WaPo on Prerinse
Jan. 4th, 2024 10:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walkitouthttps://www.washingtonpost.com/home/2023/10/04/testing-rinsing-dishes-before-dishwasher/
I roasted the fuck out of that WaPo article about eating, so I am offering this up as penance.
Ms. Williams and 3 co-workers at the WaPo decided to collect a little anecdata about prerinsing. What I really like about this article and what they did is they acknowledge it is “unscientific”, but it actually is not. What they did was really sensitive qualitative research. The questions they were exploring revolved more about the feelings associated with prerinsing or not, and how those feelings responded to NOT prerinsing. And Ms. Williams is absolutely aware of what she was doing.
“Despite the rigorous evidence, many of us, myself included, cannot stop rinsing. The suggestion that it’s unnecessary provokes domestic disputes and perhaps disproportionate anger.”
“Through testing and interviews, I found that there are many factors — logistical, psychological, personal, marital — that cloud the issue of dishwashing.”
“But the qualitative results of the test proved more interesting.”
Tester 1 — not a prerinser — used the results as support in a longstanding disagreement with her husband — a prerinser — while recognizing that it was unlikely to truly disrupt his habit.
Tester 2 clearly articulated very negative feelings about touching the dirty dishes while placing them, unrinsed, in the dishwasher.
KC Davis — whose book I thoroughly enjoyed reading, even tho I absolutely am not the target audience for it — is quoted pointing out the disconnect between the advice around using the dishwasher and many people actually using dishwashers. Not all households have the time and other resources to be orderly. This really cannot be said enough.
Tester 3, like Tester 1, was a non-prerinser married to a prerinser. Tester 3 brings observations of gratitude to the story, along with a low-key response to how easy it is to post-clean those few items that are not fully clean when not prerinsing.
Tester 4 is the author, and her discussion of her experience as a prerinser who knows the evidence and wants to stop, but is struggling to do so, is easily the best part of this excellent article.
I will look forward to reading more by Ms. Williams! And this is a form of qualitative research and exploration that makes for really good journalism. I hope to see more of it everywhere, because this is the kind of thoughtful and thought-provoking analysis that will prove increasingly necessary to helping everyone adapt as we work to adjust our lifestyles and economy to be more sustainable.
ETA: If you are looking at the two WaPo pieces and considering them in conjunction with yesterday’s post (today’s post but dated yesterday, whatever) about essays, and thinking, hey, Ms. Williams is producing the kind of work you _want_ to have happen, and that other piece embodies all the shit you are complaining about, you are _not wrong_. I noticed that too, altho it was not planned.
I roasted the fuck out of that WaPo article about eating, so I am offering this up as penance.
Ms. Williams and 3 co-workers at the WaPo decided to collect a little anecdata about prerinsing. What I really like about this article and what they did is they acknowledge it is “unscientific”, but it actually is not. What they did was really sensitive qualitative research. The questions they were exploring revolved more about the feelings associated with prerinsing or not, and how those feelings responded to NOT prerinsing. And Ms. Williams is absolutely aware of what she was doing.
“Despite the rigorous evidence, many of us, myself included, cannot stop rinsing. The suggestion that it’s unnecessary provokes domestic disputes and perhaps disproportionate anger.”
“Through testing and interviews, I found that there are many factors — logistical, psychological, personal, marital — that cloud the issue of dishwashing.”
“But the qualitative results of the test proved more interesting.”
Tester 1 — not a prerinser — used the results as support in a longstanding disagreement with her husband — a prerinser — while recognizing that it was unlikely to truly disrupt his habit.
Tester 2 clearly articulated very negative feelings about touching the dirty dishes while placing them, unrinsed, in the dishwasher.
KC Davis — whose book I thoroughly enjoyed reading, even tho I absolutely am not the target audience for it — is quoted pointing out the disconnect between the advice around using the dishwasher and many people actually using dishwashers. Not all households have the time and other resources to be orderly. This really cannot be said enough.
Tester 3, like Tester 1, was a non-prerinser married to a prerinser. Tester 3 brings observations of gratitude to the story, along with a low-key response to how easy it is to post-clean those few items that are not fully clean when not prerinsing.
Tester 4 is the author, and her discussion of her experience as a prerinser who knows the evidence and wants to stop, but is struggling to do so, is easily the best part of this excellent article.
I will look forward to reading more by Ms. Williams! And this is a form of qualitative research and exploration that makes for really good journalism. I hope to see more of it everywhere, because this is the kind of thoughtful and thought-provoking analysis that will prove increasingly necessary to helping everyone adapt as we work to adjust our lifestyles and economy to be more sustainable.
ETA: If you are looking at the two WaPo pieces and considering them in conjunction with yesterday’s post (today’s post but dated yesterday, whatever) about essays, and thinking, hey, Ms. Williams is producing the kind of work you _want_ to have happen, and that other piece embodies all the shit you are complaining about, you are _not wrong_. I noticed that too, altho it was not planned.