2. Stuffing as much stuff in the dishwasher as possible is not going to be effective, efficient, or smart. You should however, load as much as you can into the dishwasher without anything touching. If it touches, it will not get as clean. If you can, stagger or overlap small plates. This will help them get cleaner and it will make it so you can fit more into your dishwasher.
3. If you are not going to hand wash delicate dishes and stem ware, you should be sure to put them on the top rack. The water that reaches the top rack is cooler, and not as intense, so while you will still get a nice clean, the water and heat will not be so intense that it damages your items.
4. Anything you put on the top rack should face down. The water that cleans the items on the top rack comes from below, so for the best cleaning, you should fit things as tightly together as possible, but facing downward.
5. On the bottom rack, you will want to face everything toward the center, but be sure that nothing blocks the sprayer, otherwise the top rack will not get clean.
6. Don't place items over the prongs on the upper rack. Glasses and mugs should go in the middle row between the prongs. Bowls should be placed down in the center, this will get the centers clean. This may appear to take up more space, and not be maximum efficiency, but not having to rewash is more efficient than running fewer things.
7. Place all cooking utensils on either the top or bottom rack. However, no matter which rack you put them on, be sure to put them lying down. Do not put them in the cutlery bin.
8. Forks and spoons should be placed in the cutlery bin. However, do not put them all in the same way. Mix up spoons and forks, put some in one way, turn some over and put them in the other way. This will ensure that a spoon does not sit inside another spoon and make it unclean. If they nest, they won't get as clean. So, load up as many as you want, just be sure to alternate them.
As you can see, to get maximum capacity you must make sure that what you wash gets clean. If you don't, you will be wasting energy, soap, and water rewashing and recleaning items. So, if you follow the above eight steps you will have a dishwasher loaded the right way for the best clean. You will know when to add more, and when to run it later. Also, just so you know, you can wash silver in the dishwasher, it will only damage it if you use it daily and wash it daily in a dishwasher. If you want to be super careful, go ahead, hand wash it. However, be sure you follow the same tips above when washing silver or other special dishes and cutlery.