My strategy (especially since I got married) is to just have a single plate and a single bowl. These get washed/rinsed whenever I want to put food in them (I do discard visible waste after a meal). It's helped me both in terms of not having a pile of dishes that scares me and in terms of not getting stuck in analysis paralysis if all the dishes are dirty and I'm hungry. I actually have a visually distinct plate I use and try my best to never use a different plate to eat. I'd recommend giving it a try.