Is more than one dishwasher the secret of domestic bliss?

That’s the new status symbol. And the best part? You’ll never have to put your crockery back in the cupboards!

THrEE years ago, when we looked around our lovely old house in the middle of the Somerset countryside, I admit I scoffed when I noticed it boasted no fewer than three dishwashers. Who needed such an extravagance, I thought. Exactly how many dinner parties could one throw? Surely — like a double garage or an iceberg basement — this was just another way to show off.

Nowadays, I am eating my words. I wonder how I coped without my trio of dishwashers, such is the domestic harmony they’ve created in our family.

For aside from the three meals cooked and consumed each day, my children, Archie, 11, ten-year-old oscar and Lara, seven, seem to be permanently snacking and leaving mountains of dirty plates in their wake. With back-up dishwashers, there’s always somewhere they can be stashed out of sight and smell.

Also, if you time it right, with three dishwashers — two in a stacking set of drawers from Fisher & Paykel (A two-drawer set costs around £800 to £1,250 in shops) and another normal one built into the utility room counter — you never need to bother yourself with unloading the things. You just take clean crockery from one, and stack dirty stuff in one of the others. And, yes, when we have dinner parties I do have a sense of smugness if I ask helpful guests to take the dishes ‘through to the other dishwasher’.

on a couple of occasions, people have expressed surprise. I’d like to think they were impressed.

Now I read that my dishwasher quota is a little on the short side. Marina Fogle, wife of explorer Ben Fogle, this week told a glossy magazine she has a whopping four. Matt Prall, managing director of kitchen design company Papilio, which fits kitchens costing up to £100,000, says the multiple dishwasher trend has filtered down from the super-rich to become a near-standard desire among the middle-class.

After speaking to Marina and other dishwasher ‘multiples’, I’m wondering whether we might be able to fit another one in. Having read the women’s stories below, you may find yourself doing the same.

Jenny Weiss, 57, is an interior designer. she lives in Weybridge, surrey, with husband Graham, 55, a property consultant. They have two sons, Jamie, 28, who lives in Los angeles and dan, 27, who lives at the family home with his fiancee Louise. Jenny says:

DISHWASHER COUNT: 4

ovEr the 34 years graham and i have been married, we have moved 16 times, but this is the first time we’ve had more than one dishwasher — and i find it fitting for the life we lead.

i come from a big family, with two sisters and two brothers who all have children, so whenever we get together there are around 24 people and we congregate in the open-plan kitchen which leads onto a bar area.

i have one Miele dishwasher in the kitchen for pots, plates and pans, a gaggenau model in the bar area for glasses and a Fisher & Paykel in the utility room for spillover pots and pans when we’re entertaining.

We bought them direct from the suppliers, because i’m an interior designer, but a similar Miele today might cost £1,000, the gaggenau around £1,200 and the Fisher & Paykel from £1,000 to £2,000 — prices vary depending on whether you buy it as part of a fitted kitchen. some