How to Wash Up: An Independent Learning Course

Learning Outcomes

• To ensure that cutlery and crockery are available for everyone to use
• To keep a clean kitchen environment
• To reduce the likelihood of infection, germs and shared illnesses

In this unit we will learn how to effectively wash up a teacup and teaspoon.

The Teaspoon

1. Having used the teaspoon to make your cup of tea or coffee don’t just leave it in a cup of cold water or lying on the draining board.
2. Take the sponge, run it under hot water, get a drip of washing up liquid (there must be detergent for a thorough wash) onto the scrubby side of the sponge.
3. Rub the teaspoon with the rough side of the sponge. This ensures that the tea and coffee stains are removed and that the spoon is thoroughly cleaned.
4. A good indication of a clean spoon is the shine that appears on the stainless steel.
5. Finally, and very importantly rinse the spoon in hot water to remove the detergent. If you run it under hot water you will also find that when you leave it to dry in the cutlery drainer that it will dry off quicker and have fewer streaks.

The Cup

When you have finished your cup of tea or coffee it will not wash itself if you leave it in the sink or near the sink. When this does miraculously happen you will find with some investigation that someone else has washed it for you.

When washing a cup the aim is to eradicate all traces of the previous drink that it held and to sterilise it for the next person to use.

1. Run the hot tap until the water comes out hot (the boiler is rubbish so this may take some time).
2. Fill the cup with hot water and rinse any dregs out.
3. Squirt a little bit of washing up liquid into the cup, fill again with hot water so that the detergent foams.
4. Using the sponge rub the detergent on both surfaces of the cup (inside and out). Check that the tea / coffee tidemark is being rubbed off. Also check under irritating lips that may have stubborn stains. Since these are not generally bone china cups it is ok to scrub them with the rough side of the sponge.
5. Once the cup is entirely clean (including those hard to remove tea stains on the bottom of the cup) rinse it in hot water. As with the teaspoon, hot water rinsing is important because it means the cup will dry off quicker and not get streaks or water spots so easily.

Since your hands are wet you may as well run the sponge over the surfaces of the sink – this will only take a second and will leave the environment that much more improved for those who come after you.

Also available in this series: how to clean a microwave, how to make a lovely cup of tea, how to get rid of rancid milk.


Lets hope the office kitchen slobs take note next week.