I need 50 plates with so many dishwashers

people may think it’s excessive — particularly in the eco sense — but the one in the utility room is a twodrawer unit, so often if it’s only me and graham in the house, we’ll only use one drawer to save water.

We had this five-bedroom, 8,000 sq ft house built for us five years ago and we’ve just put it on the market for £7 million.

Because our son Jamie lives in lA, our plan is to downsize in the uK and buy an apartment near to him. But i imagine in our new house in the uK, we’ll still have more than one dishwasher; i’ve grown so used to it now.

We knew we wanted a large openplan kitchen, with all the appliances hidden behind cupboards. if you walk into ours, you might wonder if it is a kitchen because it’s designed as an entertaining area. it has a fivemetre island with bar stools.

The biggest party we held was for graham’s 50th and we had 60 guests — the last thing you want is pots and plates cluttering worktops. At family events everyone will chip in, loading and unloading the dishwasher. But at special parties i hire caterers who cook, clean and load. i also have a lovely cleaner who comes twice a week and will load or unload it.

Another great benefit is you don’t need to ever put things away — you can lift the clean plates straight from the dishwasher to the table, no more tedious hiding away in cupboards.

Having so many dishwashers means i need lots of place settings. i have more than 50 plates. But i’m still happy to put on the Marigold gloves and do washing-up by hand occasionally, especially if i’ve done scrambled eggs in a pan and know it needs to be scrubbed quickly.

i have some handmade glassware that i will only wash by hand as well as some plates with a metal rim which i don’t want to get cloudy. i regard dishwashers as an essential, not a luxury.