[rickydroll]

Oh, you sweet dishwasher podchild. When I lived the life of a bachelor and ate over the sink/kitchen counter, I could get by with a single set of dishes, one cast-iron skillet, one pot, a single set of silverware, one knife, and one spatula.

Now that I cook for 2-3 people and more on holidays, I know from practical experience that the number of dirty dishes generated and the water used quickly exceeds anything a dishwasher would use. The use of water also increases when you cook big batches of food, so you can have quick meals available for lunches and dinners when you're too tired too cook and/or broke to go out to a restaurant/takeout.

If someone tried to take away my dishwasher, I would put their head on a pike in the front yard as a warning to anyone else who tried.

The one thing I've learned from this article and the comments here is that I really should run a load every night, even if the machine isn't totally full, because there are always more dishes used than it looks like at first glance.