Mildew

When I was little, before we had a dishwasher, my mom would make my brother and I do the dishes. He would usually dry. She would yell at him for not drying the dishes completely, saying that mildew would form on them. To this day, in my own apartment, I won't put a dish away until I'm sure every drop of water is off it, and even if there is just a moist streak left on a plate, and the dish towel is too wet to do its job anymore, I will leave that plate in the drying rack for fear of opening my cabinets the next day and finding creeping mildew on all my dishes.

I realized while watching Gossip Girl today (no connection) that in all probability, my brother was carelessly swiping at each dish only once and putting dripping wet dishes away. That's the kind of kid he was. I'm pretty sure now that if I put a plate into the stack in the cabinet with one streak--or even two streaks--of moistness, that it will dry on its own and not produce mildew.

Pretty sure...but I'm also pretty sure I'll keep obsessing about whether my dishes are dry anyway. Just in case.