Washing up bowls

Buckets etc are in the utility room.

Washing up bowl for me. A bowl or a sink without one will harbour germs if they're not properly cleaned.

Thank you for joining in this thread. Its funny how everyday items like this cause a conversation. I trained as an Infection Control Nurse which role included inspecting kitchens and pantries all across the Health Authority and was taught all sinks should be stainless steel and no bowls. I think the staff saw me coming and hid them.
I'm very lucky I know to have a sink and a half and a utility room where 'dirty' things like buckets can be sorted.
I drive DD2 mad cleaning out and hiding her washing up bowl every time I visit.

I have a washing up bowl too.

I have one sink and 16th ?. The second sink would fit approx two very large potatoes in it and not much else. I don’t really see the point of it. I use it to rinse the dogs little bowls and pour grim liquids down but that’s about it. Definitely couldn’t rinse my dishes in it. I’m not even sure why I use the basin, habit I guess!
I’m not going to say how old my basin is, but it’s not a spring chicken. It is next on my list of improvements though.

BigBertha1, I don't have a washing up bowl (don't need one) but the 'study' of bacteria, widely published in the press a few years back was, at best, misleading.

It was done under laboratory conditions. Laboratory sinks are scrubbed clean - including the drain. How many people thoroughly clean the plug/drain at home (anyone? - if so, how often)?

Washing up bowls can harbour germs - but germs breed well under, in and around the plughole too!

My washing up bowl gets cleaned regularly with bleach or disinfectant, and wiped down after every use, so no nasty, lurking germs festering on it at all. I think I would break and chip more glassware if I attempted to wash them just in the sink - I think the bowl protects them from being bashed and broken.
Actually, Hetty at the risk of sounding smug ?, I regularly clean the plugs and pour diluted bleach down the drains. I can’t stand seeing the plugs looking grimy or stained with tea/coffee or other detritus, and I dislike whiffy smelling drains. I’m not OCD, honest. ??

I don't have room for a one and a half sink, so I use a washing up bowl so I can pour tea, coffee dregs etc down the sink while I wash up and before I put the mug in the water. It also protects the sink from getting scratched from cutlery and sharp knives. Most of my stuff goes in the dishwasher, but I have a few treasured items that I feel happier washing by hand. My bowl gets cleaned regularly with bleach, so as far as germs are concerned I don't see how it can be any different from the sink.
A friend of mine only has one sink and does not use a washing up bowl and does not have a dishwasher. Half way through doing the dishes after a meal, the water looks like a very unappetising primordial soup - it's disgusting

I helped a friend wash up and was pretty horrified by her 'method' (fill the sink full with hot water and detergent - but don't rinse anything).

I then felt rather sick when I realised that the water was way above the overflow outlet. Obviously, it was blocked - so God knows what was circulating in that sink!

My kitchen very small so no dishwasher.
Nothing wrong with a washing - up bowl imo. As others have mentioned pots and cutlery will scratch a sink - - and set my teeth on edge. Just make sure the bowl is cleaned regularly.
Whenever we go to a holiday cottage we always take a washing up bowl. (Can't do without my Pyrex measuring jug either).

Hetty58

I helped a friend wash up and was pretty horrified by her 'method' (fill the sink full with hot water and detergent - but don't rinse anything).

I then felt rather sick when I realised that the water was way above the overflow outlet. Obviously, it was blocked - so God knows what was circulating in that sink!

When I was growing up in the 50s we didn’t rinse. I do now but not under a running tap, the water doesn’t reach the overflow.

DillytheGardener

This is an English thing, as my kiwi dil did not understand why we English washed up using a bowl in a sink ?
They seem to have double sinks over there, one for washing and one for rinsing suds off.

You’re right Dilly, we don’t have bowls in sinks for washing up here, and I’d always wondered why you do in England. It’s been interesting reading everyone’s comments, thank you, now I know. Double sinks are fairly common here, dishwashers too of course, it’s interesting to see the differences.

