Dishes when you live in an earthquake prone country

Earlier in the week I felt a bit of a tremor late one morning. It wasn't a big one at all - the lampshade barely shook. But these type of quakes are relatively frequent and always serve as a reminder how we don't know when the next big one will be. Therefore, we have to be prepared at all times. 

A small kitchen with a sink in a log cabin.

Before the Tohoku triple disaster in 2011 I was pretty alert about earthquakes. But since 2011 I have adopted some customs I may never have had if I didn't experience such a large earthquake.

For one, I never leave my dishes unwashed at night. A liberty I would and could take in my home country from time to time. But in Japan, never.

Why? Because after 2011 we were without water for days on end. First, water just didn't come out of the tap. Then, it did but it was brown. And it wasn't suitable for washing dishes or laundry for that matter. If you don't have dirty dishes built up in the sink, it reduces stress. Thing is, you possibly won't use your dishes after an earthquake (due to no water or threat of no water), but that's not the point! 

Two hacks if you are stuck without clean dishes and / or don't have water so you don't want to use dishes, during or after an earthquake. One; use paper cups, plates and disposable items. Two; wrap cling film over plates and you can just throw the cling film away after and reuse the plates.

Are you the same? Do you avoid letting dirty dishes build up due to the chance of an earthquake?