Redditors who regularly eat off of paper plates at home when you have a dishwasher, why?

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Redditors who regularly eat off of paper plates at home when you have a dishwasher, why?

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  1. SillySub2001 Avatar

    I spend a lot of time in my bar downstairs. The dishwasher is upstairs. It’s just easier.

  2. PMyourTastefulNudes Avatar

    Sometimes I like to be nice and give her a break

  3. disregardable Avatar

    Kitchen pipes is busted. It’s the worst.

  4. AdvancedCelery4849 Avatar

    I got them for a party just for it to be cancelled

  5. lovetoswimwithsharks Avatar

    Curious if it’s a regional/income thing or if it’s just a general American thing

  6. pragmaticcircus Avatar

    Save on electric and water bill

  7. Joebroni1414 Avatar

    For the conveinence plain and simple. Also the wax coated ones are great for poor man (microwaved) nachos! The cheese slides right off!

  8. floatinggramma Avatar

    I’m just lazy lol no other excuse 🤷🏼‍♀️

  9. PirateJohn75 Avatar

    Why would I eat out of a dishwasher?

  10. Diligent_Bat499 Avatar

    Paper plates yes, I’m one of the Poor’s no dishwasher.

  11. TheflavorBlue5003 Avatar

    I gotta put on airs just for myself now??

  12. GeneJacket Avatar

    My dishwasher is inefficient as hell, my roommate refuses to wash anything by hand and eats nonstop, so it’s always full and any time I needed a plate they’re ALL always dirty.

  13. RepulsiveInterview44 Avatar

    Family of 5, don’t want to run dishwasher every single night to clean everything. Totally about convenience 🤷‍♀️

  14. wossquee Avatar

    I have kids and ADHD. I use plastic plates sometimes, paper plates sometimes, my glass plates sometimes, a bowl sometimes, a paper towel sometimes, then sometimes a paper towel and then a paper plate or a paper plate and a paper towel and then a plastic bowl.

    Life is hard, man, get off my back

  15. madpingmax Avatar

    Grew up poor doing it, still do it today. Every time I get fast food which is every bi-weekly paycheck, I visit the restaurant and load up on the napkins, plates and utensils.

  16. RENOYES Avatar

    I have ADHD bad. Washing dishes is hard for me. I use paper plates because leaving dirty dishes in the sink is gross, but I can’t always convince myself to clean them. So I just eliminated the dishes part.

  17. funkmon Avatar
    1. I have a small sink. 

    2. I actually use newspaper so I don’t buy plates. 

    3. I’m bad at the dishwasher and my wife does dishes so when I eat without her, I don’t want to produce any extra dishes she has to deal with.

  18. Glittercorn111 Avatar

    Dishwasher doesn’t do a good job and I hate it.

  19. -_-Orange Avatar

    Ever tried burning a ceramic plate? 

    Way more effort than it’s worth. 

  20. catlady_at_heart Avatar

    I am someone who cares a lot about sustainability/the earth and I hate seeing people use paper plates daily. I didn’t even have a dishwasher until 6 months ago and just hand washed dishes my entire life. I can definitely see their helpfulness for parties or if you’re disabled/unable to wash dishes. Other than that it’s just wasteful.

  21. Thrillhouse74 Avatar

    After having no water for a week (thanks Texas), I learned quickly that sometimes you just can’t do dishes and well it’s been nice to have less cleanup after a meal. Also use the compostable ones.

  22. The_Boy_Is_Odd Avatar

    Because fuck trees.

  23. PortiaKern Avatar

    Because she stopped washing dishes.

  24. Capable-Junket-3819 Avatar

    Paper plates or 2 months old dishes in the sink…

    #ADHD

  25. AreYouFilmingNow Avatar

    They want to signal they are from US, without telling they are from US

  26. Preform_Perform Avatar

    Dishwasher space is for the pots, pans, silverware, etc.

    I realized quickly that I gained a lot of real estate in the machine when I don’t use dishes in them.

  27. DatTF2 Avatar

    Because I lived in a rural area and my heat came from burning wood. Paper plates made a great firestarter.

  28. Shinlos Avatar

    There are people who eat off paper plates? Like on the regular? What the…

  29. semperfukya Avatar

    Easier than eating out of the dishwasher

  30. Emu1981 Avatar

    My wife was on the paper plates train for a while even after I bought a dishwasher because she didn’t want to wash more plates – I convinced her to stop buying them because she didn’t even do the dishes in the first place and the kids would often lose the food off their paper plates due to the lack of rigidity leading me to have more to clean up.

