How Have I Never Bought Dishwasher Detergent?

(www.sass-pants.com) — We ran out of dishwasher detergent last week and I had this really bizarre realization: I’m 27 years old, on my second home, and have been out of my parents’ house for going on 9 years, yet I have never bought dishwasher detergent in my life.  

This is particularly strange because of the two homes we’ve owned in 4 years, both had dishwashers, which we used regularly. Prior to that, we lived in small, cheap apartments that didn’t have level floors, much less the luxury of a fancy machine to wash our plates and silverware for us. We were lucky to have a four-burner stove with a single working burner.

When we moved into our townhouse 4 years ago, we used the previous owner’s leftover dishwasher detergent for about a month and then purchased a water filtration system that came with a 5-year supply of dishwasher detergent, dish soap (for washing dishes in the sink), hand soap, shampoo, concentrated cleaning fluid, glass cleaner, and bar soap.

Apparently we were a little generous with the portions when we ran the dishwasher since we ran out in 4 years instead of 5, but that’s beside the point. I needed to buy dishwasher detergent for the first time in my life and didn’t know what to do.

We didn’t realize we were out until we were COMPLETELY out, so my brilliant husband googled to find household alternatives to dishwasher detergent. (When he recounted for me what happened when he and his college roommate washed a soap-in-the-handle scrubby brush in their dishwasher back in the day — explosive suds everywhere — we agreed regular dish soap was a risk we weren’t willing to take.) Baking soda and Borax or dish powder with white vinegar as a rinse agent, on the other hand, sounded great.

That night, we ran the dishwasher with just vinegar as the green cleaning website suggested, and on Thursday, I went to Costco and picked up the cheapest powdered dish detergent I could find along with a 12-lb bag of Arm & Hammer, brought it home, and mixed it up 50/50. Total cost: $11. Estimated usage: at least 12 months at 1 tbsp/load. We already had more than a gallon of white vinegar for other cleaning.

It was a momentous occasion, this dishwasher detergent purchase. And judging by the remaining levels of laundry detergent and cleaning fluid, there are at least two more momentous occasions to follow in the next few months.

Real adulthood, here I come.

Contents Copyright © 2009 Kristen King

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