Who needs bleach?

Are you sitting down? You're about to read the most exciting blog post EVER!! Yes, really. It's about ... my dishwasher.

Actually, you might (stress 'might') be interested in this. I know one person who is, so in his honor I'm writing about the joy that clean dishes bring.

So one of the small being-green changes I made when I moved into my apartment was not rinsing my dishes before putting them in the dishwasher, which is a waste of water if they come out clean anyway. And they did! These are dishes that sat in the dishwasher for a week, some with chocolate cake crumbs, others with ring-around-the-coffee-mug stains. And they came out spotless. I'll give partial credit to the new dishwasher in my apartment, which doesn't seem expensive but is clearly not the same caliber as the cheapo dishwasher my old landlord bought that left our glasses foggy.

Now on to credit #2: Trader Joe's dishwashing powder. I told my coworker Mike that I'd bought that instead of conventional powder because it has no bleach and phosphates (which I guess are bad for the environment and "toxic" for our bodies. I haven't bothered to look into what exactly phosphates are and why they're bad, but for now I'll take TJ's word for it). My coworker wanted to know if the environmentally friendly brand would actually work, and I'm happy to report it's solid. In fact, better than solid. I inspected my glasses and there was no grimy film or residual fingerprints. Just sparkling goodness!

If happiness is appreciating the small things in life, then I'm a happy camper (and only partially embarrassed I've taken the time to share this with the world)!