Cutlery to dry or dish washer

yo'ma

Mon, Sep 27 2021, 6:48 am

How do you place your cutlery in the dish drain to dry or even the dish washer? I place everything up, except the knives. I’m afraid someone can cut themselves. Someone could get poked with a fork, but I only do it with the knives. I do it like that because more space and dry better. My cleaning lady puts everything up, including the knives, but she also dries and puts it away right away. I’ve been to other people’s homes and they put everything face down.

Ema of 5

Mon, Sep 27 2021, 7:13 am

yo'ma wrote:

My dishwasher has a standing receptacle, and my husband puts the knives in face up. It drives me crazy!! Knives should always be face down. Everything else goes face up.

Amarante

Mon, Sep 27 2021, 10:42 am

I put everything up including knives. However, I don't understand the fear of having knives being up. The knives that are part of my tableware set (stainless and silver) have relatively blunt dinner knives.

I have a separate set of steak knives that are only used when there is a cut of meat that requires a very sharp knife. However, these knives are not supposed to go in the dishwasher.

And prep knives - e.g paring knives, chef knives etc. are also not supposed to go into the dishwasher. I hand wash all of my prep knives and dry them as part of my normal straightening up and never put them in the dishwasher.

Of course you can always get the dishwasher style that has a third drawer on top where you lay ALL the silverware flat. This is a great style because it leaves much more room than a traditional basket and also gets stuff cleaner because every side is exposed and not lumped together in a basket.

Ema of 5

Mon, Sep 27 2021, 12:27 pm

Amarante wrote:

All my knives go in the dishwasher- regular knives, steak knives, prep knives….

Amarante

Mon, Sep 27 2021, 12:32 pm

Ema of 4 wrote:

All my knives go in the dishwasher- regular knives, steak knives, prep knives….

Many knives that have handles and are of good quality are not dishwasher safe or hand wash is recommended.

As I posted, my prep knives and my steak knives are not dishwasher safe.

Whatever the care instructions are, for you knives should be followed.

In general, knives that need to be sharpened aren't dishwasher safe and also many have handles which aren't dishwasher safe.

It is easy to hand wash a chef's knife or other prep knife after using it - Better to follow care instructions for a $175 knife.

Silver - real silver - is also not recommended to be washed in a dishwasher but that is a different issue.

zaq

Mon, Sep 27 2021, 1:17 pm

This is rather like the toilet paper debate:pointless except for the knives, hahaha. Sharp knives must face down for human safety though it’s bad for the knives. Everything else really doesn’t matter.

I personally put everything face up for two reasons: first, because I can identify what the utensil is without having to take it out of the bunch; and second, because as the water drains, the portion that goes into one’s mouth dries first and doesn’t sit in the water where germs can grow. But really the utensils dry quickly enough that germ proliferation isn’t an issue.