Dishwasher's Day Out

We brought a small bottle of 225 ml Vim Dishwash Liquid, costing just Rs 25, from Gariahat More to USA and guess what, we managed to use only 95% of it in a total of 5 and a 1/2 months ! Can you beat that? No, I'm not stingy by nature, certainly not so when it comes to dishwashing. Neither am I exaggerating. The bottle is designed to deliver exactly one drop per push and that one drop, I once noted, could clean no less than 4 extremely greasy, typical-Indian-oil-and-turmeric-cooking tainted dishes. I still have 5% of it stowed safely away (you can see it in the photo), for cleaning my gas range top. In mid-Dec, I bought this huge bottle of Palmolive Dishwash Liquid (25 oz/739 ml) from 'Stop N Shop' and 2 and a half months down, there's only about 2/5th of it left. It's fortified with the extracts of aloe and supposedly 'softens your hands while you do the dishes'. That's nice, no doubt, but I wish it would live upto its promise of being 'Tough on Grease, Soft on Hands' in a more practical manner. There's a whole lot of foam and suds generated when it comes in contact with water to be sure, but I have to use quite a generous dollop of it to get my dishes spanking clean. Dawn and Palmolive being the most widely used brands over here and available in quite a few variants (not to speak of colours, where they might match upto VIBGYOR effortlessly), I certainly harboured a lot of expectations from them. And now that I consider, I think I'd rather stick to my moisturiser for a handcare routine rather than a dishwash liquid. If it's so hell bent on skincare, why don't they store it in the cosmetics aisle instead ?


And when it comes to cleaning my spotlessly white (well, initially, I mean) gas range, that's what I've actually reserved the rest of my Vim Dishwash Liquid for. The lemon in the Vim just brushes away the dirt like magic. I once tried using the Palmolive one, but it just turned the black marks into light brown and then gave up. May it rest in peace.

Oh, and I mustn't forget to sing paeans to Scotchbrite. I got two teeny weeny bits of them from Spencer's, Kalikapur, prior to our arrival. Over 8 months down the line, they're still alive and kicking, though a trifle discoloured and denuded of their initial evenness and flawlessness. No, I'm not about to compare Scotchbrite bought in USA to those bought in India. I'm just lost in wonder at the versatility and durability of the article concerned. Its abrasive surface is rough enough to remove all the cooking generated scum and grease and yet soft enough to scrub the bathtub surface with it. And no, I don't (shudder) use it for the two simultaneously; I do actually have two. One observation I just need to make is that the two pieces I brought over from India are almost 1/6th the size of those available here. That makes me infer that we in India could perhaps afford to be much more economical in our lifestyle (though I shouldn't generalise, keeping in mind the mysteriously open taps on streetside corners, irrespective of human presence/absence). Well, the small sized Scotchbrites should at least inspire us to make the most of limited resources. Less Scotchbrite obviously would need less water to moisten it and therefore lower water consumption etc. That makes sense to me for sure.

Following this chain of association led me to discover some interesting ads in YouTube on saving water. I give you the best of the lot below:

Funny Fish Cartoon:




A child's cry:




Simple, stark contrast :




This was just plain brilliant :




Although I do consciously try to minimise the wastage of water in my everyday chores, I think I've probably still got a long way to go in terms of my water management skills. What about you ?