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The new formulas lack Phosphates which are bad for the environment but great for cleaning. USA Today reports that tablets and packets clean better then gels or powders and running the hot water faucet nearest the dishwasher until the water is hot helps the dishwasher start with hotter water for better cleaning.

To remove the white film from dishes place 2 cups of vinegar in a bowl on the bottom rack with the film covered dishes. Wash without detergent, then with detergent.

Regular old unwaxed (and unflavored) Dental Floss is good for a lot more than just flossing.

*Fixing Eyeglasses - Lost a screw? Tie your glasses back together with floss until you can get them repaired.
*Button popped off? - Floss is usually stronger than cotton thread.
*Faucet Dripping? - Try taping or tying floss to the spout so the drip glides down the floss.
*Cutting hard to cut things - Use floss to cut cheesecake, cheese, bread, hard boiled eggs, etc.
*Cleaning hard to reach things - Got a hard to get at crevices, corner, or curve? Use a lenth os floss to gently wipe crud away.
*Tying things up - Floss can be an emergency shoelace, tie up a roast, etc.

I just answered an email question that I thought would be a good one to share. After 28 years of professionaly rebuilding engines for a living I have a pretty good idea of when to change the oil in our cars.

About oil:
The 1st number is the actual flow weight or grade of the oil. The 'W' may stand for weight or winter depending on who you ask, but is actually irrelevant. The 2nd number is the 'protects like' weight or grade. So 10 W 30 is a 10 grade multi-weight oil that protects like a straight 30 weight grade oil. 10 W 30 if a fine multi-weight oil for year round use. For winters where it is below freezing for months, or If you have many weeks of below zero weather I would use 5 W 30 oil. It really does flow better on engine start-up on a cold winter day. NEVER EVER use a straight weight oil in a modern car (anything built after 1955). Most cars built between 1985 and about 2005 will be most happy with either 5 W 30 or 10 W 30 oil. Personally I think 5 W 30 is a bit thin for summer use (above 80), but many newer cars built after 2005 are built to run 0 W 20 or 0 W 10 oil year round. Using thicker oil than the manufacture recommends can cause the lifters to pump up and stick and starve bearings due to not a fast enough flow rate (can't get enough oil volume to properly protect). High mileage cars (over 100,000 miles) may need one grade up in weight to maintain oil pressure. For example - if you were using 5 W 30, you may need to use 10 W 30. 10 W 30 and 10 W 40 are the same weight oil - 10 weight!

The quality of the oil is as important as the weight. Always buy a brand name oil because they have all of the recommended additives in the oil at the proper concentration. Many white box/no name brands do not have the proper additives or may not have the correct amount of additives.

Synthetic VS Mineral oil:
Synthetic oil flows better, protects better, and lasts longer than mineral oils. When in doubt stick to the manufactures recommendations for which kind and what weight oil to use. The only exception I have found to this rule is their drain/change intervals are too long for the average driver.

Oil change Intervals:
For mineral oil I recommend changing oil and filter every 3,000 miles or 3 months winter/4 months summer. If you drive a lot of highway miles (over 50% of total miles and 30 minute or longer trips) you can stretch it to 4,000 miles. Lots of short trips in the city (less than 15 minute trips) shorten it to 2,000 miles especially in the winter. Why? Because it takes approximately 15 minutes to bring the oil up to temperature. Then it takes approximately 15 minutes to burn off any contaminates in the oil. Even more time is needed on really cold days.

For Synthetic oil I recommend changing filter every 5,000 miles & add a quart of oil. After 15,000 miles change both oil and filter. If you drive a lot of highway miles (over 50% of total miles and 30 minute or longer trips) you can stretch the change to 20,000 or 25,000 miles. Lots of short trips in the city (less than 15 minute trips) shorten the change to 10,000 miles especially in the winter. I don't have enough personal experience with synthetic oil to be absolutely positive, but these change intervals are based upon friends who use synthetic oil in the engine building profession. It is better to change a little too often than too late.

Cars with Flat Tappet Camshafts (pre 1995) and Classic Cars:
YOU MUST use a 'High Zinc (ZDDP)' additive or an oil especially designed for older cars! This additive is NO LONGER USED in current motor oils nor is it needed in roller camshaft equipped engines. I use Cam-Shield additive for my 1974 Duster, or for vehicles which are used only on special occasions Joe Gibbs 'Hot Rod Oil' which also has an extra anti-corrosion additive.

