apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

i like to wash my glass light shades for my ceiling fan in the dishwasher.

and i find it odd that real simple's website is so complex in its story layout... too much trouble to find out what the secret 13 things are that i shouldn't wash.

my mom would wash our toothbrushes in the dishwasher after we had been sick.

Potatoes? Really? That's funny. You'd have to be washing A LOT of potatoes to justify that! And I'd love to know how someone figured out that you can make salmon in a dishwasher. Neat post, AT!

oooh, I like the toothbrush idea.

I like to put in dusty glass vases... not $$$ ones, just the "utility" vases from ikea ;-) I also regularly wash my toothbrush cup, sponge dish (in kitchen), kitchen utensil holders, sponges, and plastic scrubbies.

I feel safe putting in most things that are glass or porcelain. I'm too afraid of melting my sons toys to wash them in the dishwasher though....

I wash all kinds of things in the dishwasher - I figure that if it doesn't work out that i wasn't meant to have the item!

Somethings that i wash are ceiling light fixture bowls and the toilet brush and holder. After all, the dishwasher has a sanitize cycle on it. Works every time.

I'm sorry, but am i the only one that finds this really gross and unsanitary??? SHOES ?? garden tools? hairbrushes??

The brush we use for manual dishwashing.
I've heard of some people dishwashing their sunglasses too.

i wash our toothbrushes in the dishwasher on a regular basis (not just when we've been sick). if i find toys when sweeping under furniture, they tend to be pretty dusty, so they go in there, too!

yes, i think shoes and garden tools are too gross for the dishwasher.

- Small trash cans.

- Vases where the opening is too narrow for my fingers to get in and clean.

- Toothbrushes - especially when you just bought a brand new toothbrush but got the flu and want to sterilize the toothbrush rather than throw it out.

NOTE: because the dishwasher gets the water hot enough to kill germs, if using the dishwasher for things other than dishes were unsanitary, it would mean that even your dinner dishes weren't sanitized.

I hear, though I've never tried it, that you can even steam fish in your dishwasher by wrapping it in aluminum foil and running it through a cycle - without detergent, of course.

there's an error in the second point above. it should read 'don't WEAR crocs.'

just because you can clean something in the dishwasher doesn't mean you should. i always offer to help stack the dishwasher when i'm a guest at a dinner party - if i saw a shoe in there, i'd probably gag. i'm a virgo - this whole idea stresses me.

red.door.read, et al: I would assume your face ends up touching pillowcases that were washed in the same washer as your underwear and cleaning rags? And if you live with someone else, perhaps your pillowcase has touched even somone else's underwear. Does anyone gag at that? If not, then what's so bad about washing non-dishes in a dishwasher?

Supposedly Apple keyboards as well. But I would do some research on that one.

I know someone who steamed a lobster in their dishwasher!!

Trish, underwear and pillowcases in the washing machine together is entirely different than shoes and dinner plates. I would NEVER eat at someone's house that I knew washed their shoes in the dishwasher. Ever.

Non-battery operated adult "toys" are also generally dishwasher safe.

One thing to remember is never wash things like ball caps WITH the dishes, do them separately.

My Mom will often stick her sink sponges in at least once a week to do a thorough cleaning, squeezes out the water and puts them in their dish next to the sink.

I have heard of several things getting washed, such as the metal filters for exhaust hoods DO go in the dishwasher as the hot water and soap will soften and wash most if not all that grease out and the rinse cycle will clean the dishwasher out.

our child's potty instructions stated that it was dishwasherable. we never tried, though.

"Honey - Why does my drink tastes a little funny?"

"Oh, because I ran the cup of my jockstrap, batting helmet and cleats through the dishwasher..."

A run through the dishwasher will get that jockstrap cleaner than a human mouth. Those germs are dead. Any unsanitariness is purely in the mind :).

We wash the exhaust hood filters, stove top parts and the on/off dials etc. Toaster oven tray. All the things that get splattered by grease. Some of the things listed here are overkill. BTW - you can rinse your toothbrush after the flu, with some of the extra hotwater from your kettle. No need to run a special cycle.

