We do wash some items by hand, like knives and some glasses and all pots and pans. I did all our dishes by hand for 8 years. I'll be honest, it's nice with the dishwasher :)

We need the lights, sadly. The best option would be if we could install some other lights and just use them, but right now I don't know how we could go about that. Will ask my husband to see if he can figure out a way.

We don't pay for heating water, just as we don't have a washing machine, that's all done on a complex level for all 100 apartments. UGH! I'm not happy with being a renter at all! Actually, we don't pay for our actual water use at all, but a general fee for the entire building's use.

Thank you for the exercise and your response. It really got me thinking!