  31. staceyann1573 Avatar

    Paper plates for things like a snack, toast, crackers, cut up apple etc. Regular plates for meals.

  32. rhinokick Avatar

    I don’t use paper plates on home, but i do line my baking trays with aluminum foil so that I don’t have to clean them (just take the foil off after and throw it out). If the food is likely to stick i also put down a layer of parchment paper.

  33. weemins Avatar

    I feel like this is an American thing. I don’t know if I see it a lot on food porn or shitty food porn but one of those subs is full of paper plates. It’s so wasteful

  34. EddieCheddar88 Avatar

    Cause I used to be a piece of shit, but I’m still a piece of shit sometimes

  35. Far_Departure_9224 Avatar

    Because I don’t like doing dishes. I’d use paper pots if I could.

  36. omgwtflols Avatar

    My dad kept kosher, so whenever he visited he always used paper plates, plastic silverware, etc. I always kept a stash, too

  37. Dogmom2013 Avatar

    My mom likes them because she says it is just easy. They will use paper plates for simple foods like sandwiches and stuff.

    I personally hate them, I just prefer regular plates. I also never used to use my dishwasher when I was single. I would just wash all my stuff at the end of the day by hand and pretty much re-use what I needed the next day or just put them away.

    Now we use the dishwasher quite often because my partner hates physically washing dishes.

  38. ThePurgingLutheran Avatar

    I use my dishwasher for my paper plates.

  39. DaydreamerFly Avatar

    I have severe depression and I know I will let the dishes get really really bad sometimes. And sometimes then I won’t even want to eat because of the energy of both eating and then doing dishes.

    When I feel motivated I use and wash regular plates and such but a lot of times the less I can clean saves me a bit emotionally/mentally that day

  40. spooky__scary69 Avatar

    I only use them when I am severely depressed bc it’s better than dishes rotting in the sink. Sadly, that’s a regular thing given the state of the world these days.

  41. SarcasticGirl27 Avatar

    Because life is hard sometimes and getting through work is enough.

  42. CompetitiveToe5288 Avatar

    My ex does this because she’s lazy and selfish doesn’t care about the environment. Also the type to have a 24-pack of water bottles for daily hydration at the house… bought her a brita because bissshhhh

  43. hospicedoc Avatar

    I moved in with my gf and her Mom in August/September many years ago. I was surprised to find them not only eating off paper plates, but actually often washing them and reusing them. When I opened the dishwasher there were plates in there from Christmas.

    FWIW my MIL is a multimillionaire. They never did explain why they were reusing paper plates- it wasn’t a ‘cheap thing’, I think they sort of fell into the habit somehow.

  44. Bro_Sam Avatar

    Whatever’s clever

  45. Professional-Sink281 Avatar

    If they made paper pots and pans I’d be the most happy version of myself. Idk…I super duper hate washing dishes and the dish washer doesn’t actually scrub them so they have to be scrubbed first, then put away and on and on and on.

  46. awakami Avatar

    My roommate does this. We have many regular plates & a dishwasher that me & the other roommate use often. He claims he’s just lazy & doesn’t want to

  47. grae23 Avatar

    I am severely depressed and even loading and unloading the washer can be incredibly draining. Disposable table ware allows me to still eat with plates and utensils but I also don’t have the overwhelming feeling of dread doing the dishes, which makes it take a week in stead of 20 minutes.

  48. mubi_merc Avatar

    Dishwasher is full of clean dishes that I don’t have time/energy to empty some days with work and a toddler. If I use a real plate, then it sits in the sink until I get around to emptying the dishwasher, and by then the sink might be full enough to be a big task that I don’t have time/energy to tackle right away. Paper plates keep dishes from piling up in certain times.

  49. AlarmingSorbet Avatar

    I don’t normally use them unless we’re having a bunch of kids over/birthday party/or when the house comes down with something. If we’re all sick as hell I know we’re not going to wash dishes.

  50. Eating_sweet_ass Avatar

    We bought a bunch for a party once and had a ton left so we started using them. Turns out it’s nice to not have to deal with extra dishes when I can just toss them in the trash. If I make a nice dinner we use real dishes. If I made something quick and easy we’re probably using paper plates.

  51. HumpieDouglas Avatar

    Cuz I like to party!

