We put almost everything in our dishwasher. Some stuff (like the metal mesh filters over our extractor) come up cleaner than you can do by hand even if you scrub them for half an hour. The only things I don't put in the dishwasher are really big baking trays (just because I'd have to reconfigure the inside of the dishwasher and a few would fill it up) and a few very delicate things.
There's only me and my wife, but we both like to cook, we occasionally have guests, and it's no problem filling the machine every day or two. If I'm on the ball, everything goes straight into the machine and we don't have dirty dishes floating around in the sink and worktops.
It's just one of those things you think you don't really need, until you have one and realise how convenient they are.