Does Hand Washing Dishes Get Them Clean Enough? Woman's Debate with Roommate Divides the Internet

Mar. 15, 2025

A person hand washing a dish (stock image).Photo:Getty

Getty

A TikToker has sparked a spirited debate about the correct way to wash dishes.

The woman then turns on the water and begins to hand scrub her bowl. “No,” she declares, adding, “Like, that’s insane, right?”

She captioned her video, “Idk it was weird to me,” and added the hashtag #cleaninghabits.

“My dishwasher never cleans anything good enough. Handwashing is almost better… not easier, but better,” one person commented.

Another agreed, writing, “Yep! And it stinks! Idk it just grosses me out. Nothing wrong with a good hand scrub in some Dawn drenched with water.”

TikTok user gabspeak talks about washing dishes.gabspeak/TikTok

gabspeak/TikTok

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The majority of people, however, were firmly team dishwasher, with many pointing out that the appliance heats the water to a high temperature that fully cleans and sanitizes the dishes.

“My dishwasher heats everything up to disinfect everything, making the dishes much cleaner on a microscopic level,” one person wrote.

One commenter even suggested that gabspeak could do a little experiment that might change her mind about hand washing. “You can test it yourself. Hand wash your dishes, use a sterile swab and a culture plate and then do the same to your dishes from the dishwasher,” they suggested. “You can see how many bacteria remain on hand washed ones.”

A person hand washing a dish (stock image).Getty

Another person argued that it’s the sponge that’s the real issue with hand washing, as it can harbor bacteria. “I just think the sponge is already gross, so I need the dishwasher to get the sponge out of my dishes,” they wrote.

“I literally throw the sponge away anytime it touches a ‘gross’ dish,” someone else chimed in. “My sponge budget is insane.”

To this, some people offered the tip to replace the sponge more frequently or designate one sponge for pre-washing and removing food from dishes and a second sponge for final washing.

“I always wash the sponge with soap before I use it to clean and rinse my dishes as well I can to not get more food on, and I prefer to have a ‘get the food off’ sponge and a ‘wash with soap’ sponge,” one TikTok user shared.

Yet another commenter argued that the key is to actually combinebothmethods — hand wash the dishes first and thenrun them through the dishwasher — for best results. “I hand wash to get the food off then put the dishes in the dishwasher to sanitize,” they wrote.

source: people.com