With energy costs going up, here are a few tips for keeping your cool:

Check your air condition’s efficiency occasionally by letting it run for at least 15 min to cool the room. Place a thermometer on the incoming air vent closest to the air conditioner. After 5 min read it and move it to the return vent. Wait 5 min and read it again. If the incoming air temp is 14 to 20 degrees cooler than outgoing air the system is working properly. Less than that or more than 20 degrees cooler your system may need cleaning or other service work. It is a good idea to get your Heating Ventilation & Air Conditioning (HVAC) system cleaned and checked at least every other year.

There are several simple things to help your AC run less:
Closing the blinds in rooms with the sun shining in. Change your furnace filter every month for a potential saving of 9%. Get an AC tune-up every other year. Clean dirt and debris off the outside unit. Run dishwashers and other heat generating appliances at night. CFL light bulbs are considerably cooler than incandescent bulbs. Turn your thermostat up a few degrees and use ceiling or box fans to compensate. Potential saving of 14%. Apply mastic tape (regular duct tape dries out in a few years) to duct seams to prevent air loss. Close all stairway doors. Otherwise the cold air will flow across the floor and down the stairs to the lowest floor. Using your programmable thermostat to dial back the AC when you are not home can save up to 10%.

A little more expensive items are:
Adding insulation and better ventilation to your attic. Adding awnings or solar screens to sun facing windows. Plant trees and shrubs on the sunny side of the house. Replace any AC system that is more than 10 years old due to advancements in energy efficiency. You could reduce your AC bill by as much as 40%. Put a ceiling fan in each room. Ceiling fans blowing down help you feel cooler and on low blowing upward help keep a room at a more constant temperature during the heating season. Mine run 7 or 8 months a year.

Do without.
If humidity is not high you can use a whole house fan, or a pedestal fan blowing out a window. A whole house fan blows air from the house out thru the attic drawing cooler air in from the windows. If you don't have a whole house fan you can accomplish the same thing placing a fan in one window blowing out. Then open wide the windows at the other end of the house and just barely open one window in each other rooms. We use a window in the upstairs hall and can cool the upstairs only by closing the stairway door, or the whole house with the door open.

Proponents claim CFL Bulbs can save you bundles of money, use less electricity, and are better for the environment. At first I bought into it. I started to change over the lights in my house as the incandescent bulbs burned out. But I noticed several disturbing things:
1. CFLs take up to 1 minute (cheap ones take longer) to get to full brightness. Not too good for a hallway in the middle of the night.
2. CFLs are not as bright, especially the cheaper ones.
3. The color was funny. Not a nice warm white like incandescent bulbs.
4. They are expensive!
5. My electric bill did NOT go down.

So I decided to do a little research. First let us agree on some terminology.
A. Watt - a unit of power. A measurement of the amount of electricity used.
B. Lumen - a measure of the power of light perceived by the human eye. In other words how much light is produced, or how bright the light is.
C. Lifetime - how long the bulb will last under ideal laboratory conditions.
D. Color Rendering Index or CRI - what color the light appears to be. Yellowish (called warm or soft white) to white (called cool or bright white) to bluish (called natural or daylight). An incandescent bulb = 100. 99 to 80 = good, 79 to 60 = average, 59 down = poor.
E. Estimated Lifetime Savings - How much money the CFL bulb will save you over its entire lifetime. I would take these claims with several grains of salt.

Now do you know what is the biggest user of electricity in your house? The Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioner system. Followed by your appliances, i.e. Washer, dryer, refrigerator, water heater, dish washer, etc. Then at less than 20% of total electric usage is lighting.

1. Change the batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, alarm clocks, thermostats, and anything else that has a backup battery. Even if you have hard-wired electric detectors, they have backup batteries too. You might want to change the batteries in your key fob and garage door openers before they fail.

If you have a new 'low flow' toilet, you need to buy the correct plunger. Instead of the traditional red domed plunger, you need a black one with a fold out flap. This flap enables the plunger to seat properly in the new toilets shape. Don't work that plunger hard. Resist the temptation to push down hard to the bottom of the bowl. Gently work it up and down about a 1/2 to 1 inch several times to establish a good seal. Now pull firmly but gently up and out to remove the clog. Repeat as necessary.

Drain augers. Like me you probably bought one with a 7/8 inch head. Guess what? Unless you are working with a 1 to 2 inch drain, it is probably too small and can pass right thru a clog without breaking it up. That is exactly what happened to me on my 2 1/2 inch cast iron main drain for my master bathroom. Go to a plumbing supply house or a really good hardware store and get a larger (1 3/8 inch or so) head or second auger for larger pipes.