Agggh.  I had a dinner party for two couples I didn’t know.  And as they came into my kitchen (why do people arrive early?!) I was loading the dishwasher and I was mortified.  Embarrassed about my dishwasher situation.  It didn’t look clean, it didn’t smell clean, and I am not a big advocate of rinsing.  So you can fill in the blanks…  I am still hoping the smell of the French dinner overpowered the negative stench from the dishwasher.

Until I was approached to try a Dishwasher Cleaner, I didn’t realize there was an option beyond running the dishwasher with a ramekin of lemon and another of baking soda.  (not very effective in my experience).  The day after my dinner party I tried the Finish.  Wow.  The whole washer looked new.  It smelled amazing and clean.  Despite feeling inadequate that I couldn’t have done that before the Finish cleaner, I was thrilled.

Next step?  Washing the silver and crystal.  Please don’t tell my mom (she’s a disaster on the internet so she probably won’t read this anyway), but I had so many dishes to do I put the good stuff in the dishwasher too.  Finish had also sent FINSH JET-DRY Rinse Agent.  I found the little receptacle in the door of the washer (not too technical with these things usually – who knew?!?), and bit my nails as I ran the cycle with the china and crystal.  Shhh.  Apparently the rinse agent is automatically released in the rinse cycle.  And when I opened the washer, everything was dry and sparkly.  No spot-checking necessary.  Thank you gods of rinsing. And Finish.  For the mystery work I never knew about.

Now I’ve only used it once, and it’s recommended that you do it monthly, but the label says it cleans hidden areas.  And from the fresh smell of the dishwasher I would vouch for that.  So I am thus hooked. Monthly Finish, here I come.  I’ll be a rockstar Mom then, right?