More dinnerware is chipped at the sink than anywhere else, and the causes are consistent.
Where the Damage Happens
A ceramic edge striking a tap, a metal sink or another plate.
Stainless steel sinks are the worst, being hard and unforgiving. Ceramic sinks are worse again.
Most chips happen while lowering a piece into a full sink, when it knocks something already submerged and invisible.
What Prevents It
- A rubber or plastic mat in the base of the sink
- A plastic washing-up bowl rather than the bare sink
- Washing glassware and ceramics separately from pans
- Never soaking a pile of plates together
- Emptying the sink before adding more
- A tap guard, or awareness of where the tap is
Advice to skip abrasives and use warm water with bicarbonate, of the kind given at https://famiware.net/, addresses the surface; the mat addresses the edges.
Cutlery Is the Hidden Culprit
Knives and forks submerged in a bowl of water are invisible and hard.
Washing cutlery first or last, rather than mixed in with plates, removes a large share of chipping.
Temperature
Very hot water on a cold plate is a temperature change, and it matters most for thin porcelain and anything already damaged.
Warm rather than scalding, and never a hot dish straight into cold water.
Draining
A crowded rack lets pieces lean and fall, and rims resting on hard wire chip.
Space between items, and a rack that drains rather than holding a pool of water.
Never Steel Wool
It dulls glaze permanently, and the dulled patch then stains faster.
Handle Wet Pieces Carefully
Soapy ceramic is slippery, which is why plates are dropped at sinks.
Dry Rims Last
Where damage shows first.
Wash Glassware First
In clean water, before anything greasy or heavy goes in.
One Piece at a Time
Into an empty sink, which removes the invisible collision.
Check the Tap Position
It is the hardest thing in the sink and it is at plate height.
Dry Rather Than Stack Wet
Water trapped between stacked plates marks glaze over time.
A Bowl in the Sink
The single cheapest change, and it prevents most chipping.
Soak Rather Than Scrub
Time removes what force would damage.
Never Pile in Water
Which is where invisible collisions happen.