Poison control, v. 1.0

I'm not overly careful about child-proofing my house, but I do try to put things that could require a call to the poison control center out of harm's way. The problem is, some of them need to be used frequently (like dishwasher detergent and laundry detergent), and there isn't always a place to store them where we can get to them but not-quite-two-year-old Liza can't. Dishwasher detergent was especially difficult, as we run a load at least every day or two, and there was always the chance that Liza would find some of the spilled detergent on the floor or in the machine after a cycle.

Enter Cascade 2-in-1 Action Packs. These little packets completely dissolve in the dishwasher, dispensing a squirt of Dawn and a premeasured dose of Cascade dishwasher detergent. They're neater than trying to pour liquid or powder detergent, so there's nothing spilled on the floor or on the sides of the machine. And because the detergent is in a packet, I figure that even if Liza manages to make it into the "childproof" cabinet, I've got at least a few extra seconds to catch her before she gets to the stuff that will make me have to call poison control.

We've been using these packets for a couple of weeks, and so far I haven't noticed that they do any worse (or better) job of cleaning the dishes, compared to regular powdered Cascade. They're definitely more expensive than buying the powder, so unless you've got small kids or are a total neat freak, I don't know if I would bother. But we'll be using them, at least until Liza's selective deafness to the word "No" goes away ... that'll be what, 20 years or so?