  52. ServiceBaby Avatar

    I’m disabled and with memory issues from multiple conditions, it’s just easier if there’s one less thing to potentially grow mold on if I forget about it for a while.

  53. ChaoticGoodPanda Avatar

    Depression; no one wants to do dishes (they are piled up), or no one wants to do dishes (they were just done).

    I recently added the little paper boat tray things that restaurants use. Sometimes a paper towel is too flimsy and a paper plate is too much.

  54. kooshipuff Avatar

    My mom does this. In her case, there’s something wrong with the dishwasher (it might not have been installed properly by the people who kinda screwed her over on renovations), and she’s the type to give up immediately. So, paper plates for life, I guess? 

    Though I also think she likes them. I used to have a roommate and recently bought my own house and was looking at how many plates/bowls/etc I needed, and when I was taking about how many of each thing I use once, she just kinda cut me off and insisted I should use paper plates instead, which was such a weird moment.

    As usual, I did not take her advice.

  55. Fearlessleader85 Avatar

    I have a dishwasher, eat of normal plates, and don’t use the dishwasher. I don’t get the point. You basically have to wash the dishes before you put them in, and sometimes they don’t do a great job anyway. I can usually do the dishes for a meal for our family of three in less than 3 minutes.

    I know some people really like dishwashers, but i just don’t care about them.

  56. BalladofBadBeard Avatar

    I am bad at putting dirty dishes in the dishwasher and also taking them out when they are clean.

  57. Sir_Boobsalot Avatar

    depression 

    doing the dishes takes too much energy 

  58. xenophon57 Avatar

    I don’t normally but when I have, I usually have a wood stove and I’m working my butt off. Good firestarter and no dishes.

  59. Tacos_always_corny Avatar

    Paper plate while standing over the sink. Perfect plan.

  60. Starlancer199819 Avatar

    When hosting a party paper plates are ideal, but they’re NEVER sold in numbers that match the party size

    Always have a large amount left over so I just use them when I’m feeling lazy and don’t want to wash dishes/empty the dishwasher

  61. benji950 Avatar

    I nearly always use dishes, glass, cutlery, etc. I also use placemats and cotton or linen napkins. It’s how I grew up and I like it. But man, oh, man, I am just too tired sometimes to want to deal with the dishes. It’s just my dog and me, and so far, she hasn’t figured out how to load and unload the dishwasher so it’s just me cleaning up the kitchen. No matter how big or small the mess or the number of dishes involved, it’s always just me and sometimes, I just don’t want to do it but I can’t leave dirty dishes in the sink and leave the kitchen a mess. Sometimes, I just want to make my life a little bit easier.

  62. Kvothetheraven603 Avatar

    My wife has some strange notion that we should always have paper plates and that is my exact response to her…. We have a dishwasher.

  63. skibunny1010 Avatar

    I HATE loading and unloading the dishwasher. It was one of my chores as a kid and has always caused me a great deal of anguish. Even when I do use normal plates and bowls I prefer to just wash them by hand and put them in the rack to dry. I live alone so create minimal dishes- making it much less work to just wash by hand.

  64. FrostyPlay9924 Avatar

    Because most of the time, the food im eating with a paper plate doesn’t require a plate with that much structural integrity.

    Like a breakfast bowl in a plastic container just gets hot and it’s easier to handle, but if I made steak and eggs then I need something a more sturdy so I can cut my steak without cutting the table.

  65. ryanmemperor Avatar

    Usually, she’s mad at me, so I work with what’s available.

  66. ashoka_akira Avatar

    I had to briefly do this when I was homeless due to a natural disaster. I was staying at friends and they had a big family so there were never any clean dishes—I did wash up all the dishes a few times to say thanks—but sometimes it was late already and the kids were in bed so paper plates it was.

  67. ken830 Avatar

    This is an oddly specific question. Who does this?

  68. Human-Engineering715 Avatar

    If it’s dinner time, or making really a real meal, plates and dishes are used.

    When it’s lunch time, and I just need something to microwave a tortilla on, I dont really feel like dirtying up a plate. We do reuse some of the paper plates as well if they’re not “dirty”

    But like if i’m microwaving food, I don’t need to make more dishes for myself.

  69. r0botdevil Avatar

    Because they’re lazy, it’s as simple as that.

    I don’t care that you’re busy, I’m busy too. I don’t care that you have ADHD, so do I. Do the dishes pile up in my kitchen sometimes? Absolutely. But that’s no excuse for that level of waste.

