As much as I love soaking my hands in a big sink full of soapy dishwater, I am among you other die-hard dishwasher lovers! I fill ours throughout the day, placing plates in every other 'slot', bowls in the back, and plastic and other light items on top, then just running a light cycle. It's rare that I will run a regular cycle (only if I've done a lot of cooking that day), but it's also rare that I won't be able to fill the dishwasher in a day. When that happens I can always find items that could use a dishwasher cycle and I thrown them in (our dish drying rack, metal sponge/scrubbie holder, the scrubbie itself, the spinning plate from the microwave, the drain cover things for each side of the double sink, etc).
When we were looking at this house after making our offer I said to Jean, 'Oh, I am SO glad that we're buying a house with a dishwasher!' He replied, 'But...our current place has a dishwasher'. 'I know' I said, 'I'm just really excited that we will still have one!'
Mandy