Brush with the sponge end but I didn't like how little bits of sponge came off each time I used it and it doesn't have the suction end so it never really got dry in between uses.

Once the baby dishes are clean I put them on my The First Years Spinning Bottle Rack. This apparatus holds a lot of stuff, which is great because Tanner and Abigail generate twice as many dishes. We use Tommee Tippee bottles (see Bottles, Bottles Everywhere post) and The First Years Take and Toss dishes. We registered for the 28 piece variety pack which came with small and large bowls with lids, sippy cups, and spoons and forks. We use the bowls to pack snacks for an afternoon away or to serve up a meal at home. I like the sippy cups because there aren't lots of pieces to clean, just a cup and a lid. They even make a snap on lid to cover the spout to prevent spills when traveling.

Once the dishes are clean I stack them and store them so they are out of the way but nearby when I need to feed Tanner and Abigail. While doing some research for this blog post I have discovered that they make a Take and Toss Organizer which peaks my interest...I may need to purchase one in the near future.