Does it matter how you stack the dishwasher?

After Dishy Rishi told the Mail he’s a stickler for perfect rows of plates...

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haNceLLOr rishi Sunak revealed in an interview at the weekend that he has a ‘very OcD approach to dishwashers’. Well, he would, wouldn’t he? after all, he is in charge of the exchequer. his job is to crunch numbers, to analyse figures, to excel at excel spreadsheets. Why is anyone surprised he likes to organise his own dishwasher?

Personally, I couldn’t give two hoots about how ours is loaded. I just thank the Lord that someone invented them in the first place.

But my husband has rishi Sunak disease. he is exmilitary and approaches stacking the dishwasher like it’s a highstakes operation.

Large dinner plates must go on the bottom rack, left to right, facing the right way. Smaller plates go on the bottom at the front, cutlery goes face up, all bowls go on the top rack, and mugs must go on the topleft rack.

he also rinses our plates before he puts them in the dishwasher, which I find unbelievable. Most experts agree you don’t need to, as hightech sensors now measure how much dirt is coming off your dishes and adjust the wash accordingly — the dirtier the plate, the better the wash.

Neither I nor my son — who is only nine years old — are allowed to deviate from these rules at any time.

If we do, he gets extremely cross and will holler through the house: ‘Who has put the dinner plates at the front of the dishwasher?’ It could be either my son or me, as neither of us pays any attention to his petty rules.

Dishwashers are lifesavers that clean your dishes, whichever way you load it. If it’s getting a bit full, then you push and pull them around a bit and eventually they all fit in there somehow. I have never had a problem, so why does he?

Only last week, I stormed out of the kitchen after he took out all the dishes I had loaded and reloaded them because I hadn’t done them ‘correctly’.

I shouted as I left: ‘Fine, in future I will just leave them on the countertop and you, and your obsessive behaviour, can load the whole lot to your heart’s content.’

I think the way you stack a dishwasher says a lot about your personality type: those with obsessive tendencies like everything to be done a certain way. chaotic, creative people, like myself, take delight in chucking dishes into a machine and seeing them magically come out clean later.

Just don’t get me started on his obsession with the recycling bins.

‘The way you stack says a lot about you r personality