Dishpan Hands - or how I wash dishes.

For those of you who still live in sticks-n-bricks (i.e. houses) this will probably be the most useless blog you’ve ever read.  Others might find it interesting, while yet others – those new to the nomadic, off-the-grid life-style - might find it actually helpful.  I’m going to tell you how I wash dishes. Woopee!!

Washing dishes when you are ‘boondocking’ or ‘dry camping’ in the desert is all about the conservation of resources.  Pamela and I have slightly different techniques, but both are efficient.  Both of our techniques save water but neither are the very severe approaches like using a spray bottle, etc.  We live here. We’re not camping for the weekend.  Nevertheless, we still keep our wash well under a gallon of water. The picture is of our sink, with our dishpan, after I finished this morning’s dishes.  The dishpan holds just shy of a gallon, and you will notice that it isn’t full.  Granted there are just two of us, but I’ve done this after hosting a dinner party for six with the same results.

Besides saving water, my methods also reduces the amount of water going into the grey water holding tank.  That means we can stay in the desert longer without having to find a dump station. This dishpan has environmentally safe soap and no food particles, so it is as good as filtered water and, in such small amounts, could be poured on the ground away from any existing ground water. (Always protect the ground water. If you do dump in the desert or the woods, but sure to go far enough away that you don’t attract animals to where you’re staying. The water still smells.)  If you are talking quantity, you will want to further filter, just to be safe.  We use so little I could just leave it outside in the desert and the water would likely evaporate before the next wash. But all this is another blog, so back to washing dishes.

You will notice that our dishpan fits neatly into the sink.  Filled to the brim it doesn’t hold more than a gallon of water.  Some times we use a large mixing bowl, or other similar container that needs to be washed, as our dishpan. Double duty.

Some people use paper towel to wipe food scraps, residue and particles into the trash.  I don’t really like using paper towels, even recycled paper towels.  I scrape as much as I can directly into the trash. Then  I start the wash by putting a very small amount of Dawn detergent into the dishpan and adding an equally small amount of hot water.  I just need enough to keep my dish cloth wet.  I wipe all dishes and cooking utensils with the very wet rag (don’t wring it out) over the strainer in the right side of the sink.  (I’m left handed, so this is easiest.)   Since we use cast iron, I have a separate dish cloth for the cast iron. Once wiped clean of scraps and residue, the item (sans cast iron) goes into the dishpan.  Now I’ve got all of the scraps, residue and particles safely trapped in the sink strainer. Before continuing, I empty the strainer and wipe out the right side of the sink. You might be able to see in the picture that our strainer isn’t the one that comes with a normal sink. It is a special design and works great.  This step takes only about as much water as you can wring out of a dish cloth. Maybe, if you have really dirty dishes, you might use two dish cloth worth, but this is almost 100% of the water you will be adding to your grey tank if you dump the dish pan on the ground. If you dump your dishpan into the grey tank, you’ve still added less than a gallon of water.

Actually, the dishes look quite clean at this point, and, in all honesty, could probably be rinsed and dried, but I do an actual wash.  I’m still using the same dish water which has not been polluted by food residue or particles. When I rinse, I rinse over the dishpan.  This adds fresh hot water to the pan. The advantage of this is the order in which I wash.  It takes almost no water to cover a plate or flatware.  They go first.  As rinse water increases the volume of my wash water, I can now get larger and larger items under the water to wash.  Cereal bowls are next.  Cups, serving bowls, etc., are, of course, last to be washed.  To conserve space on my drying mat, I generally leave the washed flatware in the pan until everything else is done, but that’s just because I don’t have a very big drying mat. If Pamela is drying as I wash, I will rinse flatware as soon as it is washed.  

All done!  It is actually a very quick and simple method. It is going to be a bit more difficult if you don’t use cast iron for cooking.  Cast iron is soooooo easy to clean. After the dishes are done I use the dish water to clean the stove, counters and sink.  Occasionally we save some of the dish water to flush and clean the toilet. This saves on water use and gives us more time enjoying the beauty of the desert. Any remaining dish water can be poured down the drain into the grey water tank or safely disposed of on the ground. Again, disposing of water on the ground is a conservation, safety issue with which each of us must deal. The nice thing about this method is that the amount of water is very small.  

This isn’t the only way to wash dishes, but I have found it to be quick, easy and efficient.  It does reduce the amount of water we use thereby not only conserving water but giving us more time to stay out in the desert. 

Pamela and I are full-timers who spend about half our year in the wilderness of northwestern Montana (our “official” home) where we serve as camp hosts for the national park service, and the other half in the marvelous deserts of the western US.   We spend about 70-80% of our time boondocking (dry camping).