so many dishes to wash...

I don't know about you, but I'm not a huge fan of washing the dishes. This creates a problem, because I don't like having dirty dishes in the sink. A conundrum, one might say. I could have my kids do it, and they do, for the most part. (The little one has to learn a bit more patience so he can stop plunking the glass plates in the sink.) Or, I could just abandon plates entirely and have everyone eat directly off placemats (and, don't think that hasn't crossed my mind!).

Once I do rinse and load the dishes (which happens about 50 times a day), I don't love the "measure the detergent and/or rinse aid" part of the activity, because I typically overflow the little detergent opening and then have to wipe up excess powder, or the lid doesn't close and I have to fight with it, arggggghhhh. And, even though I have an Energy Star appliance, I always feel badly if it's not full full when I run it. But, if it's too full full, the dishes don't seem to get as dry as they should (especially those little tupperware-ish containers I use for the kids' lunches). I know you know what I'm talking about!

Dishwashing is one of those chores that just doesn't do it for me. Now, if we were talking about laundry... well, that's a whole other ballgame... I love that. But, I digress...

My girlfriend finally helped guide me to a kind of dish utopia when she recommended Ecover Dishwashing Tablets. No phosphates. No chemicals. These little individual tablets are fantastic. Just use one per load. It's the perfect eco-friendly detergent that really cleans the glasses and dishes. The Ecover Rinse-Aid also helps with spotty glassware and silverware.

I know what you're thinking-- "Modern Eco Mom... why are you creating more trash with the little tablet wrappers?" I answer by telling you that the wrappers are recylclable (ha!) and that the tablets help me not waste excess detergent (double ha!).

You can find Ecover at most major supermarkets, and I'd recommend buying 2 boxes at a time.

Happy dish cleaning.