I actually soak my toothbrush in hydrogen peroxide every so often. Alas, I don't have a dishwasher...

ABC123 . . .

Actually, it's different because one would NOT wash shoes and dishes in the same load. But it's very likely that a pillowcase would get washed with a skunky pair of undies.

Thanks, I've never seen a cat in a dishwasher before.

ABC123

I'm with you.

abc123, I'm with you too.

Sanitary or not, I'm never going to wash things like shoes, garden tools, or hair brushes in the dishwasher.

And I suspect that those who do think it's fine to do so are also the ones who don't mind having the cat jump up on their kitchen counters or who live by the 5 second rule.... believing that if you pick food up off of the floor within 5 seconds of dropping it, that it's safe to eat.

Some of you seem to be missing the point that non-dishes don't get washed with the dishes.

You put dirty dishes in the dishwasher. The dishwasher blasts said dishes with scalding water and detergent. Dishes, along with the dish rack and the entire interior of dishwasher, are now clean.

You put non-dishes in the dishwasher, repeat, and once again both the non-dishes and the entire interior of the dishwasher are clean.

Then you put dirty dishes in, repeat, and finally you have clean dishes yet again. So, in order for germs or dirt to transfer from the nondishes to the dishes, they would have to survive two cycles in the dishwasher. If your dishwasher can't clean things in two full cycles, then you shouldn't be washing things in it in the first place.

I draw the line at a toilet brush and holder, or a childs potty. That elicits a gagging reflex in me....

poop cleaning stuff never mixes with food cleaning stuff at my home. I simply don't have that much faith that the dishwasher is running optimally. what's the big deal with sanitizing those items in the bathroom?

On a similar, but less severe note, I've put shoes in my washing machine, but I wouldn't put them in the dishwasher. No need to introduce gravel stuck on shoe bottoms into the dishwasher environment. I stick to glass, metal, and ceramics.

While mentioned above, toothbrushes. It has been proven to help reduce gum disease.

To see the 13 things you can't wash in your dishwasher, disable Javascript in your browser.

AT, I don't know what the heck you're thinking, your posts are leaving me cold and feeling awfully protective of my pets (regardless of the tiny note 'not' to wash the cat in the dishwasher after that bold headline). Maybe I'll go back and peruse the roadkill needlepoint post again... ???

JPK - I'm glad I wasn't the only one tempted to offer up that one. lol.

koddesign, you're right about keyboards, and not just Apple ones, either. If you spill soda or something on your keyboard, you can put it in the dishwasher (with detergent and your dishes); the key, though, is to let it dry completely before using it again. The computer geeks I work with have saved many keyboards through this method, and I did it successfully last year with my honey's keyboard.

But... you was those things SOMEWHERE, right, and if you do them in, say, the laundry sink and then clean it, there is probably more residual bacteria etc. I understand the instinctive reaction, but it's extremely illogical.

With the sex toys - check that they're real silicon. You should really only by silicon ones, anyway. Some of them are made out of stuff called 'nu skin' which has been known to melt in drawers and is generally gross and toxic. If it's going to be inside of me, it better be silicon!

LesleMora ,


I still stand by my original statement.


It's repulsive.

RexManningDay: We do get the point that the non-dishes are not getting washed with the dishes.

@Daily Nuance: The five second rule applies to households that wear shoes indoors. No shoe-households get an extra five seconds. Unless you're worried about foot sweat and fungus. Then it's minus five seconds.

I don't know why people are fighting about this anyway. I have a feeling that most people who have dishwashers also have washing machines and probably wouldn't stick dirty shoes in the dishwasher if they can put them in the washer. And if you have a garden and garden tools, then you probably have an outdoor hose to rinse them off with. No one would carry a dirty bathroom item into the kitchen to clean it. And how many people wash their hairbrushes anyway?

