[RedDevil]

Yeah. It isn't just dishes. We hand-washed all twice a day or so, and the sauce pans etc. typically need precleaning or they'll spoil the dishwater. I'm pretty certain we used more water than our dishwasher does.

Before I met my wife I often kept it simple. One plate for breakfast, one plate for dinner, one pan if it wasn't pizza, one glass. I had a lot of plates and stuff, I always cleared the chunks and bad stuff but from there it could easily wait in a pile for a week. (let's say week )

We've got kids now and the dishwasher just beeped - it has done its job for the weekend.
It yielded 24 plates and 1 saucer, 2 big bowls, 8 small bowls, 1 cooking pan and lid, 22 knives, 14 forks, 5 spoons, 4 spatulas, a mixer, 6 glasses, 5 mugs and beakers, 2 cheese slicers and some odds and ends.
Mind you this was a relatively small one because the kids have taken a fancy for plastic drinking glasses with swimming fish in the base that can't be dishwashed and my wife was off for a trip with her choir + simple cooking (pancakes!).
If I had to do it by hand it would have taken me an hour at least. One sink-full would have cooled down beyond being usable, even if it were clean enough.