We’re proud owners of the new middle class must-have! People with TWO dishwashers reveal why they’d ‘never go back’ to just one (even if people do call them lazy)
- Here FEMAIL meets five homeowners who have installed double dishwashers
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Forget double ovens – it now seems that owning two dishwashers is the hot new interiors trend sweeping the UK.
Yesterday Yorkshire-based kitchen company KC Design House claimed that 35 per cent of their customers have been requesting two of the household appliances in their homes.
Meanwhile, the percentage of households in the UK with a dishwasher rose from 18 per cent in 1995 to 49 per cent in 2018.
Speaking about the sudden rise in double dishwashers, real estate agent and TikTok star Tanya Baker agreed that twin dishwashers have replaced the ‘two cooker’ trend.
The expert told FEMAIL: ‘I have seen and heard of this […] as more and more people love to host nowadays and invest in making their family spaces very open and airy.
Pictured: Jamey Howard’s double dishwasher set-up in his home in Cheshire. The delivery manager, 45, says it has made entertaining guests an ‘absolute breeze’
Estate agent and TikTok star Tanya Baker (pictured) told FEMAIL that twin dishwashers have replaced the ‘two cooker’ trend
‘Once they have that gorgeous large space, they want to enjoy it with family and friends – with that comes a lot of cleaning up and so [installing two dishwashers] makes sense really!’
Here FEMAIL meets five homeowners who have installed double dishwashers – and they all insist it’s not as extravagant as you might think.
‘It’s brilliant for a neat freak like me’
When Sara Mungeam’s sister Michelle bought two dishwashers for her London home 15 years ago, the property developer, 51, couldn’t wrap her head around it at first.
However, the mother-of-two – who is currently renovating her new house in Peckham – quickly came round to her sister’s way of thinking and decided to try it out in their new kitchen.
In mid-September, Sara and her husband Pete purchased two £1,000 dishwashers and had them fitted on either side of their kitchen sink so they were integrated with the light wooden cabinets.
She explained: ‘I did not realise how utterly amazing it would be, I am a total convert. I would not go back.
In their previous home, Sara says the family would often have lots of washing up taking up space on the counter top – something she didn’t want to happen in her new ‘show home’.
Pictured: The double dishwasher set-up in Sara Mungeam’s newly renovated kitchen in Peckham, South-East London
Pictured: Property developer Sara boasts almost 40,000 Instagram followers. The mother-of-two has been documenting the family’s house renovation
The mother – who boasts almost 40,000 followers on her Instagram @houseobsessed – continued: ‘We never used to put pans and stuff in the dishwasher so we were always washing those up and leaving them on the side.
‘It was partly a space thing. Now it just doesn’t matter.’
But doesn’t the double dishwasher set-up cause their household bills to skyrocket?
Well, Sara says the family usually only ever use one of the dishwashers once a day – meaning the other one is effectively used for storage until it’s ready.
She continued: ‘You’re just constantly alternating between and there’s never any s*** on the sides. It is just brilliant.
Sara’s two dishwashers are have been discreetly installed in her sleek, modern kitchen and are situated on either side of the sink
‘For a neat freak like me, it has been utterly brilliant and it’s one of the biggest game-changers in our kitchen.’
Describing how it’s made her kitchen a much more ‘pleasurable’ space, the mother added: ‘It was always quite rare that the kids’ stuff would make it into the dishwasher in the first place – yet alone getting them to empty the dishwasher.
‘But now they’ve usually got an empty dishwasher to put their plates rather than leaving them in the sink.’
‘I had four dishwashers at one point – people thought I was spoiled!’
At one point, Sara’s sister Michelle Clarke, 53, was the proud owner of four dishwashers – having installed them in her London residence and a second property in the countryside.
Pictured: Michelle Clarke’s old kitchen at her London home. Like her sister, the mother-of-two had two dishwashers which were discreetly incorporated into the design
Pictured: Working mother-of-two Michelle Clark, who first had double dishwashers installed two years ago
The mother-of-two told FEMAIL that she had hated never being able to fit everything she needed to in her single dishwasher.
She explained: ‘I sort of found that one wasn’t enough. It really annoyed me that I could have a dinner party and be left with stuff the next day.
‘Or there would never be enough room for all the plates. It just drove me insane. So I thought, if I’ve got the space then I’m going to have two dishwashers.’
Looking back at her family’s reaction at the time, Michelle said: ‘Sara was like, “why on earth are you doing that?”
‘I think everyone thought I was a bit spoilt because Sara and I grew up being the dishwashers in our household. But then they saw it action and realised it was a really good idea.’
After downsizing to a smaller property in recent years, Michelle now only has one dishwasher – but hopes she’ll get a second again when she renovates her kitchen.
