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After Dishy Rishi told the Mail he’s a stickler for perfect rows of plates… Does it matter how you stack the dishwasher?

By Helena Frith Powell
Rather than arguing about who is going to empty the dishwasher, in our home we have endless fights about filling it. I stand alone (unless Rishi happens to pop in for lunch) in the ‘everything has its place’ corner. In the opposing corner is my husband and five children. Our dishwasher has one of those top drawers where you lay the cutlery out in rows. I like my cutlery lined up like soldiers in regiments: teaspoons, forks, knives all bunched next to each other. When the cycle is complete, you can scoop them up in one go to pop them back in the cutlery drawer where, surprise, surprise, they also live according to their category. Is there anything more satisfying? No one else does this. They put the cutlery wherever happens to be most convenient. When I complain, they call me ridiculous, obsessive compulsive, absurd and worse. ‘Life’s too short,’ my son wails when I tell him to separate his knife and fork. ‘There are more important things in life to worry about than dishwashers,’ my husband agrees.I like cutlery lined up like soldiers in regiments That may be so, but in my view, loading a dishwasher may as well be done properly. I mean it’s just as easy to load it well as badly, so why not just do a good job of it? Large plates should be on the edges of the bottom drawer; not only does this leave plenty of room for saucepans and other items in the middle, but it also means the washing wand doesn’t get stuck should your top drawer be on a lower level to hold, for example, wine glasses neatly stacked in a row. This is one of those details they all ignore, much as they ignore the fact the filter needs rinsing out regularly. Filter cleaning is linked to the issue that creates by far the most tension: rinsing. In my early 20s, I was told by the mother of a close friend of mine to always rinse and it is one of those bits of advice I have carried with me ever since. I rinse everything. If ever I am tempted not to rinse, that moment springs back into my mind and I rush for the tap. My family repeatedly attempt to wean me off the habit. They have tried everything from cajoling to threats to showing me YouTube videos that purport to prove how rinsing actually damages dishwashers and uses a lot of water. Propaganda, I say, put about by the anti-rinse brigade who are as pernicious as Lilliput’s Big-Endians. I may not agree with everything Rishi says, but on the subject of dishwashers, we are as one.

Helena Frith Powell was born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and Italian father, but grew up mainly in England. She is the author of eleven books, translated into several languages including Chinese and Russian. She wrote the French Mistress column The Sunday Times about life in France for several years. She is a regular contributor to the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Tatler Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar.

Helena has been the editor of four magazines, including M Magazine, a supplement for the Abu Dhabi-based National Newspaper and FIVE, a high-end fashion glossy, also published in Abu Dhabi. Helena was also editor-in-chief of 360 Life, a quarterly glossy magazine published with the Sports 360 Newspaper in Dubai, part of the Chalhoub Group.

Helena contributes regularly to UK-based newspapers and magazines and holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. She is working on a thriller set in Sweden as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.

In 2022 her short story The Japanese Gardener came second in the Fish Publishing Short Story Prize. One of her stories was also shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize. When she’s not writing, she works as a headhunter for the media and entertainment industry for the Sucherman Group. 

Helena, who was educated at Durham University, lives in the Languedoc region of France with her husband Rupert and their three children.

Bibliography

More France Please, we’re British; Gibson Square 2004 Two Lipsticks and a Lover 2005; Gibson Square (hardback) All You Need to be Impossibly French; (US version of above) Penguin 2006 Two Lipsticks and a Lover; Arrow Books (paperback) 2007 Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (hardback) 2006 Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (paperback) 2007 So Chic! (French version of Two Lipsticks) Leduc Editions 2008 (also translated into Chinese, Russian and Thai) More, More France; Gibson Square 2009 To Hell in High Heels; Arrow Books 2009 (also translated into Polish) The Viva Mayr Diet; Harper Collins 2009 Love in a Warm Climate; Gibson Square 2011 The Ex-Factor; Gibson Square 2013 Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles; Gibson Square 2016 The Arnolfini Marriage; Amazon Kindle December 2016 Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles (paperback); Gibson Square spring 2018 The Longest Night; Gibson Square spring 2019    

© 2023 Helena Frith Powell
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