My father-in-law told me forks should point up and I laughed at him for 3 years

Back in 2018, my wife's dad saw me loading the dishwasher with forks pointing down and said I was doing it wrong. I brushed him off because the guy still uses a flip phone. Fast forward to last month when I pulled out a bowl with dried cheese stuck to a fork handle that had been sitting in the prong basket. Three years of crusty handles and I finally tried his way. Forks up, everything comes out clean now. Anyone else have an old timer give you advice that took years to admit was better?

3 comments

3 Comments

riley_west13d agoMost Upvoted

Yeah, I switched to forks up after scrubbing one too many crusty handles.

the_ray17d ago

Not sure it's that serious honestly. I have been doing forks down for like 15 years and maybe once or twice a year I get a little crust on a handle. Takes two seconds to scrub off. People act like a little dried cheese is a biohazard or something. I get that Consumer Reports says what they say but I have also seen them change their mind on dishwashers three times in the last decade. If you are rinsing your plates right and running hot cycles, the bacteria thing seems like fear mongering to sell detergent.

the_joseph17d ago

Saw a thing from Consumer Reports saying prongs up is better for getting food off, and prongs down can trap bacteria in the handles. Guess the old man was onto something.