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Are you lucky enough to have a dishwasher? Well, you better be using it! As it turns out, using a dishwasher may be more efficient than hand-washing.

If you do decide to use the dishwasher, here are a couple of tips:

  1.  Scrape your plate, don’t rinse: Modern dishwashers do their job fantastically well. Don’t waste additional water pre-rinsing. Simply scrape off any excess food, and let your mechanical dish-buddy do its job.
  2. Use your Tetris skills: completely fill the racks to optimize water and energy use, but make sure you leave room for proper water circulation. Also, dirtier dishes on the bottom rack, please!
  3. Wait for a full load: Your dishwasher will use the same amount of resources for each load. You might as well fill it up. If it takes a few days to fill your dishwasher, check to see if you have a “rinse” and “hold” feature. This will use a small amount of water (typically 1-2 gallons) to prevent dried-on food.
  4. Skip the heat: Try the air-dry feature of your dishwasher.

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