The daily chore. Those who are not maniacs may dread the end of each meal, when the time comes to clear the table and, above all, to wash plates and cutlery. Owners of a dishwasher have the most peace of mind, since they only have to fill the machine, let it do all the work, then empty it. The French who don’t have this help are good at washing the dishes by hand.

In this second category, there are different ways of doing things: those who only use one tank when others prefer to have two, those who let the tap water run (that’s not good!) for rinse their utensils more easily and, finally, those who are content with a basin of water in the sink to save money. A reflex that can make you smile, but which actually makes sense, because doing your dishes by hand consumes more water than you think. Asked by the 6:39 p.m. site, Marilyne VIalles, information officer at Ademe, explains: “The new dishwashers consume less than 10 liters of water to wash 12 place settings, whereas if you leave the tap a minute, we already spend 12 liters of water”. Ouch, in times of energy saving, it’s bad news for washing dishes by hand, which of course is done in hot water.

If you can’t or don’t want to invest in a dishwasher, then you need to adopt new techniques for washing by hand. One of them, very effective, consists in making a hole in your sponge. This trick, spotted by Santé Plus, is very simple to perform: you make a hole in the center of your sponge, then you wash your dishes as usual. Only, you pour the dishwashing liquid into the hole of your sponge, in order to use a very small quantity of product and to avoid any trace in your sink.

In addition to saving money on cleaners, you save money on your water consumption, since you won’t have to clean your sink thoroughly after each dishwashing.