November 20, 2007
I could have posted this in the comments section of the previous blog post, but I think it warrants a full blog post.
The whole silverware handle-up or -down issue has been a hot one in my household, with my husband, and, by extension, his mother (who trained him, and very well, might I add…except in this one area).
When we got our dishwasher, I read the instructions about where things were supposed to go. These were the instructions from the manufacturer, whose engineers determined the water flow and the positioning of the racks and everything else.
I figure they ought to know best, right?
So, the directions said to put the handles UP and the eating portion down. I think I always did that anyway, but when the instruction manual said to do that, I was happy to comply.
Not only does the designer of the dishwasher recommend doing so, but there are some no-brainer reasons for putting the handles up, at least in my mind:
1. Ya don't cut or stab yourself with fork tines or knife tips. Doh!
2. Ya don't get the eating parts dirty with your hand germs when you pull them out, as Tammy noted previously.
But…in my house, my dear Music Man insists that the handles go in first because that's how his mother taught him (ah! to have such lasting effects on my children!) and the eating parts go up. It's still an ongoing battle ten years later, even when I informed him of the manufacturer's instructions as well as the logical items I noted above.
So that's why I spend half my time rearranging the dishwasher after the dishes are loaded (by someone other than me).
So, in light of all this…do any of you handle-down folks want to come over into the light with us handle-up geniuses?
The second installment of the Gardella Vampire Chronicles takes Victoria to Venice and Rome.
My novel, 
November 20th, 2007 at 6:03 am
Just curious, but have you tried running the dishwasher with the utensils the other direction? I realize handles-down might not be the optimal situation, but this strikes me as the kind of small stuff couples should not sweat.
I once knew a couple who had an ongoing, raging argument about how to fill the pepper grinder.
November 20th, 2007 at 8:42 am
Oh, to have the problem of someone other than me loading the dishwasher! Don’t think I’d care which way anything went if someone else would just do it! Once, though, I stabbed myself under the fingernail with a tines-up fork — and, man, did it hurt — and even bleed. I believe I swore. So, it’s been handles up for me ever since.
November 20th, 2007 at 8:43 am
I am so glad that I am not the only person who re-arranges the dishwasher. My mother re-arranges it also. Just for the record, I put also put the handles up, unless there are too many spoons, which I will then place one or two handles down, so that they don’t stick together and remain dirty. (Ugh! I hate that!)
November 20th, 2007 at 9:04 am
I’m the boss of the dishwasher in our household.
Others can help (rather not, but I’m not always in the kitchen), but I re-arrange them my way… I put handles down, just because my own experience told me the stuff gets better cleaned that way.
November 20th, 2007 at 10:51 am
Mostly I don’t think about it. I haven’t noticed that one way or the other works better in terms of cleanliness. Tam had a good point about hand germs on the eating portion of the silverware, but those same hand germs are getting on the plates - hard to avoid touching the eating surfaces of those when putting them away.
November 20th, 2007 at 11:32 am
They don’t get as clean if you put the eating part up. At least, not in my dishwasher.
But I, too, am plagued with a husband who insists on trying to turn me into a carbon copy of his mother. Which is a little bit creeeeeeeepyyyyyyy.
November 20th, 2007 at 11:53 am
Well, our silverware compartment in our DW is mounted on the door, and it has a handy flip thing that opens it up so that you can get to the handles of the silverware.
So…no. Handles will continue to go down, cause whether I’m right or not, I like to think that the silverware is getting cleaner.
November 20th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
Well, now, Thud, I don’t mean to imply that we’re drawing blood or anything with this battle. Let’s just say, it’s an ongoing discussion. And it’s usually a moot point, because I’m most often the one who loads the dishwasher anyway.
My Music Man reminded me this morning that the manufacturer of course says to load the silverware handle side up…they don’t want to get sued when someone cuts their hand on a knife blade.
November 20th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
Not having a husband, I live with 3 other adults who can not agree on the dishwasher, OR the direction of the toilet paper. (argh) soooo the battle continues.
November 21st, 2007 at 3:30 am
My dishwasher instructions say handle side down. I used to be a firm handle side up girl — that’s how MY mom taught me — but then I started using a dishwasher where the tips of knives nad the tines of forks would get broken or bent int eh cage if you put handle side up. So now it’s risking the stab wounds and handles go down.
November 22nd, 2007 at 1:29 am
I have to say we are a mixed bag in our family…spoons and forks handles down, knives handles up. Not sure why though I believe it has to do with dishwasher instructions.