Elizabeth Day: My complicated relationship with... my dishwasher - YOU Magazine Fashion Beauty Celebrity Health Life Relationships Horoscopes Food Interiors Travel Sign in Welcome!Log into your account Forgot your password? Password recovery Recover your password Search Sign in Welcome! Log into your account Forgot your password? Get help Password recovery Recover your password A password will be e-mailed to you. YOU Magazine Fashion Beauty Celebrity Health Life Relationships Horoscopes Food Interiors Travel Home Life Elizabeth Day My complicated relationship with… my dishwasher By You Magazine - April 12, 2020 You can tell a lot about a person from their dishwasher etiquette. Growing up, we had one in the corner of our kitchen which was only ever used for special occasions. My mother hated the idea of stacking dirty plates in the racks, only for them to be left accumulating bacteria while waiting for the rest of the dishwasher to be filled. Jenny Brough As a result, we hand-washed everything unless there were at least eight people around for dinner, when the dishwasher door was finally prised open like a treasure chest in a 1980s movie, emitting a dazzling light and the sound of an angel chorus. It never lost its mystique for me. I came to think of the dishwasher as an unimaginable luxury – a kitchen appliance that felt like a self-indulgence. So when my partner and I moved in together and one came with the house, I barely knew what to do with myself. It was like having a member of the Royal Family crouching underneath the sink, offering to help out with that muesli-encrusted cereal bowl. I loaded it up with joyous abandon. I put in everything: plates, cutlery, pans, Tupperware boxes, the cat. (OK, not the cat, but all the other stuff.) I pressed the buttons, closed the door and – ta-da! – the dishwasher washed it all for me. But when the cycle was over, I realised I had to put everything away. And that was an issue. For some reason the act of unloading it, restacking all the plates and transferring them back into their appropriate cupboards has become my most loathed household task. As a neat freak, I should be getting satisfaction from everything being re-ordered and back in its rightful place. But no – the sight of a dishwasher, door slightly ajar, full of clean crockery is the most heart-plummeting thing I can see in the morning. Searching for an explanation, I did what any self-respecting journalist does: took to Twitter and asked others to share their most hated chore. The responses were immediate and overwhelming: 2,200 people replied. Taking the bins out was very high up – with one person suggesting that the primary reason for having children was so they could do it for you. Folding and putting away laundry was also a cause of substantial angst. The act of changing a duvet cover caused ‘existential despair out of proportion to the task,’ said one. Novelist David Nicholls was one of many who answered with ‘unpacking groceries – it takes a lifetime’. There were some curveballs – a few decided that brushing one’s teeth was an onerous household task, and one brave soul cited ‘engaging with my children’. But generally, I noticed the most hated chores all involved some form of removal, emptying or putting things away. On a practical level, I imagine this might be because technology has shaped us to expect immediacy. So once we’ve done a task – loaded the dishwasher, put the laundry on, bought the groceries, separated out the rubbish – we expect it to be done. We don’t want the next phase because mentally we’ve completed the chore. I wonder if there’s a deeper play. Perhaps we dislike the act of away because it reminds us of the psychology at putting things away because it reminds us of the endless cycle of life: the investment of hopes and dreams (loading dirty plates), the hope of renewal (the washing) then the realisation that we have to go through the whole thing again (the unloading) until we break down… or the dishwasher does. A cheery thought. It’s possible I’m analysing it all too much. But this is what happens when I’m trying to delay the inevitable: the dishwasher has just beeped. It’s time to unload it. Wish me luck. This week I’ m… Listening to You Must Remember This, a podcast that focuses on the first 100 years of Hollywood. From star makeovers to the history of Disney. Bedazzling myself With this double chain necklace from Missoma: chunky enough to be cool, elegant enough not to feel de trop. Wearing this Alpaca blend sweater in light yellow from & Other Stories. I bought it on impulse and have been wearing it almost daily since. RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR Everything we know about The Crown season 5 Aldi s exercise equipment is on sale with up to 50% off The best Halloween events for 2022 across the UK Popular in Life The You magazine team reveal their New Year s resolutions December 31, 2021 Susannah Taylor The TLC tools your body will love January 23, 2022 How to stop living in fear February 6, 2022 Susannah Taylor My pick of the fittest leggings February 27, 2022 Women’ s Prize for Fiction 2022 winner announced June 17, 2022 These BBC dramas are returning for a second series June 30, 2022 Susannah Taylor gives the lowdown on nature s little helper – CBD April 17, 2022 The baby names that are banned across the world April 27, 2022 The Queen has released her own emojis May 26, 2022 Sally Brompton horoscopes 27th June-3rd July 2022 June 26, 2022 Popular CategoriesFood2704Life2496Fashion2240Beauty1738Celebrity1261Interiors684 Sign up for YOUMail Thanks for subscribing Please check your email to confirm (If you don't see the email, check the spam box) Fashion Beauty Celebrity Life Food Privacy & Cookies T&C Copyright 2022 - YOU Magazine. All Rights Reserved