How to correctly wash up

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There are different methods people use to wash up their dishes. However generally I'd say that they all involve:

I have a strong feeling that most people simply don't know how to wash up correctly, and will either use up much more water or washing up liquid than necessary, or worse, end up with unclean crockery and utensils as a result.

Prepare

This should go without saying, but clearing your crockery of as much solid food residue as possible before you begin is essential to doing adulting correctly.

Step 1.

Start the actual washing process by gently soaking your pot/pan/crockery/cutlery etc., in a short stream of water direct from the tap.

dirty frying pan

Step 2.

Drizzle a small amount of washing up liquid onto your now damp crockery item, hopefully you've left a small amount of surface water for this to mix with a little bit.

rinsed pan

Step 3.

Scrub the surface of your crockery with your brush or sponge, starting with the area with the small amount of washing up liquid. Make small circle motions at first, but gradually widen these circular motions, until the whole item is covered in a layer of soap. Bear in the mind the soap will obviously mix up with any remaining mess residue and potentially make it look unappealing.

scrubbed pan

Step 4.

Run the item under another small but steady stream of water from the tap to rinse off the soap scum and all of the grime and mess that has now come off with it.

clean pan

Tada! All done! 🎉 You probably (hopefully) didn't learn anything, and if so congratulations! In my experience, most people who come across this post will, in fact, learn something.

For these people, I will be following up with a further post (or just an update to this one) which explains what not to do.