Who is doing the dishes?

I always knew using the dishwasher was a waste of water and electricity, but the ease of it (or so we thought) made us frequent users. Recently, I have been cooking a lot, like nearly 5-6 times in a week. Which meant, nearly every single day the dishwasher would run. I would have prep dishes, dishes I cooked with, dishes we ate on, dishes from any leftovers in the fridge & the dishes we took to work for lunch. This was a daily load. And then, came the awakening. My mom visited, and for 11 whole days we didn't use the dish washer even once. She washed dishes as she cooked which compelled us to wash our own plates and cups. Observing her I realized, it shouldn't be that hard to do .. and we should really be saving all that water and electricity. I took the oath, will try and not use dishwasher for everyday stuff. Only probably when we have company over. What I have learnt is that I have become a lot more efficient with my dish usage while cooking. I don't unnecessarily take out a lot of prep dishes cause I know I will have to hand wash them all. Also, I clean as I cook. As the onions sautee, I will rinse the bowl in which I kept the chopped onions. By the time my dal was simmering with the spices, I would have finished washing the pressure cooker in which I had cooked that dal. And when I am done topping that sabji with coriander leaves, the cutting board and knife is immediately rinsed. I am absolutely loving how efficient I have become. I have 2 plates out in the drying rack and we now use the same 2 plates for dinner everyday. Not only have I now saved electricity and precious water, but time too in putting dishes back and taking dishes out. I have read somewhere that on an average dishwashers use 40 liters of water per load .. Yikes! I am glad to have made this little change!