A household dishwasher includes a dishwasher cavity for accommodating items to be washed, a controller apparatus configured to perform one wash program from a number of wash programs for washing the items to be washed arranged in the dishwasher cavity, an optical sensor configured to capture an optical sensor signal of the items to be washed arranged in the dishwasher cavity, and an evaluating unit configured to ascertain a loading state of the dishwasher cavity as a function of the captured optical sensor signal of the items to be washed.