The Little Things - Emptying the Dishwasher

In keeping with the theme of yesterday's clothing tag post, I thought I would post yet another little thing that drives me (and maybe only me) bonkers.

First off, let it be stated here that I detest emptying the dishwasher. This may surprise those of you that know me as OCD-clean, but the act of putting away dishes just irks me. I have no problem loading the dishwasher, and I don't even have a problem hand-washing dishes, but emptying the dishwasher and putting each piece back is both monotonous and potentially even frustrating.

But, if there is one thing I hate the most about the dishwasher emptying process, it's when there are small puddles of water that have formed on the tops of some of the dishes that, when you remove the dish from the dishwasher, proceeds to dribble off the dish and onto the tile/wood floor. For example, I put coffee mugs and cereal bowls upside-down on the top shelf of the dishwasher. But many glasses and bowls have a concave bottom, thus providing the perfect spot for a kiddy-pool size puddle to form after the wash cycle. And I don't know if you all are aware of this, but water is clear, so when I go to unload the dishes, I don't see these sneaky cesspools, so when I lift the glasses and bowls, I am immediately confronted with the feeling of water falling on and around my bare feet. Grrrr.

Dishwashers are Demons.

The only thing worse than the bowls and mugs is Tupperware. Those plastic demons have lips on their edges where the lid fits, allowing an entire moat of dishwater to form all the way around it. Not only does it flood the floor when picked up, but it then runs all over the tupperware itself, requiring me to go get a towel and dry it. I might as well have just hand-washed the damn thing!

I understand that my dishwasher may not be drying the dishes as effectively as it should, but this dishwasher-plague affects millions of people every year in the United States. I would guess there are at least 5,000 runny-dishwasher-water deaths every year. Look it up.

What's the solution? Beyond dumping the dishes over the dishwasher so it doesn't go on the floor, or manning up and just hand-washing all dishes, I would ask all dish manufacturers to make all flat-bottomed products, and I am about to draft an e-mail to Tupperware to step up their game and produce a non-lipped edge for their lids, so I can have dry feet in the kitchen.

I hate wet feet.