Just when you thought you were on top of things in the kitchen, here's something new to add to your "stuff I've been doing wrong" list. The good news is that doing it right means less work for you. Yay!
Apparently rinsing your dishes before you put them in the dishwasher is a terrible idea and will wreck your entire life. Honestly, what were you thinking?
Sure, it seems to make sense to loosen that bolognese and get rid of the Sunday roast gravy before you whack it in the dishwasher, but you're getting in the way of what the dishwasher does. It has one job. You just need to let it get on with being awesome at it.
When you rinse the food scraps off your dishes, you could be stopping the detergent from working properly, according to The Kitchn. Dishwasher powder works by gripping to food particles on your crockery, so if you remove them the powder has nothing to cling to and won't work as effectively, leaving less than sparkling dishes at the end of the cycle.
Newer dishwashers are also often fitted with sensors that can work out how long the cycle should be to clean your dishes effectively. Clever, hey? Just like a Bond movie, if James Bond was into housework. But if you rinse the dishes first, your dishwasher won't know which way is up, and it could just give your dishes a light wash, leaving them a bit grimy at the end of the cycle.
If you do this repeatedly, it can get your dishwasher stuck in a default setting of light washes, which will cause all manner of grief when you've been making chilli beef casserole.
And if you won't ease off the rinsing for the dishwasher's sake, think of the environment. Yes, dishwashers generally use less water than washing dishes by hand (15 litres per full load compared with 10.5 litres per person per day), but if you rinse first as well, you're using more water than either option.
So there are three reasons you really should stop rinsing your dishes and just put them straight in the dishwasher.
Need another? It requires less effort. You're welcome.