In a family of 7, of which 5 are boys, we go through lots and lots and lots of dishes. Add to that the fact that we make most of our food from scratch because 1) It’s healthier, 2) It’s less expensive (well, sometimes) and 3) We have several different food allergies…and add to that the fact that all of my kids are home almost all day, every day…and that we make almost all of the baby’s food from scratch, too…

Now add to THAT the fact that we don’t have a dishwasher.

Anyway, you get the picture. And in this picture, you can see how I’ve so artfully stacked upon stacked the freshly-washed dishes upon dishes.

My family can’t stand it.

They think it’s really annoying how many dishes I cram into that biggest-I-could-find dish drainer. But when we go through as many dishes as we do every day, you HAVE to cram it and stack it or you would be able to keep up even less than we already can!

My three oldest boys are on a revolving chore chart which we rotate weekly. We lump a few chores together for each. Being on the Dishes section is the most disliked chore by far, and they dread it. I usually help them do their dishes because I know how daunting it can be — and how quickly it can become overwhelming if you don’t keep up. And sometimes I’ll make a trade with them, like: I will do a load of dishes for them if they do laundry for me, or something like that.

Once in a while, we will use paper plates. This morning, Owen was majorly complaining about having to do dishes, and he said we should just use paper plates every time we eat. I told him that is like throwing away trees, and his response was: “Mama, just because YOU are a hippie doesn’t mean EVERYONE wants to be.”

Hippie comments aside, aren’t you impressed with my dish tower? I’m getting pretty good at it. 🙂