First World Problems
It's Boxing Day sales...time to buy a dishwasher on special. The dilemma...a cutlery tray or a cutlery basket? Oh, how to choose?
Consumer New Zealand is helpful. They have a whole article on whether a cutlery tray or a cutlery basket is better. Cutlery trays are on the rise – 56 of the models Consumer tested had trays while only 38 had baskets. Consumer also notes a number of people don't realise they have a cutlery tray because it's hiding at the top of the dishwasher. That would be disappointing - thinking you have a new dishwasher with nowhere to put cutlery.
In terms of cleaning performance of trays vs baskets, it turns out there is no 'better'. Trays and baskets both clean cutlery fine. Trays may have a very slight edge because cutlery can't 'nest' together. Also, if you are concerned about how clean your cutlery will get in a basket, there is little difference in having tines up or down. However, every website referring to tines up or down says you should put tines down to prevent being stabbed by your cutlery – it's not worth a small potential cleanliness advantage to get stabbed.
Really, stabbed by cutlery? Has it happened to you? One article I found suggests 12.5% of adults and 10% of children have been injured emptying the dishwasher. Hmmm...I suggest going mountain biking rather than using a dishwasher because if you get injured you'll have been having a lot more fun right up to the point of impact.
However, someone or something has to do the dishes and I'd rather it was a dishwasher than me, so back to the dishwasher cutlery dilemma, while noting my parents escaped any decisions about dishwashers until my brother and I left home –we were the dishwashers. The month after my brother headed for his first job in Whakatane, and I was workign on Canadian ski fields, my parents bought a dishwasher. When I returned, a couple of years later, I wondered why they couldn't have bought one sooner.
Anyhow, if there's no way to choose between cutlery trays and baskets based on cleanliness, how do I decide? I could have bought a dishwasher with both – this is becoming more common. However, this would mean I'd have to store the tray, or basket, in a cupboard, in case I changed my mind later or wanted to sell the dishwasher. And I'd still have to choose which to store because having both in the dishwasher would mean it could wash fewer dishes...
Consumer conducted a survey of their staff to find out which was more preferred, a tray or a basket.
I also conducted a poll of n=2, although I'm planning to expand it because two is not a very scientific number. Chris prefers a basket, I prefer a tray. Our preferences parallel those of the Consumer staff. I like order and ease in unloading. Chris thinks a tray is a stupid fiddly waste of time.
Also unscientifically, I hypothesise tray people are people who like organisation. Basket people are people who enjoy disorder. Perhaps basket people don't bother sorting their cutlery in their cutlery drawer, either. They could throw it all in together to save on time. Do a lucky dip when they want to eat something. Another solution could be to have mostly spoons, because there are few foods you can't eat with a spoon and throw in a dash of knives because every so often food requires cutting and knives are very easy to distinguish from spoons. Life could be even easier with less cutlery – how many people need to eat at the same time in your household? We only take two spoons when we are bikepacking. We could reduce our cutlery to 8 spoons, based on the number of chairs that can go around our table and 8 plates, which could all be large soup plates because they would cover most types of meal...we would need fewer cupboards and we'd need to frequently wash the few dishes we have so we wouldn't even need a dishwasher.
Problem solved.
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