  70. ZombifiedCat Avatar

    I have neither paper plates or a dishwasher. I am offended.

  71. Kazu2324 Avatar

    Severe depression and anxiety makes it really hard to do daily chores sometimes and the anxiety makes me hate the fact that I’ve left all the mess around and haven’t gotten to it, which makes everything feel a million times worse. It then creates a terrible cycle of things getting worse and me hating myself more.

    Paper plates lets me throw them away without adding to the pile of chores I haven’t done, because I know it’s just going to be worse for me. I know it’s very wasteful, but it’ll be wasteful either way for me, this lets me ensure my mental health at least doesn’t plummet into suicidal thoughts, and I’m hoping it is just a temporary measure until I can sort my mental health out.

    I’ve also put clean clothes from the dryer into a plastic garbage bag because I knew I’d never get to folding them during a really bad few weeks in my life and I didn’t want to get dog fur everywhere on clean clothes. I’d rather it be wrinkly and stuffed in a garbage bag than left out in the open only to have to wash again. Depression sucks, you kind of have to find ways to still live as a person while simultaneously knowing your’e incapable of doing that. So I try to find cheats that may be crappy and stupid but it helps me in that moment when things feel insurrmountable.

  72. jskrilla Avatar

    My grandpa piped the well to the house with rigid conduit in lieu of plumbing piping so the water is a bit “hard” and ruins your clothes, dishes, pretty much everything

  73. lightknight7777 Avatar

    I recently had to move my 15 year old cat to wet food due to her starting to throw to every brand of dry food. With wet food, she no longer throws up and has regrown fur she’d lost due to some kind of food allergy.

    The problem with the wet food is it dries to the plate and is so hard to clean off. So I’ll just eat my breakfast on a paper plate and then use the same plate for her meal.

    I use regular plates and dishes for everything else.

  74. Yellobrix Avatar

    Serious answer –
    We use paper plates when we have a crowd. We have already cleaned the whole house and cooked and served and will still have the cleanup afterwards. I just want everybody to toss their plate in the trash when they’re finished eating. The dishwasher is already full of pots and pans at that point.

  75. teacherboymom3 Avatar

    I may have an autoimmune disorder. My husband works nonstop and is not currently helping with the chores. It’s okay because his job is the reason that I have the access to phenomenal healthcare. I work full time but am absolutely wiped out at the end of the day. And those 3 boys I’m raising want to eat every night. I cannot keep up with the cleaning by myself, and the kids are not always able to help keep things in order. The oldest has a host of issues. The youngest is too small to do all the things. The middle crashes when his meds wear off. Using paper plates is one thing I can do to make cleaning a little easier to manage. I line my baking sheets with parchment paper, too. We try to buy compostable paper plates.

  76. David1000k Avatar

    My question is, why use a dishwasher if you’re an able bodied person? Never understood the gain in time or personal satisfaction of using a dishwasher versus just washing them by hand. I’m weird I guess,I enjoy the chore.

  77. ForMyHat Avatar

    I don’t have a dishwasher but sometimes stay in places that do.

    Narcolepsy (excessive daytime sleepiness, it’s not like how they depict it in media).  I’m usually too tired to stand up and I’ll go days without taking a shower or checking the mail.  I often put off using the bathroom because I’m so exhausted.  I get thirty from being too tired get my water bottle.

    For years, I’ve reused the same cups for weeks at a time too.  It’s gross, I don’t like it, but I also know that I’m not a lazy person.  I put in 100% to just get by but I’m running on low batteries so I can’t do as much as other people.

    Even so, personally, I don’t care how other live their lives for the most part.  I do care about foam plates vs paper because one’s significantly more biodegradable, but life’s short and I don’t feel like spending most of my time judging other people when I don’t know exactly what it’s like to be in their shoes.  Enough people judge me thinking that they understand me and I don’t like it so why would I do that to other people?

    I’d rather be living my life, learning things, and thinking about topics that are meaningful to me 

  78. BHT101301 Avatar

    So much easier. Just throw the plate away. Less dishes to clean off and load dishwasher. I guess it’s laziness and I’m
    Lazy lol

  79. msnmck Avatar

    The dishwasher isn’t mounted because we don’t have the counter space.

  80. HyperactivePandah Avatar

    Because my dishwasher is broke.

