The last time I used my dishwasher at home was sometime in June when I got all new dishware, utensils, and glassware for my new apartment. It was a lot of items to have to wash, so it made sense to load up the dishwasher and let modern technology do the work for me.

Since then though, I never really found any justification to use my dishwasher. As I live alone and don't have a wife and a brood with me, the number of dishes, cups, glasses, pots, pans, and utensils I use in a day is very limited. While I could use my dishwasher to clean four plates, two forks, three knives, and two glasses after one day of use, is that the best way? By washing by hand, I save water, energy, soap, and the environment. I suppose I could just wait until my sink just piled up with enough dishes that using the dishwasher would be the better way to go but I think that's kinda gross. At the rate, I use things, it would take a good five to seven days to get to that point. I really don't like letting my dishes sit any more than two days. Any leftover food starts to get funky at that point.

I am concerned, however, that not using dishwasher for long periods of time is not good for it. It contains many mechanical parts, some of the complex variety. Much like a car, I believe it's good just to run it once in a while just to keep things in good working order. I wonder though how many of you are like me who own a dishwasher but don't use it. Do you run yours once in a while?

Thanks for reading this entire post, which essentially described me wondering if I should use my dishwasher.

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