Don’t feel guilty if you don’t wash your dishes by hand or pre-scrub them like my hard-core cleaning friend. The dishwasher isn’t just saving you time, you also are smartly saving money and energy.
It makes sense that you use more water and energy when you wash dishes in the sink, as it’s like the shower vs. bath concept for your dishes, but there’s more energy savings inside your dishwasher than you might expect.
If you wash a full load of dishes inside an Energy Star qualified dishwasher, you’ll actually use less than half as much energy. And you can cut your utility bills by more than $40 per year and can save nearly 5,000 gallons of water annually.
I know that $40 doesn’t sound like a lot, but it adds up. And I think my family would definitely enjoy having pizza a few more nights during the year or breakfast at our local diner to celebrate not washing dishes. Just saying.
If you are more dedicated to energy savings and want to save even more, let dishes air-dry after the wash cycle in the dishwasher.
