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I stick mine in shaft-down (obviously- if you put the heads in first, they’ll clump together and won’t be cleaned properly), but if you actually had a fight about this, I’m afraid I have to agree with Jose: You’re anal.

Of all the things in the world to have a fight about, seeing an upside-down spork in my washer would have to rate very near to, if not at the bottom of, my list of things to fight about.

It’s funny you say that, cause I’ve noticed I now put my cutlery in the dishwasher with the handle pointing downwards. I can’t believe I’ve changed, because when we had that argument I truly believed handle-up was the more correct way, hence the sulking. Next thing you know I’ll be telling people off for drawing my blinds incorrectly. No wait, I don’t think I’ll ever be that ANAL.

Jose, you’re a scientist. How could you ever believe that shafts-up was the correct way to stack cutlery. It’s wrong on every level: You would have created ludicrous space-issues for yourself, surely?

Well Dan, if you put it in handle-up you can get it out of the rack without handling the eating ends, and that made more sense to me. I think if you’re running out of space in your dishwasher to the extent that the cutlery isnt coming out clean, you might need to wash your plates etc a bit it more frequently!

Thinking about it, I think I’ve only changed cause my dishwasher has the style of rack where you poke the cutlery handles through individual slots, and it wouldn’t fit in the other way around. Although admittedly, I only found out thats what the slots were for when Adrian showed me. I’m prepared to state that you might know more about cutlery racks than I do, but by no means were you right about everything, because that’s just plain silly.

I don’t have a dishwasher, but when I’ve loaded other peoples I tend to put it handle pointing up, mainly because that’s how I was taught when doing a food hygiene thingy course (some crap about lots of people get stabbed by knives etc).

However in my cuttlery tidy, the only items facing down are the knives, everything else is facing up in case I forget which section which piece of cutlery is in…

I do not have a dishwasher.

That confession over, I can see myself shouting at J if he puts them in the wrong way. Ironic, because I rarely agree with you on anything, excepting iPods.

Out of interest, how the hell do you raise a blind the wrong way ?

I put knives into the dishwasher in exactly the way the instructions advised I should put them in: blade first, handle at the top.

Aside from anything else, it’s next to impossible to put the shaft in as hey have a suitably grippable girth.

So, things to say to your girlfriend:

“Why are you…..so incredibly hot? C’mere, let’s make out for a bit.” “Where do you want me to put all this chocolate?”

Things not to say to your girlfriend:

“Why are you….putting that cutlery in the dishwasher rack backwards?” “Where do you want me to put all this porn?”

I only put sharp kitchen knives in upside down to prevent accidentalinjury. Actually I usually wash those by hand as I always need them when they are in the dishwasher.

I put them in handles first except knives which go handles up.

Why?

Cos that’s what the manual said to do. Honest guv.

In our house we have a rule, I’m not allowed to hang the washing (clothes horse or washing line) as I “don’t do it properly”.

I’m serious. I’m only allowed to hoover because you can’t really get that wrong (not since she corrected me anyway), and she only allows me to dust and clean because I do it the way she “taught” me (with a big stick.. but that’s a different story).

Brilliant post! I reckon, as long as they are all different ways they clean better… except for sharp knives which should go sharp bit down ‘cos of dogs that love to lick dirty cutlery before the dishwasher goes on and ‘cos of 4 yr olds. Good blog - tx for making me laugh!

Handle side down except sharp items which go sharp bit down of course. If handwashed it makes sense to put it the way up as well as then the bit that touches the food does not touch the damp bit of the cutlery basket.

I’m afraid I’m handles down. But then again, I tip them from the dishwasher cutlery tidy thing onto a clean tea-towel and dry them properly before putting them away. And Jose called you anal!

As an aside, I iron tea-towels (my mother also does underwear - I’ve never gone “that” far!) and won’t let the Other Half “peg out” because the line looks so untidy. Am I the only person who puts all the same kind of clothes at the same point on the line (shirts, trousers, smalls, etc.)?

I’ll get my coat…

Handle first, obviously. Not that I actually have a dishwasher but I do it that way whenever I visit my parents.

I grew up in a “deprived” household.

The only dishwasher we had was my dad (who came with a process all of his own).

So moving into a flat with a dishwasher was a very strange thing to me. I didn’t know there were rules to filling a dishwasher.

Consequently, I was instructed that all handles go downwards, and large kitchen utensils or big knives lie flat along the middle of the top pully-outy bit so they don’t interfere with the whizzy-roundy bit.

Dead technical me.

Oh, and those of you that read the manual?

For shame…

Personally, I just shove it in and hope for the best.

So at risk of asking a daft question, are you claiming that the cage-thing in the bottom drawer of the dishwasher is for putting cutlery in? Surely the drawers would have to move in and out for this to be at all feasible … ?

Oh …

knives point down and forks and spoons point up.

and i’m with pixel on this one … who on earth reads a manual on “how to stack my dishwasher” ?

Wow. I haven’t seen so many comments since breasts were discussed.

On-topic, if you look at how to load and run a dishwasher it clearly says knives go handle up, all other cutlery goes handles down.

It even tells you what to put on the top and bottom shelf. You know, some people have far too much time on their hands.

Zed - the people who read the manual are the same people who know you need to put salt in it to stop the limescale building up. And who know how to program the video/dvd/hdd recorder for your favourite programs. And who know which parts of an engine to check to make sure it has enough oil/water/brake fluid…

Engines need OIL?!?!?!

That’ll be why my car is making horrible grinding noises so. Ah crap.

Some of the people who read the manual are also the people who WRITE the manuals that no-one else reads. We ALL read manuals just to disprove the myth that no-one does (alas our numbers are small and the myth perpetuates).

Ha ha Gordon. That was very nearly what I added earlier. I stopped writing help documents because no one reads them!

T - i know about adding salt to a certain part of the dishwasher - especially here in belgium as the limescale can be quite ferocious at times and follow you around the house at night. if i had oodles of euros i’d put calgon in the machine, but salt is cheap and works well.

as for programming video recorders etc - that’s about the only reason i have a boyfriend. apart from the itty-bitty bits.

I gave in and started put it in upside down. But I have searched the net for the correct way, so I havent totally given up. Mama put in the safe way and she is ALWAYS right!!! Please lets not even start with the blinds. I say do it your way if your the one actually doing and quit backseat driving. My freak is making me crazy!!!lol

I’ve noticed that it’s women who stack everything pointy side up whereas men tend to put it in shaft up. I guess women are more careful when emptying the rack whereas blokes grab as much as they can in one hand and distribute it (as quick as poss basically). Im not allowed to stack the dishwasher anymore as wifey seems to have developed Dishwasher OCD. Hey ho :)