I'm in a household with four other people, and getting dishes done pisses me off. I like washing my own dishes, and I personally think that everyone should have their own set of dishes that they are responsible for. They can put them in the dishwasher if they want to, but I'm tired of dealing with everyone leaving dried-on sauces, rice, old milk remains, and all sorts of crap lying around.
The dishwasher is pretty good, but people leave so much food on when they put it in that it gets messy really easily. Sometimes I look at the cups on the top rack and it has food from the plates sprayed onto it that didn't get clean enough, so when it dried, it dried onto it. What the hell, right?
I use a regular sponge+scrub thing for almost everything, plus whatever dishwashing liquid was cheap at the time. I try to go for simple things, because rinsing immediately after eating generally means everything comes off cleanly. The water goes as hot as it can get, and I just clean under running water (unless I'm cleaning a large number of dishes).
UghRochester, I don't think your dad is crazy for not trusting shampoo. I think he's crazy apart from that, but there are a lot of questionable additives in hair and other 'beauty products' that people could do without.
I would be way more efficient with my dishes because sometimes I'll use a cup and just rinse it out to use later, or say a plate for cutting vegetables, but then certain people who like to feel busy always come along and stack it in with the messy dishes and all is lost. I swear I have to get a new cup every time I want a drink of water.