This Will Make You Stop Pre-Rinsing Your Dishes [I’m serious!]

*This post is sponsored by finish, however all thoughts and opinions are my own*

Did you know that every time you pre-rinse your dishes before putting them in the dishwasher, you waste up to 20 gallons of water per load? Crazy, right? So, you actually help conserve our precious water supply and save time by simply skipping the pre-rinse and putting dirty dishes directly into the dishwasher. Sharing this tip is one of the reasons I am excited to partner with Finish for their #SkipTheRinse campaign. As a native Californian, doing what I can to help preserve our natural resources is vitally important to me.

Let’s Talk Pre-Rinse Water Waste

Here’s the deal, like me, many Americans pre-rinse their dishes to make sure that they come out absolutely clean from the dishwasher. We’ve become so accustomed to it that we don’t even realize how much water we are wasting. But, Finish found in a recent study that together we can conserve up to 150 billion gallons annually if we put dirty dishes directly into the dishwasher . The crazy thing is that with modern dish detergents like Finish Quantum, pre-rinsing is a wasted step. Your dishes will come out sparkling clean even if you don’t pre-rinse them. So you save time, water, and money by simply skipping the pre-rinse. Win/Win!!

What is the #SkipTheRinse Campaign?

Finish is launching #SkipTheRinse, a bold initiative to help educate Americans on the benefits of skipping the pre-rinse routine. As I mentioned above, we waste 20 gallons of water per load every time we rinse our dishes before putting them in the dishwasher, which is insane. By pledging to #SkipTheRinse , Americans can come together to conserve more than 150 billion gallons of water annually.

Fun Facts- How Much is 150 Billion Gallons of Water? Enough water to…

• Fill over 1000 Rose Bowl stadiums
• Supply ALL of Los Angeles for over a year
• Equal the amount of water that flows over Niagara Falls in two days

Not only can we band together with this initiative to save water, but Finish has also committed to donating up to $100K to The Nature Conservancy, plus $1 for every #SkipTheRinse pledge made at www.skip.finishdishwashing.com, in support of water conservation projects in the U.S. (up to $400K). So, join us today and take the pledge to #SkipTheRinse.

Join Me & Make the #SkipTheRinse Pledge Today. Sign Up Here

Getting My Family To Join Me 

After learning what a difference I could make but simply skipping the rinse I decided to sit my family down and chat about the new way we would be doing dishes.

Instead of just making a new rule about dishes I wanted my family to really understand the importance of what we would be pledging to do & why. Finish made this task easy because they teamed with National Geographic to create an engaging digital series that you can watch together with your kids. You can access the series here.

The series talks about the importance of water conservation in the U.S. and the looming water crisis. National Geographic explains that water covers 70 percent of our planet but less than 2% of it is accessible. The series has you follow one of their photographers, Erika Larsen, as she finds out where our water goes and what we can do to save it.

After watching the series promo the kids were excited to join me in taking the pledge. 

Our New #SkipTheRinse Dish Routine

After the kids agreed to pledge with me to #SkipTheRinse I demonstrated how we would clean our dishes from now on.

1. Scrape debris into our trash or compost bin. (I bought a plate scraper but you can also just use your utensil)
2. Simply place the scraped dirty dishes into the dishwasher.
3. Load the dishwasher with Finish Quantum and turn on the dishwasher.

I also went over the importance of how to place specific items in the dishwasher and the reasons they shouldn’t overcrowd the dishwasher too. Just so we could be sure Finish Quantum and our dishwasher could do their jobs.

*TIP- I placed this Blue Finish Ribbon on my sink to serve as a reminder to myself and my family about our pledge. It really helped especially in the beginning when we were all getting used to the change. You could use any blue ribbon to get the point across. I think it is really helpful.

I feel good knowing that I am doing my part to help lessen the stress on CA natural resources. Help your state, by taking the pledge today. Just click here to take the pledge and learn more about #SkipTheRinse, including accessing all the awesome content they’ve put together to help you be successful.