Only one sink? How?

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Forum -> Household Management -> Kosher Kitchen

Only one sink? How?

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amother

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 4:03 am

We have a small kitchen with just one sink. I use separate washing up bowls for doing the dishes and always thought this was fine but I have read things on here that sugest otherwise. We have two separate drying racks, one on the ide of the sink and one above it.

Is this set up OK or should we be doing something different?

rydys

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 8:03 am

What you are doing is perfectly fine. I've always only had one sink and that is what I do. The sink itself is treif, so in essence you are using an "insert" for your dishes.

DrMom

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 8:12 am

Do you think all our bubbies had multiple sinks? What you are doing is fine (at least as far as my rav is concerned). If you have doubts, solicit the opinion of your rav.

zaq

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 8:56 am

You're fine.
But Dr. Mom, in reality more of our Bubbies had two sinks than otherwise. One side was big and deep and meant for washing laundry, and the other was shallower and meant for washing dishes and bathing babies. Alternatively, the shallow side was filled with soapy water for washing the dishes and the deeper one filled with clear water for rinsing.

If you were kosher, you made one side fleishik and one side milchik. If you moved into a previously-occupied apartment, you had to put a washbasin in each sink, anyway, because the sinks were presumed tref unless proven kosher, and a porcelain sink cannot be kashered. Kasherable stainless steel sinks are a relatively modern innovation.

I speak, of course, not as a nineteen-year-old kallah whose Bubby is fifty-eight, but as someone whose Bubby was born in the mid-1880s and remembers when kitchen sinks and stoves were porcelain and stood on legs.

hop613

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 9:01 am

Why don't you ask your Rov?

r_ch

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 9:22 am

From what I know and learnt, 2 separate washing up bowls are more than fine. I do the same.

chocolate moose

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 10:41 am

I agree with the above, and ....

Don't let anything soak in the sink. And don't use very hot water with anything in there.

amother

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 5:48 pm

DrMom wrote:

Do you think all our bubbies had multiple sinks? What you are doing is fine (at least as far as my rav is concerned). If you have doubts, solicit the opinion of your rav.

hop613 wrote:

Why don't you ask your Rov?

To be honest, I was going to ask him but was embarassed to!

I always thought it was fine to have one sink as long as you used separate bowls for the washing up (I would do this anyway even if I had 2 sinks) but then I read something on here that suggested some people hold it isn't OK.

I was going to ask my Rav about it but THEN I read something on here about an apartment that had "Fully kosher kitchen (two sinks)" plus a poster telling someone on the relocation forum that she would be unable to find a place with 2 sinks in a particular area and started to wonder whether it was an actual requirement that I somehow had never learnt about! I was then scared to ask my Rav in case it would be like asking him if ham and cheese sandwiches are kosher!

Anyway, thanks for replying and putting my mind at rest! My bubbies all had just sink too but then they weren't Jewish :-)

Ruchel

Wed, Jul 27 2011, 4:19 am

I grew up with one sink. No issue.
My dh knows a rav who happens to have one sink, too. Most of the double (now I hear triple, parve too! well at least on Imamother, not IRL LOL) things people have are NOT must...

moon__star

Thu, Aug 04 2011, 5:38 am

Just a point of reference - Ovadia Yosef has one sink in his house. Reason? To make a point that having only one sink (especially when you can't afford/have space to install another one) is completely acceptable.

moon__star

Thu, Aug 04 2011, 5:39 am

Ruchel wrote:

Some of my neighbors have a "miniature" sink in between the two. I asked what it's for, most don't know, or said it was for vegetables but that's just their educated guess...

PinkFridge

Thu, Aug 04 2011, 7:28 am

I don't understand the question. Racks and bins.
And side by side double sinks aren't too helpful. They may share the same pipes and backup in one can be from the other. If I want to soak stuff in a bin and there's stuff in the other sink there'll be splashing.

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