Dishwasher Broke, and I Don't Care

I have been singing this line lately, to the tune of Jimmy Crack Corn and I Don't Care. Our dishwasher of nine years old has stopped working. I have realized in only a week that I don't care to get it fixed. There are several reasons for this.

I will say that nine years ago I really, really wanted and thought I needed a dishwasher. I had just had my fourth child and things were busy. I was very happy to get one. It matched my other appliances and we felt we got a deal. How people and times change.

I am probably remembering wrong but it seems to me that it didn't keep the dishes as clean as I had imagined a dishwasher to. Also it advertised that we wouldn't need to rinse (pre-wash) the dishes before loading them. That was wrong. There are certain things like rice, egg yolk, and very greasy dishes that did need to be rinsed. Also, right away, I noticed that the dishwasher seemed to be the cause of very silly arguments between my husband and I. I felt that if I worked hard loading the thing that having him come and reorganize it so he could fit 'one more thing' was insulting. I threatened to stop loading it if he did it again. He of course did and this argument continued and other people loading it also felt entitled to the same argument. It sort of feels the same as having cleaned a house for someone and having them come redo parts of it.

Other little annoying things to do with the dishwasher was that I hated the bleachy smell it gave off while washing. We tried using non-bleach type detergents but then the dishes came out dirty and grimy. I hated having water collect on all the tops of the cups and glasses, so I practically had to wipe the dishes before putting them away, that or wait all day for them to dry.

Now that it isn't working I am noticing quite a lot of advantages to not having a dishwasher. Here are a few.

- Cupboards are usually full of dishes when you need them. Silverware drawer is full too.
- My kitchen and sink area is clean almost all day. Keeping up on the dishes is actually less work than loading and unloading dishes from a whole day. While the dishwasher is full and running more dishes pile up in the sink. Who wants to wash dishes by hand when the dishwasher will do it? Therefor the sink is always full and a full dishwasher is so daunting to me at the end of a day.
- The dishes, particularly the glasses, are clean. Really clean. Scrubbed by hand clean. Not rinsed with bleach water clean.
- People are washing as they go. Each child is responsible for their own plate, silverware and cup. It is actually less work for me!
- This one is hard to explain, but there is just a pleasure in washing dishes, putting them in the strainer and cleaning out the sink. If feels cleaner in my whole kitchen. I feel ahead the game so to speak.
- Added space. I am thinking a trash/recycling caddie would fit very nicely there. Or maybe some shelves with a cute curtain over it. I do need more counter space. So if I put some of the smaller appliances under there I would have that increased counter space.

So, bottom line, I really don't care that the dishwasher broke. We could probably save up the money pretty quickly to pay for a new one, or a repair, but I would rather that money went towards spending time with my family camping or a mini vacation to ... a balloon festival, or to Bay of Fundy, or.....