Reducing Dirty Dishes

One of the things I love about the Christmas season is the frequency of visitors in our home.  One day last week we unexpectedly had portions of three different families in our home on one single afternoon! I found myself washing cups by hand so that we could offer our visitors a beverage. I realized that, once again, our family was using way too many cups in the course of an average morning!  So, for my sake, and perhaps for yours, I revisit this post from my early blogging days. Although we forget from time to time and fall back into old habits, this remains the best way I have found to get us back on track and reduce the amount of dirty glasses in our sink.  

Human beings, when not properly trained and/or restrained, can generate a substantial pile of dirty glasses in a 24 hour period.  This was a shocking blow to me when my children, one by one, out grew their color-coded sipper cups.  I woke up one day and realized I had drinking glasses all over the house, and piles of them  waiting in the kitchen waiting to be washed. I was not pleased.

We have tried a few different strategies over the years, but I always come back to the 49 cent solution: rubber bands.  Buy one package of wide rubber bands; have each person label/decorate their own band; require them to choose one glass in the morning and put their band on this glass; hide all other glasses ( this part is optional, but extremely effective...).  Amazing! Less in the dishwasher, less mess around the house...ahhhhh. 

***additional note*** 

We often band our cups when we have guests visiting our home. This is a great way to avoid having to buy the easily-spilled paper cups for parties and large gatherings. We also save the bands of frequent visitors to our home. Children especially seem to enjoy knowing that we have saved their band for them!