A Short Rant

 I am sure that all of you at some point in your life has washed the dishes. Perhaps it was your job on the odd numbered days of the month. Dinner clean-up and dish washing. Hot, soapy water, lots of bubbles that always made you sneeze. Maybe not your favourite job but water play is therapeutic and in the end, if you did it right, you get clean shiny dishes.
Did you towel dry and put away or air dry? I prefer air drying myself.

Now here is the big question: did you use a dish brush or sponge or cloth?
I was brought up in a dish brush family. I grew up and continued to be a dish brush dish washer.
I had no dishwasher to stuff full of dishes until after our third child was born and it was then that my father got tired of helping with dinner clean up when he visited and figured a family of five ought to have just such a handy appliance. He helped us get a dishwasher. Wonderful!
I loved it but still did the baking pans, delicate pieces, and pots and pans by hand.
That's a lot of dish brushes over the last 24 years.
Have you noticed that dish brushes have not kept up with the simple requirements of a good dish brush for actual dish washing?

The above brushes, for instance, cute, replaceable brush heads- although I have never seen replacements. The angle of the brush is wrong for good glass washing and too wide for tall, narrow glass washing. Adorable, maybe, not practical. They are also on the short side for those big, deep pots that need to be done by hand.

                         The bristles also did not hold up well. This is just after a month or two of use.

 This brush resembles a lovely brush I used for many years. That dear old brush was great in every way. It was made in Germany. Very similar to the ones pictured above.

 However the old reliable brush had bristles that went around the bottom and onto the other side. It was great for glasses as well as all your other dishes and pots.

 Now, you would think that this one would do the job with lots of bristles, however they are too long, too soft, and too far apart so the bristles actually splash water all over the place do not do an adequate job of cleaning.

 These have stiffer bristles but short handles and are good only for larger items like pots and plates. Not great for getting into the corners of things.

 This one was fine except useless for glasses. The odd angle and front facing bristles cannot touch the bottom of a glass. It also wore out very quickly. Fail.

This was the brush that I used for many years. It was always there, at the grocery store, to be replaced when needed. Well, all good things seem to go the way of the Dodo bird. Last time I checked (it was more than a year ago)  it was no longer available and replaced with another short, impotent brush, no hand washing person would ever spend money on. In spite of lots of use and wear, the bristles are still useful, not and flat and squishy. No, I do not use this one any more. It has been relegated to the garage for messier jobs.

So, have nay of you found the perfect dish brush? Something practical and reliable? Good value for the money? You know, one good brush for all your dish washing needs? Yes, I have a bottle brush, but that is a separate tool for a separate need.

For heavy duty scrubbing my mom always used a scrub bud. Once hard to find and purchased only from a direct sales person, now easily found at the grocery store.

Lots of new questions now. Things like where do I find an Eddington or Redecker brush? Should I try out the coconut fibre scrubbies? Will they measure up to my expectations or will I forever be disappointed and frustrated with my dish washing tools? Is a coconut fibre really as good as a wire scrubby?

There has been some talk lately, in the news and such, that says those who dish wash by hand have healthier families than those who use a dishwasher all the time. Maybe there is hope for a new, good, reliable, old fashioned, and practical dish brush to make a comeback.

Yes, I am well aware that there are much greater issues in the world to be concerned with, but these are the things that go through my head when my hands are in a sink of water. They spend a lot of time in the sink!

Thank you for your time and your ear.