Handwashing Dishes Challenge: How Much Will We Save?

Now that we are becoming homesteaders instead of city folks we are looking for all kinds of ways to save money. One thing I have noticed about people that are new to homesteading they seem to try to get off grid as much as possible shortly after seeing the bills lowering with small changes. That is one of our goals too. We eventually want to be self-sufficient and not rely on the power companies and grocery stores to care for our family. Of course this is a big goal and will take some time accomplishing. Right now our goal is getting our electric bill reduced.

So how does handwashing dishes and the electric bill go together? We you probably know that the dishwasher uses electricity. Then you add in the hot water used and it cost money to heat the water. Plus the well pump is ran from electricity too. So all that adds up and can add up quickly. So we are experimenting to see if hand washing dishes will actually lower our bill.

This past month our electric bill was $191! That's a HUGE bill for our little tiny house especially since our heater is ran by propane. That $191 is the dishwasher, hot water heater, refrigerator, stove/oven, washing machine and electronics. But really our bill should not be that high. It's crazy high so we are looking into ways to reduce our bill. Step one is handwashing dishes. Our bill cycle is on the 7th of every month. I started a week behind so we will have 3 weeks of handwashing dishes on this next bill.

I started on March 14th. In just the last few days I feel like I have to be using less water that I normally do getting the dishes cleaned between prepping the dishes for the dishwasher and then the actual dishwasher. Plus my kitchen has actually been cleaner more often as I know that I have to wash the dishes by hand so I can't let them pile up as much. Right now there is quite a bit but that's because we were at the property yesterday and I was tired when we got home. Plus I knew that I would be home today and could catch up no problem with my time today. If we were going to be at the property again today I would have sucked it up yesterday and washed them.

So here's my method of handwashing dishes.

1. Prepping the dishes. First I make sure the dishes are scrubbed off as much as possible. I do this while I'm waiting for the water to get hot. It's a good way to not waste the cold water that I have to run first to get the nice hot water to clean the dishes. 
2. Fill up the sink. I first fill up the sink just a enough to wash the small dishes. Silverware, cooking utensils, coffee cups, glasses whatever I can get through the sink before it's really full. I scrub them and leave them in the sink until it's to full to wash any more. 
3. Rinsing. I then rinse these dishes over the sink of soapy water. This fills the sink the rest of the while rinsing the dishes I already have washed. 
4. Drying. Because our kitchen is so small and I have no counter top space I put all the dishes in the dishwasher to dry. I leave it open if I can and they dry pretty quickly. But if I'm busy cooking or baking then I close it up and make sure to open it later to let them finish drying. All the clean dishes are out of my way and I can continue to use my kitchen without having drying dishes everywhere. 
5. Washing big items. I then disinfect the other sink that was holding all the small dishes and start washing the big dishes. I put all the clean big dishes in the other side of the sink and once it's full or I'm finished with the bigger items I rinse them.
6. Rinsing big items. I rinse the big items over the other big items. I keep the water on halfway because there is no need for it to be on full and I quickly rinse all the dishes and put them in the dishwasher to dry. And for my pots that go on my pot rack I just hang them up and they they drip right into the sink. I love my pot rack and I made it all myself...well Hubby had to cut the conduit for me but everything else I did.
   

So that's my plan for this month. I'm going to stick to handwashing dishes at least until our next bill comes out. I've read on other blogs that this has made a difference. If this works we are going to find other ways to reduce our bill in our kitchen, getting rid of the coffee pot and other appliances. And the if that works then my next adventure will be attempting handwashing laundry! That will be a big thing chore to attempt but I think summer is the perfect time to try it. Let's see how low we can get our electric bill by making some simple changes and giving up some luxury items.

**Read follow up post here**