I’ve lived without a dishwasher multiple times in my adult life. We actually just sold our house that had a decent sized kitchen and moved into a small apartment on the other side of the country and now the mess is even more concentrated and there’s no dishwasher. So our system is even more of a necessity now lol

Only use ours on Holidays. I clean as I cook so by the time we eat there's only the dishes left and that's 3 .. costs me zero in electric and I know if they've been cleaned or not.