The idea for this blog came about from water spots on our dishes. Yeah, really.
You see, my wife and I were having trouble with our dishwasher leaving water spots on our glasses. So, we did what most people do: bought some Rinse Aid. You know, the very expensive blue liquid that keeps your dishwasher from spotting your glasses.
But what was troublesome to us was that we live in an area with very clean, normal, soft water. Not in an area with high mineral content or hard water. Plus, after a while of this, the glasses started spotting again.
We thought, well, the dishwasher is about nine years old, so maybe we’re going to have to bite the bullet and buy a new dishwasher. So I called my friend who sold us the dishwasher; then my wife and I went down to his store and said, “We’re probably going to have to buy a new dishwasher”. He asked us how much detergent we were using and I said, “We’re using what the dishwasher owner’s manual says to use”.
“That’s your problem,” my friend said, “You’re using too much detergent.” We looked at him and said, “Huh?” (we were kind of left speechless). He replied, “The dishwasher companies are tied in with the detergent companies, so they always recommend more than you need. Try using about half the detergent.”
So we did. And it worked! Our dishes still got clean, we didn’t get sick or anything. PLUS… I thought, “Do I really now need the very expensive blue liquid spot stuff?” So we stopped using the very expensive blue liquid spot stuff. And it worked! Our glasses didn’t spot. And we’re still using our original dishwasher (it’s now about eleven years old).
So not only do we now use half the detergent, we have stopped using the blue liquid additive and are saving a boat-load of money. That also got us thinking about what other areas of our lives and homes could this principle of using about half apply?
There are quite a few; and that’s what has inspired this blog. I thought there might be other people out there who have discovered the principle of halves. So we’re looking for your input too. I’ll be posting my thoughts and discoveries and I encourage you to post yours, too. Hey, I might even turn this into a book.
Now if I could just disable the “Rinse Aid Empty” light on our dishwasher…