Every now and again I put my washing up bowl and drainer into the dishwasher! Bit too radical?

You’re right Dilly, we don’t have bowls in sinks for washing up here, and I’d always wondered why you do in England.
I've not noticed anyone use them in Australia either.

I think I use one because washing anything more delicate eg glasses or bone china seems safer in a plastic bowl than in a stainless steel or other sink.
Saucepans can scratch the sink too.

I only have one sink so a washing up bowl is essential.
It seems to be a very British thing because all these years when I have hosted, mostly European, young people, they don't understand the bowl concept.
I buy new ones occasionally.
My latest is from Lakeland. It is made of good quality plastic.
Also glasses and pots break if washed directly in the sink
www.lakeland.co.uk/24140/Square+Washing-Up+Bowl+Grey

We have a butler’s sink, so I always use a washing up bowl. It reduces knocks and chips on the ceramics.

I use a bowl and I have a dishwasher. Bowl goes in dishwasher regularly for a good wash. I do feel however we overthink “germs”. How have we all survived this long in life I wonder?

Oldbat1, yes, we're surrounded by bacteria, mostly harmless, and we're big, strong creatures. I grew up in an old house, with germ-phobic parents (still hate the smell of pine disinfectant) yet we wore shoes indoors and the cat slept in my bed.

We had a constant problem with dry rot under the floors, spreading from next door, so the boards would often be up while it was treated with something poisonous. We all survived - although with many allergies.

I had to look up to see what you all meant by washing up bowl. No such thing here; I have never seen one in any house I've ever been in. We wash dishes in the sink, and rinse in the other sink. If someone has only one sink, they rinse as they wash. Mind you, most sinks are stainless steel, so no scratching would be involved. The only people I know with ceramic or resin sinks also have dishwashers.

I have two plastic basins I use for camping; one for wash, one for rinse. I also have a plastic basin used for pedicures.

I'd never seen a washing up bowl used until I went to England. We don't use them in Australia, just straight into to sink if washing dishes.

I wondered if they were used as many in UK don't have a separate laundry like we do so often use the sink for hand washing

Spice, I use a washing up bowl and have a dishwasher! And I'm in Oz!

I used a bowl when there was only one sink in the kitchen regardless of whether I had a utility room with a sink, and I generally did. Going into another room, even if it is adjacent to the kitchen - and it often isn't - is inconvenient and time wasting.

When cooking I might have put some used utensils or bowls into a plastic bowl to soak, while preparing vegetables in the sink, or otherwise rinsing something or just washing my hands.

Ah I had forgotten about Butler sinks. Our fantasy farmhouse might have one of those in which case we wont be able to wash the crystal champagne flutes in it!! I shall have to produce a portocol for cleaning the washing up bowl!!

I have a small dishwasher, which is used when I have company for a meal, and, occasionally, to give a gleamy finish to glasses and pyrex bowls. For the rest of the time I have a small plastic washing up bowl in the larger of my 1.5. sinks. Items needing washing up are placed in there as I go through the day and I usually do just one big wash up in the evening. Then bowl and sinks get a good cleaning over.

Would NEVER use any form of anti-bacterial in my kitchen or anywhere else in my flat. Hot water and soap is the best thing. Washing up liquid I purchase as refills at a local shop that does this. (So, one bottle in use, and one filled with refill for next time).

No bowl in the kitchen sink as we have a dishwasher and other items are easily washed by hand, but; we do have a sink in the utility room for the dirtier items such as cleaning plant pots, filling the bucket for washing the floor or the car, and I am not too obsessive about that as it is the 'dirty sink'. It is wiped after use of course, bowl and sink, but as no food is prepared in it I don't worry too much. I love my big utility room as it removes a lot of things from the kitchen such as vacuums, mops, washing machine, dryer, dog bowls etc., and has room for a fridge just for wine