Few things in life give more pleasure than the sound of a labor-saving device, and a kitty

 

Happiness is any machine at work

In a watch's fine machine,

The added movements which declare,

How full the moon, how old the year,

Derive their secondary power

From that which simply points the hour.

-- Matthew Prior (1664-1721)

Happiness is a new clothes washing machine

GE Top Loader GTWN5650F2WS, a cross between an old fashioned agitator type and a high efficiency. You can fill it to the level you choose, or let the machine do the choosing for you. Retails for $699 and replaces a fancy Whirlpool Cabrio which failed in its seventh year. Now that I've caught up on all my laundry, I can state that I'm very pleased with the ease of use, performance and appearance. And Lowe's does a great job from in store experience through installation.

Best product yet for your dishwasher: OxiClean Extreme Power Crystals

 

I'm almost finished with my first bottle of OxiClean Dishwasher Detergent 4x Extreme Power Crystals and I can say my dishes haven't been this sparkling clean in a long time. Even the tea stains in my white porcelain mugs are gone, and the stains in the plastic cutting boards have almost completely disappeared.

This stuff is good, and worth every penny compared to everything else I've tried. Forget the rest, and forget about trying to make your own out of TSP and cheap dish detergent powder. OxiClean has figured out how to beat the Nazis who forced manufacturers to castrate every decent dishwashing product on the market by taking the phosphates out. OxiClean has a bunch of sodium compounds in this product, plus enzymes, which do the trick. I'm not sure which is the silver bullet, but whatever it is, it's working.  

Use in combination with the liquid "Booster" product in your rinse agent dispenser.