Well the at was quick wasn’t it . . .  Christmas has come and gone in the blink of an eye.   When you stay with family over a festive period, there is obviously a lot more catering and clearing up to be done.  The dishwasher gets a right pasting over a busy period.  It’s quite interesting to see how different folk fill theirs.  I do know two chaps who insist on cramming as much in to theirs as they can.  Every single rack space is filled, no gaps left and the cutlery basket is briming.  I have personally found this to be false economy as the items don’t get washed properly.   Unless you quickly rinse every item under running hot water before loading, the dishwasher is not as efficient as it should be.  Old food and grease stay around in the waste unit so that it all becomes a ghastly mess that needs stripping out and cleaning far more often.    The only method is to space bigger items well so as not to prevent the cleaning mechanism from showering the smaller ones.