  81. VixenTraffic Avatar

    I’m terminally ill and have chronic fatigue.

    Also my kitchen is 45 degrees, my oven has not worked in over five years, and I can’t afford heat, food, or appliance repair.

  82. Flan-Cake Avatar

    Dishwasher broke. Again.

  83. DobisPeeyar Avatar

    Cause we just moved in and our garage disposal was already broken and backed up and we couldn’t use the dishwasher or sink to wash dishes.

  84. Individual_Quote_701 Avatar

    I bought paper plates for the cat. Makes life easier. Over the past few years , I’ve broken most of my plates. I often use the cat plates for my lunch.

  85. akhabby Avatar

    we use paper plates for dinner and sometimes breakfast if we do a big breakfast. Me and my wife have 5 kids total so we just don’t feel like cleaning that much. But otherwise we use our normal plates and we never use paper bowls. 

    Just don’t want to spend an hour every night doing dishes. Plus, I burn all of my paper products since our local place doesn’t recycle paper. But I also live in a very rural area. 

  86. Brave-Cash-845 Avatar

    Well the paper plates don’t work well after the sanitize cycle!!

  87. IGNSolar7 Avatar

    It’s a habit I picked up from nearly two decades of roommates from college into my 30s. Pots, pans, and dishes were always a point of contention. I’d find myself having to wash pots or plates before making food and then after eating if I didn’t want to be a dick, and eventually just got sick of it. Started switching to paper plates and the microwave for everything unless I ate out.

    My last roommate and I worked opposite schedules too, so it’s not like eating together was an option. (Not that I wanted to, I wouldn’t want to feel obligated to come home and cook after a shit day because it’s “my day.”)

  88. 314159265358979326 Avatar

    I’m incredibly ill and loading the dishwasher is too strenous, and my wife’s dad’s dying.

  89. 3kids_nomoney Avatar

    Honestly, You’d save so much money – the hydro, the water, the maintenance, the dish tabs… am I missing anything?

  90. NoogaShooter Avatar

    If we are reheating leftovers we will use paper. It prevents scrubbing in the case that we over microwave a dish.

  91. krisipus_ Avatar

    Because I just don’t have the capacity to wash dishes when I’m just trying to survive man

  92. norby2 Avatar

    Labor, man.

  93. SaltyPinKY Avatar

    None of your damn business…but since you must know.  It’s just little ol.me and it would take me weeks to fill up the dishwasher….and I ain’t wasting water to just do a dish a day 

  94. JeddahLecaire Avatar

    People use paper plates despite having a dishwasher for convenience, quicker cleanup, saving water, or simply out of habit.

  95. OldBayAllTheThings Avatar

    She’s not always in the mood to wash dishes?

  96. TheFrontierzman Avatar

    Ever hear “Save the Trees!!” these days? That’s because tree farms go brrrrrr! We’re not running out.

    Paper all day and the ones I buy break down well…sometimes too well.

  97. rilakkuma1 Avatar

    I ate off a lot of paper plates during chemo. The energy difference between throwing out a plate and using the dishwasher doesn’t sound like much but when you have so little energy you fail to brush your teeth most days, it’s a relevant difference.

    Chemo is on the extreme end but I imagine many people are looking for anything they can cut to stay above drowning whether that’s due to a stressful job, kids, depression, etc.

  98. EcceFelix Avatar

    I I don’t, but I have a friend who does. She has pretty bad childhood trauma related to washing dishes. I lent her an extra dishwasher I had, and it was a huge help.

  99. bo_reddude Avatar

    Eat. Rinse off the left overs, open the washer. Lay the plates and utensil in order, close the door, choose the quick wash setting. Wait till it’s done, out away the dishes and utencils.

    Vs.

    Eat. Throw away the plate and the utencils.

  100. Gumbercules81 Avatar

    The only time we regularly eat off of paper plates is if we order pizza

  101. crashtesterzoe Avatar

    Some days after work. I just don’t have the energy to cook and fully clean up and it saves some energy for cooking. Where I probably wouldn’t have had food that night.

  102. AnAdorableDogbaby Avatar

    It sequesters carbon, which makes it extra satisfying to burn them all in my front yard at the end of the week. 

  103. Lisshopops Avatar

    I use them when I know a shit ton of plates are going to be used and ik Im the one that has to clean up so it’s really the lazy way

  104. BeebleBoxn Avatar

    Saves water especially if you have leach lines that are not up to code.