I'll never understand germophobia. People have such strange selectivity when it comes to what they'll tolerate coming in contact with--- "my plates musn't touch the same surface that touched something 'dirty'... even if that surface was cleaned in the interim! Gross!"

Jeez... don't any of you recognize that most of what we eat is rather filthy, if you think about it too hard? Do you know where honey comes from? Ever seen cheese or yogurt under a microscope? We voluntarily eat macroorganisms (well, some of us-), why the terror of microorganisms?

These comments have been interesting. If I had a good dishwasher, I mightn't care, but the dishwasher in my rental leaves spots (food particles, soap, etc) on my dishes all the time. Don't need shoe grime or poop added to the mix.

I admire those who can stop caring about germs. If I had a decent dishwasher, I might try it thanks to you.

shirley-temple-of-doom, I don't think the people who find this gross have germophobia. I think this is a basic concept of avoiding cross-contamination. I wouldn't wash shoes in a dishwasher in the same way I wouldn't mix 10gallons of fruit punch in my bathtub for a party.

This is an interesting debate.

I understand the viewpoint that this is simply gross -- and mostly agree with it -- but I also think that this hold-up is entirely in our heads.

If I wash a toothbrush and a vase that surely harbors rotting plant matter with my dishes -- and I do -- it's really not such a jump to run my flip flops in a separate load. It's just that I have a mental block about it.

akay, I find less repulsion in washing something like a toothbrush in a dishwasher--it's not THAT much different than a fork or spoon that's also been in your mouth. But SHOES??? oh hellllls no ....

abc123, cross-contamination is not an issue here - the dishwasher sanitizes the things you put in it, and itself. Your bathtub analogy just doesn't wash.

I wish my wastebaskets would fit in the dishwasher.

tmoore. IT'S DISGUSTING. lol. There's not much you can claim to change my mind on this one. We'll have to simply agree to disagree :)

Clever! Great uses for the dishwasher!

I presoak my dirty dishes in my toilet tank.

(hey, it could happen).

Every time I load the dishwasher, my SO reminds me of things I shouldn't have put in there. Ironically, the modern dishwasher was invented because servants were chipping too much china, now I'm supposed to hand wash it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dishwasher

I don't care about most non-dish things getting washed in a dishwasher, but Astur, toilet brush? I'm sorry, but pee stains and smells have to remain a bathroom issue, regardless of how "sanitized" your dishwasher is. And no, I'm sure your toilet is not that clean.

Before my boyfriend moved in with me, he lived in a house with his cousin and brother. One day, as he was unloading the dishwasher, I saw the toilet bowl brush in with the dishes. Apparently, his cousin thought that was a great way to get it clean. Needless to say, I avoided meals at his place after that.

In my book, dishwashers are for DISHES.

I guess the hypersensitivity to "icky" bathroom functions is a chick thing, as illustrated by the following:

"During the NBC Nightly News on October 16, 1992, Tom Brokaw reported that, "In Egypt, rescue workers found a 37-year old man alive in earthquake rubble. He survived almost 82 hours by drinking his own urine. His wife, daughter and mother would not and they died" We've all heard stories of individuals who have either lived or died by being trapped in places without food or water for days. In those stories, the survivors were always the ones that drank their own urine. The ones that died probably could not overcome the misguided thoughts that urine is an unhealthy waste product of the body. But it's not; urine is simply a substance that the body does not need at the time, and a substance that the body secretes. And sometimes, it's a lifesaver."

The practice of drinking urine has been around for centuries-- as I recall, Ghandi was said to imbibe. I can't speak for the supposed health benefits, I don't do it and I'm not advocating it.

I'm writing this to point out that pee-hysteria is silly in the extreme.

(And, while I don't wish to drag this conversation into the gutter, I can't help but wonder: haven't any of these dames ever given oral sex? Is that less "icky" than putting bathroom tools in the dishwasher?)

@shirley-temple-of-doom: How very enlightened of you.

Why are people being attacked for thinking that the dishwasher isn't the best place to clean a toilet brush or potty? How is thinking that indicative of germophobia?

