Cooking at home can be a nutritious and inexpensive way to feed your family—especially if you’re on a budget. Unfortunately, all that cooking does have one downside, and that’s all the dishes that end up in the sink at the end of the meal. Dishes that have to be washed every single day of the week until the person washing them wants to pull out their own hair. There is a holiday that at least attempts to give people a break from the never-ending supply of dishes piled up in their sinks. This holiday is aptly named National No Dirty Dishes Day, and it’s observed on May 18th annually.

Some Amazing Facts About Doing Dishes

You probably didn’t think that we could come up with trivia about dishes, but we were able to find a ton of it. Facts that will give everyone something to talk about as they celebrate National No Dirty Dishes Day. The following facts are sure to delight everyone reading them.

The Dishwasher’s Been Around Since The Mid-19th Century

In 1850, Joel Houghton was granted a patent for the first mechanical dishwashing device. This dishwasher was made out of wood and was cranked by hand. This caused water to spray onto the dishes. Unfortunately, the problem with this device was that it was not only unreliable but also slow.

A few years later, in 1865, another hand-crank dishwasher was patented by L.A. Alexander. However, this device was also unreliable and wasn’t very practical. It also wasn’t widely accepted, so most people would have to wait until 1886 to get a reliable hand-cranked dishwasher. This is when Josephine Cochrane invented it along with mechanic George Butters. Her invention would be unveiled at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair and was originally called the Lavadora, but its name had to be changed to Lavaplatos because there was already a machine with the name Lavadora. The first electric dishwasher was invented in 1929 by Miele—a German manufacturer.

Household Dishwashers Didn’t Become A Thing Until 1950

Another interesting fact is that while it was invented during the 19th century, it wouldn’t be until 1950 that it would enter most people’s homes. Sure, there were some homes that had dishwashers, but the majority of dishwashers sold in the U.S. were to hotels and restaurants. It wouldn’t be until after World War II that dishwashers became a common household appliance.

How To Observe National No Dirty Dishes Day

It’s easy and relaxing to observe this holiday. All you have to do is avoid doing dishes on this day. And the best way to avoid doing dishes is not to make them in the first place. How do you avoid making dishes? You can avoid having to do dishes in a number of different ways. You can go out to eat that day, you can eat at someone else’s house, or you can use paper plates. No matter how you manage to get out of doing dishes for this day, however, be sure to use the hashtag #NationalNoDirtyDishesDay to spread the word about it to everyone else in the world. Let’s all celebrate a break from doing dishes—at least for this one day.