Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

So I have been on a homemade kick lately.  I am trying to make as many of our daily use products as safe and environmentally friendly as possible.  So I researched making dishwasher detergent.  Apparently it is not safe to have any soap that suds in a dishwasher but baking soda and vinegar are quite effective, so I tweaked until I came up with this effective and super cheap liquid dishwasher detergent.

1 part baking soda
1 part salt
1 part borax
20 drops orange or lemon essential oil
optional some citric acid, or true orange or true lemon from grocery store

I mix these together and add 1 to 2 parts water, shaking.  Add enough water that everything can be shaken into a liquid without leaving powder residue on the container.  Shake before using.

I also use straight white vinegar in the rinse aid part of the dishwasher, and all my dishes are cleaner than they have been using store bought detergent and rinse aid.  In addition we are saving a lot of money on dish cleaner. 

If you prefer powdered dish detergent use the powdered citric acid or true lemon and skip the water.  Use a few teaspoons dry mix in the detergent dispenser.  I always add the water because I prefer liquid.  I keep this in a plasticware beverage pitcher with a tight fitting lid.  This works great for us.

4 comments:

  1. Yay!

    I was hoping you would post this... I am sick of spending through the nose for 7th generation products...

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  2. I know, they are so expensive. I will also post the recipe I use for homemade disinfectant spray, which I use to clean almost everything. It amazes me that you can clean almost anything with some baking soda, salt, vinegar, borax, and castile soap.

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  3. Okay, stupid question... where does one get borax?

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  4. LOL, actually just found borax on amazon.com with free super saver shipping!

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