She added: ‘It sounds so precious but once you’ve had one, you get used your system. Of course I can survive with one dishwasher, I’m not saying I can’t.
‘But if I were given the choice, I would have two again. I’m a complete neat freak so it really bothers me if they haven’t unloaded the dishwasher and there’s stuff left on the side.
‘Whereas, I never had anything on the sides when I had two dishwashers. There was always one you could use.’
‘Close friends thought I was nuts and other assume I’m lazy – but now people understand why we did it’
Pictured: Danielle Kemp’s double dishwashers at her home in Essex. The mother said: ‘I now couldn’t imagine now having the two.’
Danielle (pictured) and her partner Liam installed the dishwashers themselves to cut back on costs
When Danielle Kemp and her partner Liam Smith, both 36, moved into their new Essex bungalow in May, twin dishwashers were at their top of their wishlist.
Danielle – who runs the Instagram account @project_buxton – told FEMAIL: ‘We have lived with a separate kitchen and an open plan kitchen in previous properties, with and without dishwashers, so we really got to know how they work for us a family.
‘Whilst with a traditional closed off kitchen the mess doesn’t matter, you can just shut the door. In an open plan [one like ours], everything is there on show.’
The mother-of-one continued: ‘We entertain a lot, and always found we had a huge pile on the side, which was unsightly and smelly in the open plan space. We couldn’t just shut the door.
‘We had the space in our new kitchen so thought why not!?’
The couple bought their kitchen – which has been kitted out with marble counters and brass fixtures – through Wren and purchased the two appliances for £798 altogether.
As they fitted the dishwashers themselves on either side of their sink, the couple – who say they only spend five minutes a day loading them – also saved themselves an additional cost.
Having used them over the past six months, Danielle says she couldn’t be happier with her double dishwashers – especially when she’s entertaining guests or tired after a long day.
The family’s stylish new kitchen has been kitted out with marble counters and a matching splashback and brass fixtures
She explained: ‘Entertaining is effortless, and there’s no clearing up once everyone is gone…we can just relax.
‘Pots go straight in after cooking, some times with the dishwasher going straight on. Plates after main course go in the other, with glasses, dessert bowls, coffee cups.
‘When you have 6-8 people dining it soon adds up […] if you’ve had a long day at work and don’t want to unload the dishwasher, you can just use the other. It’s not the reason I bought two but that’s an additional benefit I hadn’t considered.
‘I now couldn’t imagine now having the two.’
Although Danielle couldn’t be happier with her decision, the mother said that she’s received some cruel comments on Instagram – calling her ‘lazy’ or ‘mad’ or questioning how much the family eats.
She added: ‘People assume its’s out of laziness, as a couple we are far from lazy. It’s a luxury I’ll admit, but we made it fit our budget and it really works for us.
‘Even close friends thought I was nuts. My response always was, “come round for dinner, and I’ll show you how it works”. Plenty now see why we did it.
‘And to be frank, its my kitchen, and it’s what I wanted. Every decision I make in my home is for me and my family, and I’d encourage everyone to make decision based on this rather than trends.’
‘I hated having dirty things on the sides’
Pictured: The navy double dishwashers in the kitchen of Lauren Whitehorn’s Bedfordshire home.
Mother-of-twins Lauren, 40, shares snippets of the family’s home on her Instagram account @the.hoo.are.you
Lauren Whitehorn, 40, from Bedfordshire, has owned two double dishwashers for the past two-and-a-half years and can’t rave about them enough.
The mother-of-two – who lives with her four-year-old twins and partner Nick, 42 – told FEMAIL that she ‘would do it again in a heartbeat’.
She added: ‘Outside of entertaining, I wanted to have one that was clean and one dirty to keep that cycle going: I hate it when you want to stick something in the dishwasher only to find it’s full with clean stuff!
‘Last Christmas, we realised how heavily we rely on them when both were taken out of action on Boxing Day when we had the large family gathering as a sodding rat had chewed through both the power cable and the waste water pipes. It was a nightmare!
‘As we have two, it’s easier [than it used to be]! We can unload bit by bit, rather than having to do it to reload.
‘It’s a touch extravagant, but haven’t had any real criticism! I know how insanely lucky we are to have the space and funds to do it.’
‘It makes entertaining a breeze’
Pictured: Jamey Howard, 45, who works as a delivery manager, playfully poses with his double dishwashers in his Cheshire home
Jamey Howard is another proud owner of double dishwashers who has never looked back.
The delivery manager, 45, from Cheshire, had his appliances installed in 2019 on either side of his kitchen sink.
Raving about the benefits to FEMAIL, he explained: ‘The older I get, the less I care about ‘going out’, I’d much rather have friends over and host.
‘And with double dishies entertaining is an absolute breeze, the clean up is always the main downside to having people over but now it’s a cinch.
‘I would highly recommend!’
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