Being grossed out by bodily wastes isn't just a "chick thing". People are naturally squeamish about keeping food and anything used to prepare food far away from bodily excretions, dirt, pests, etc. It's an ingrained survival mechanism, which is probably why drinking urine isn't that common, even if it's mostly harmless. By the way, most experts warn against drinking urine in survival situations. It can actually worsen thirst and dehydration due to the salts in it.

Attacked? Why is it that when somebody offers a differing opinion they're accused of "attacking"?

The original post suggests that various items can be cleaned in the dishwasher. A number of people objected on the grounds that it ain't "sanitary" (were those posters 'attacking', too? Or, does something only qualify as an attack if it differs from your own viewpoint?)

I'm with you, s-t-o-d; there's a lot of unnecessary freaking out about germs among the commenters on this site. Remember the post about the wonders of washing your keys? I completely agree with you--germophobia is silly and actually counterproductive if it leads to sterilizing everything, thereby breeding a stronger class of germs.

I have to object to the stereotype of this as a "chick thing," though. I'm a woman and certainly not a germophobe; of the two germophobes I know, one's a man and one's a woman. Luckily for everybody else, they're married to one another. :)

Whether or not the smart money's on drinking urine in a survival situation is a question I'll leave up to the experts. It seems rather well established, though, that it has no ill effect in moderate doses-- so how does the ingrained disdain aid us a survival mechanism, exactly?

(Wikepedia also states that "urine has also been historically used as an antiseptic", surprisingly enough.)

I encountered a sea urchin last week in the ocean - and it left its mark...several really nice people helped me out, and also told me that one way to "treat" the issue was to pee on the affected area....

It's not a common practice because there's no point in drinking urine, which might contain bacteria and waste salts and minerals if there's fresh water available. (Ugh, why am I debating this with you anyway?)

And hello? People were being snarked on for being finicky little germophobes because they didn't want to use their dishwasher for anything besides dishes. How is that not criticism?

@STH: I remember that post too and I recall that the majority of the comments were from people who thought the blogger was going overboard.

Washing tootbrushes? Do you also use both sides of toilet paper before laundering it?

Has anyone here actually put a toilet brush in the dishwasher?

I'm currently raising 2 toddlers; I get that "germs" are a part of every day life. And drinking (fresh!) pee to save one's life is one thing, I suppose. But old pee and poop clinging to a brush-- human waste that has had plenty of time to grow all sorts of further nastiness-- in the dishwasher? Ewww.

And for heaven's sake, why? It's not like it's necessary.

..not that I'd put "fresh" pee or poop in there either...

LOL! This convo is amazing! Although I know that automatic machines like dishwashers (dw) & washing machines (wm) sanitize ... I just can't throw caution to the wind b/c glitches happen! That's just MY way.

I add toothbrushes & tongue cleaners to my dish load w/o hesitation. But, I always do special/separate cycles (adjusting settings as needed) for:

- toilet brush? LOL! It's in a class by itself & deserves it's own spa treatment (a nice, long, private, detox bath in hydrogen pyroxide, vinegar (or bleach in the past) in it's own holder).
- hair brushes & combs? They get their own private shampoo massage ... don't want a missed hair entangled in a fork
- dw: Vases & other plant related items
- wm: Gymshoes/rugs/rags/garden gloves/mophead ~ it's amazing that residue still remains in the wm even though I vacuum rugs b/4 hand & wash them often)!
- wm: Kitchen textiles (towels, aprons & potholders)

Toilet brush? I'll get a new one on the Dollar Store before I'd let it get anywhere near the kitchen.

As a person who hasn't had with a dishwasher for at least fifteen years, I'm completely bemused by this conversation... nothing I clean EVER reaches the temperature of a very basic dishwasher, and ALL kinds of things get washed in my sink (if not simultaneously). Do people get this worked up about possible germs in sinks and on counters and walls etc., etc., as well?

Holy e-coli!

Flip-flops and toilet brushes in the dishwasher! Mamma mia!