How to wash dishes

[Videocrafters]

Looking for ideas on how to use less water to wash dishes so as not to fill up the grey tank so fast. Any ideas?

[cpaharley2008]

Originally Posted by Videocrafters

Looking for ideas on how to use less water to wash dishes so as not to fill up the grey tank so fast. Any ideas?

Use a dishpan and empty it elsewhere........

[C&G in FL]

Originally Posted by Videocrafters

Looking for ideas on how to use less water to wash dishes so as not to fill up the grey tank so fast. Any ideas?

Many campgrounds have dishwashing stations at the bathhouses; if boondocking, not a problem.

[JeffreyG]

Wash like you are backpacking, where every liter you got was picked up and filtered.


Eat - everything
Carefully scrape off the last bits of food from each bowl
Put a little hot water in each bowl
Put some soap on a scrubby, and scrub out each bowl, dump that into the cooking pot.
Add a little more water to each bowl, rub it around with your fingers to rinse.

Dump again into the pot.
Now wash the pot, and then rinse it.
Total water that you need to get rid of for 2-4 people should be a few cups.

[oldwave]

good suggestions, this trip I got 10 days out of both tanks by dumping the dish water in the black tank. we only urinate in the tank so the enzyme issue was moot.

[Iowa Dave]

Paper plates and fire. Free plastic silverware from slow food joints. As stated eat it all. Raccoons will lick frying pans pretty clean but bears will bite holes in pans and people.
Boy Scout training.
Iowa Dave

[gbaglo]

When the kids were little, paper plates were for colouring, then eating and then fire starter.

[Bobbie54]

Originally Posted by Iowa Dave

Paper plates and fire. Free plastic silverware from slow food joints. As stated eat it all. Raccoons will lick frying pans pretty clean but bears will bite holes in pans and people.
Boy Scout training.
Iowa Dave

Dogs do a pretty good job on the plates.

[ghosthunter]

Originally Posted by Bobbie54

Dogs do a pretty good job on the plates.

Back when I had a beginner wife my beginner father in law didnt like the dog eating off dinner plates.
Said he could tell months later if a dog had licked off a plate.

Well being young and a little challenging I decide to test him. I marked the plate and fed the dog off it every day. Each time he came to visit I made sure he got that plate.

Ya know he never figured it out.

We too put dish water in black tank.or on the fire pit.

[Videocrafters]

Here is what we have been doing, but I am hoping to do better (less water).
Put a small amount of hot water in my dishpan. Add soap. Wash smaller items first and rinse them with the rinse water going into the dishpan so that eventually the water in the dishpan will get deeper so that I can wash bigger items. Then I dump the dishpan either in the fire pit or on a paved driveway pad if there is one.

[Jim Bennett]

We use a minimal amount of dishwater when washing dishes. Dishes are always scraped and paper towel wiped as much as possible. Dishes usually get dried with a towel, so should any wee bit of soapy dishwater remain on the surface after cleaning it gets wiped clean.

We too mostly do dishes outside in a dishpan, and if boondocking (which is by far the majority of our camping) mostly dispose of it a bit away from camp, though it the odd location it goes into our grey or black tank. If at a campground there is usually a trailer dump nearby if no site hookups so we don't worry as much.

[UncleTim]

This method may be overkill, but if you can get campground water then it is easy. This is good for groups.

We set up 4 buckets, always running downstream. This is the whitewater way of washing dishes.

Bucket 1 contains water for pre wash.
Bucket 2 contains soapy warm water for washing dishes.
Bucket 3 contains warm rinse water.
Bucket 4 contains a wee bit of Clorox in clean water to disinfect everything.

And we have a drying rack. A bit of overkill if just two people, but highly effective for groups.

Strain the water into the pre rinse bucket (from the other buckets) and then strain rinse water when done. Haul out left over food remnants from strainer.

The Grand Canyon method allows one to strain the water right into the river.
The Salmon River system demands straining only above the high water level on the bank. Nothing goes into the river. One of these methods always applies on a river.

[Craiger]

Tom, it appears your procedures are identical to United States Army rules for eating in the field by troops. My father advised me when I went into the Army of this procedure and stated to me. Always wash your mess kit completely, rinse thoroughly, and let it sit in the boiling rinse third for at least 20 seconds. He said you can watch the other people get diarrhea.

[escape artist]

Originally Posted by Iowa Dave

Paper plates and fire. Free plastic silverware from slow food joints. As stated eat it all. Raccoons will lick frying pans pretty clean but bears will bite holes in pans and people.
Boy Scout training.
Iowa Dave

Hi: Iowa Dave...IMHO if you do them poorly the first time you won't be asked again!!! Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

[Mike G]

I've used a collapsible water container (perhaps 3 or 4 gallon capacity?) with small spout. It looks sort of like this one. Without a separate relief valve to let air in, the water just dribbles out when I turn the main valve to the open position. It's hard to waste water with this thing running into the kettle (or largest item) inside the dishpan. I also pre-wipe the dishes with paper towel to get most of the residue before beginning, so it takes a miniscule amount of water to wash and rinse.