{Tip of the Day} Dishwasher Help **edited

Ok, if your like me and live in one of the 16 or so States (Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin) that have banned Phosphate back in July (although Casca*de and other companies have banned it from all of their products now-so other states basically do not get it either) and you have hard water - your dishes have come out dirty, icky and your pots look grey, and your black utensils have a white film on them, as do your glasses. Basically they look like this:

Gross huh?!

Well, to help our enviroment out- they have taken it out of the dishwasher detergent. I am all about helping our enviroment, I recycle more now than I have in the past, and I try to use natural cleaners, but I have to say this is annoying. First I thought it was my dishwasher, I mean I use the same soap I always have. Then I thought maybe I didn't have enough rinse aid in there? Yet for months it didn't change, it only became worse till I saw a news clip on others complaining too. "Way to announce to us consumers of the change back in July people!" So, it was a relief to know I was not the only one and why, but now what?

I just learned a few new tricks to help:

**You use these WITH your regular soap.

1. Try a teaspoon of baking soda in your wash.
2. Try a teaspoon of white vinegar.

If 1 & 2 do not work enough:

Try 1 T of Baking Soda mixed with 1 T of Borax

Now if all those fail I read that you can buy TSP (Trisodium Phosphate) at Low*s (hate promoting but it's the only place that sells it I am told) and use a 1 1/2 - 2 tablespoons of it in your wash to replace the phosphate.

Critics say that most of the phosphate we use gets filtered out from the water treatment plants anyway, so? It's up to you how you feel about it, not judging, and I hope no one judges me either. :)

Tip of the Day! Hope it helps.

**Editing to add:

None of the above tips worked for me, although I have not tried the TSP.

What did work was....

Lemi-shine

This stuff has no phosphates in it either, but it worked better than all the other stuff I had tried. In fact it removed a lot of the white build-up I had on some of my dishes, it was awesome! I used it in the main wash container of my dishwasher, and put my regular soap in the pre-wash container. If you do not have a pre-wash container, use half your soap, half Lemi-shine in the main wash container.

I have very hard water- some day I hope to have a water softner, but in the mean time I recommend this. It works in the dishwasher with your regular cycle, and you can use it to clean your washing maching, garbage disposal, or other places with hard water issues.



Good luck!