I seem to recall seeing something about a mod that makes sims gain cleaning skill while washing dishes by hand in a sink, and I've recently decided I want it in my game, but apparently I cannot find it. (Did I just imagine such a mod ever existing?)

I think sims already gain some cleaning skills by doing dishes (and doing general cleaning). Says so in the Wiki, anyway: http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/Cleaning - I'm assuming doing the dishes go under the category of tidying up messes. The skill gain probably isn't that great, since the activity doesn't take much time.

They don't get the little skill gaining bar above their heads while washing dishes (they do when mopping floors, cleaning counters, raking leaves, etc, etc), and I've certainly never seen a sim max their skill from washing dishes, so I just assumed it wasn't a skill building activity. So you're saying it's one of those "hidden" things like sims building body skill by playing catch?

Could be. I've tried doing some research, but I only found some vague "why don't they get cleaning skills from dishes" and "but they already get cleaning skills from dishes." The sims rarely stand there very long, so I doubt they'd be able to max out their skills on the activity. They are meant to get some cleaning skills from cleaning up around the house, so it could very well be a hidden and very slow skill gain.

They can max a skill doing anything that raises the skill, though. I once a a sim max cleaning skill by cleaning a toilet. They just need to be nearly done the last point, and whatever they do that raises the skill will be the last bit that pushes them over the top. I didn't mean a sim should go from 0 to 10 by washing one stack of dishes.

And I just always assumed that "cleaning up around the house" meant things where we actually see the skill bar, like mopping puddles and scrubbing sinks/counters/etc.

I once had a weird glitch wherein a sim gained a cleaning point for washing the windows. I don't think that's supposed to happen, but if it is, there wasn't a visible skill progress bar.

Just like simmer22, the only thing I could find was that they apparently do gain cleaning skills from dishes. Maybe it's so fast, the game doesn't have time to bring the bar up or there's something preventing it from doing so.

If that's the case, they really must not be gaining skills from making beds!

It's weird that they don't seem to gain cleaning skills from making beds when just swiping their hand to magically clean the activity table adds to their skill points.

We could test it out by making the sims make several beds and clean up several dishes, then use a mod or SimPE to see if it increased the skill, but I'm still cleaning up my own Downloads folder and real-life residence.

Yeah...this sounds like yet another testing thing I don't want to do because I'd rather just be playing the game. But it could be at least a tiny bit amusing to have Dishy Wash and Mackey Bed move into my little test hood where Testy Tester and Beta Stuff already reside...

Same here. They can gain cleaning skill easily enough through a variety of different methods anyway, so we can put this off for a while.

Testo and Testa are still reeling from the effects of more dangerous fires (most dangerous version) combined with the burglar sets fire mod. I'll give them a break for a while.