Smart Buy: Clean or Dirty? A Helpful Sign for Your Dishwasher

I live in a household of people who will do anything to avoid unloading the dishwasher. They will open the dishwasher, notice that it’s clean, promptly close the door, then put their dirty plate, bowl, or more likely, glass (don’t get me started on how a family of four can go through 16 glasses a day) in the sink. Later in the day, someone else may pluck a few clean glasses from the dishwasher to use (because by 5 p.m., there will be, impossibly, none left in cabinet)—making the dishwasher’s contents harder to read. Enter my husband, who will then unknowingly (or willfully?) add dirty dishes next to the remaining clean dishes and turn the machine back on.

This hurts my frugal brain so much. Which is why I love the Clean/Dirty magnet from Sir/Madam. It’s an easy and elegant way to shirk your unloading responsibilities without confusing others in the household.

N.B.: This post is an update; it was first published August 2018.

For a peek at Sir/Madam founders’ homes, see:

• Calm and Collected: At Home with the Duo Behind Aesthetic Movement
• Jesse James in Upstate New York

For more on their products, see:

• Kitchen Icons: The Wooden Spoon and Other Staples from Sir/Madam
• Vintage Revival: Kitchen Essentials Made in India
• Shopper’s Diary: A Poet-Collector Opens Pidgin in Upstate NY