Dishwasher or no dishwasher

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Cathyt

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Hi, how important is a dishwasher in a kitchen? In an older fixer upper home that has limited kitchen space, is it more important to install a dishwasher or a pantry? Thanks. Cathy
 

Cass

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Dishwasher OR pantry.

That decission would have to be made by the person living in the house.

Which ever was more important to them.
 

Jimbo

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This is just personal opinion....I dont live there. But, in today's market, I believe you would be hurt badly by not having a dishwasher. You can figure out pantry space if needed....garage, shelving, furniture-type storage, etc. but I don't know anyone who is willing to wash dishes. If it were up to me to even LOAD and UNLOAD the DW, we would eat off paper plates!
 

Gary Swart

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For what it's worth, the first appliance my wife and I acquired when we got married, was a dishwasher. That was over 40 years ago. Since then we have had better models of DWs, but alway have had one. Now days, with both husband and wife employed, a DW is more than a luxury item.
 

Jadnashua

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If I had the room, I'd put in TWO dishwashers. I'd label one clean and the other dirty, and never take the dishes out and put them in the cupboard...designers are leaning this way, and you'll see it in more an more houses. You switch the label once you empty one. Throw a party, and you can use both to clean up the big mess quickly.
 

Mikey

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Jim --

I like your 2-dishwasher idea in principle, but I'm having a problem figuring out the path a typical dirty dish might follow. The day after the DWs are installed and labelled, it's easy, but after you wash your first load, the dishes in the "dirty" dishwasher are now clean, and since it's full, you've got to start putting dirty dishes in the one labelled "clean". Just swapping the labels doesn't work either, unless every load is identical.

I've been frustrated by the whole dish management problem ever since I installed my first dishwasher, to the point where I actually prefer to wash dishes by hand. Drives my wife nuts.

CathyT --

Any Realtor will tell you that a dishwasher is a required item; a pantry is extra points.
 

Mikey

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In today's real estate market, "pantry" has regained its original meaning -- a walk-in space directly off the kitchen, for storage of damn near anything used in the kitchen. We had such a room in the small apartment I grew up in in the 40s. I think the role of the pantry was assumed by cabinetry in the 50s and later, but now the traditional pantry is making a comeback, and no McMansion is complete without one.

I find the "dishwasher or pantry" choice odd, since they are pretty-much unrelated with respect to space consumed. If you've got room for a pantry, you've can sacrifice 24" of lower cabinet space for a dishwasher and have both.

Having said all that, the cabinet makers now offer "pantry" units, basically modules with lots of clever swing-out shelves that make maximum use of the total volume of space, but it's a sorry substitute for a real pantry.
 

Verdeboy

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I guess I'm the odd one out. I've always had dishwashers and never ever used them. Being a single guy set in my ways, I've used one plate, glass, fork, knife, etc. for years. Just rinse them off when I'm through and put them on the drying rack. All of the seals in my dishwashers have always dried out from lack of use.:eek:

PS: I agree with the others that the space occupied by a dishwasher would make a rather lousy pantry, unless of course we're talking about some very very short people.
 
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Smhowell

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My husband and I have been shopping for a house for some time. We don't even look at houses that don't have a dishwasher.
 
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