Time for a super exciting lesson on how to organize your dishwasher!

This falls under the category of stuff you need to know in order to adult better in life.

Like learning how to fold fitted sheets.

Learning how to organizing your dishwasher faster means you can do other things on your to do list!

The Case for Organizing Your Dishwasher

Loading you dishwasher in a haphazard way means

• Cleaner dishes
• Fewer loads
• Quicker unload times
• Less time spent on this chore

So knowing all of the benefits, let’s get on with the dirty details!

But it’s gross to show you how to do it with dirty dishes, so I ran my dishwasher first!

Like with Like

Loading your dishwasher should be done similar to how you organize just about everything else, like with like.

See how all of the plastic plates and storage container lids are all in the same area?  

Everything will get the cleanest if the flat items are vertical, so these items should be grouped together, standing upright.

Bonus reason for putting them together:

It’s easier to grab flat-ish items out and put away all at once in one fell swoop.

I use this tactic for plastic lids, bowls with wide lips and plates.

No more picking things out one at a time!

Space Out Items

Arrange glasses in between plastic cups (if you have them) to decrease the risk of glasses and mugs chipping.  

If you hear clinking during the dishwasher’s cycle, you’ve loaded the dishwasher wrong and something might break or get damaged!

Don’t Bunch

Utensils should be loaded like with like.

But only if your dishwasher doesn’t have the big baskets where the utensils will bunch together.

If you have a utensil rack like this one, group similar utensils together.

This way, you can quickly grab all of the forks and put them away all at once.  

Repeat with the knives. 

And repeat with the spoons.

Don’t bunch larger items either.

In the end, bunched items don’t get clean, wasting your time in the end.

Find the Jets

Next, find where the bottom water jets are and try to arrange items so they don’t block the jets.

Then ensure the right side of the items are facing the jets.

Otherwise, your load won’t get fully clean.

This also gets the front side of your dishes cleaner than the backsides!

Create a Habit

Once you figure out how to best load your dishwasher, develop a habit of putting things in the same place.

This way, you won’t spend too much time on this task each day.

I almost always load big dishes in the back and smaller ones in the front.

This makes it easier to see where the open spaces are, and continue to load in an organized way.

Over to you!

What’s your favorite tip for this mundane task of running the dishes through the dishwasher?

Let’s talk in the comments!

Resources You Might Like

Looking for even more ways to save time by being more organized?

You’ll love this nail organizing calendar that gives you a single acton step to take to get closer to your organizing goals!