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| Got this cute jar from my Mom when we were cleaning out her garage last week! Thanks Mom! :-) |
So easy you’ll wonder why you didn’t make this LONG ago!
OK….I’m almost embarrassed to post this…because I feel like it’s been done so many times by so many other websites. But, this is the first time I’VE made it…so….there ya go. You get to be my audience. ;-)
I have been making my own LAUNDRY detergent for about 8 months now (won’t EVER go back to buying brand name again!)…but because I had a fairly large stockpile of dishwasher detergent I haven’t had the need to make any until now. And since I knew I was eventually going to make some…I’ve looked at A LOT of recipes. Honestly, they are all about the same, with just a few variations, and they are all very SIMPLE!
Here is my super simple version of
Powdered Dishwasher Detergent/Scouring Powder:
* 1 cup Washing soda or Baking soda (I’ve seen many recipes that use both..so use whatever you have on hand)
* 1 cup Borax (Borax and baking soda/wash are both natural disinfectants and mild abrasives.)
* 1/4 cup Kosher salt (reduces the effects of hard water)
* 1/4 cup citric acid (available at brewing places or Amazon.com. Or as an alternative you can use the same amount of Fruit Fresh or two packets of Lemonade-Flavored Kool-Aid, ONLY lemon and ONLY unsweetened!)
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| What went in my jar: borax, washing soda, kosher salt, fruit fresh, 20 drops lemon scented essential oil. |
OPTIONAL: If you like a scented experience…add several drops of your favorite essential oil–lemon, grapefruit, orange, tangerine, whatever strikes your fancy. I used about 20 drops of lemon in mine and it smells soooooo good! Course I’m a major sucker for ANYTHING lemon! I have the Pinterest board to prove it! :-)
Combine and store in airtight container. I just poured everything directly into the container I was going to use and gave it a good shake!
Add 1-2 tablespoons per load along with a splash of white vinegar as a rinse agent to prevent spots. (I just splash some straight into the bottom of the dishwasher). Personally I think the vinegar makes a HUGE difference! I have been using it with my brand name detergent for quite awhile now. Makes the glasses shine!
Using my very limited math skills…I figure this is about 9 cents a load compared with Cascade at 21 cents a load. Compare that with Seventh Generation or BioKleen and it’s a STEAL!
Another great idea I read about was to use this same mixture as a scouring powder!
I put some in my favorite shaker canister (like the one I keep my cinnamon sugar in) from Walmart….and use it to scour my sink. The salt gives it extra scouring power and it smells so good!!! :-)
For those of you who are LIQUID dishwasher detergent enthusiasts….don’t despair…there is a version for you too. Just not QUITE as simple. :-)
Liquid Dishwasher Detergent
2 cups vegetable-based castile soap (such as Vermont Soap Organics or Dr. Bronner’s)
½ cup water
½ cup white vinegar
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
3 drops essential oil of your choice
Pour ingredients into a plastic bottle with a squirt-top and shake until thoroughly incorporated. Before using, shake liquid well and measure out 2 tablespoons per load.
Try it out! See what you think! Play with the ingredients…the amounts…you are the master of your dishwasher and the captain of your kitchen! (sorry…bad poem pun!) ;-)
UPDATE: 1/21/2012
There were some concerns raised about this mixture hardening and clumping together, making it hard to get out of the jar. One of the brilliant comments left was to use some of those silica gel packets that come in bottles of medicine or in shoe boxes or just about ANY product that comes in a box nowadays. I opened up a box today and look what I found! Problem solved! Thanks for all your amazing comments and/or suggestions…as usual.
Making your own SUPER SIMPLE dishwasher detergent/scouring powder is today’s…..
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
I am wondering if you could use the terra cotta little things that they make for keeping brown sugar soft to keep this from hardening. Just a thought. I'll let you know when I try it :)
I saw a post that if you put a marshmallow in your brown sugar, it would keep it soft… I am still waiting to see if it helped. I wonder if it would work in your dry dish detergent. I just made a mixture of the Borax and the Baking Soda. I use TrueLemon which I use for everything to get the real lemon and not a fragrance. I will also add vinegar to the mix too. I will try tomorrow to see if it all works. I will add the salt and vinegar last minute.
I tried using silica packs in my dish detergent but it didnt keep it soft. So I put a marshmallow in the container and it WORKED!! Yay!!!
I made the dry detergent and tried it several times, including the vinegar. The glasses come out really cloudy, and the dishes were still dirty. Even my lipstick was still on the glasses.
I’ve had the same troubles. Although for the lipstick, I’ve never seen even a store-bought detergent that will take it off – I always wash that off by hand before putting the dish in the dishwasher.
Have you found anything that helps?
Good to know about the marshmallow! Never thought of that OR the little terra cotta disc. Will keep both in mind. So far no clumping/hardening here.
For those who are still getting cloudy dishes…here is a little more information I found online that might be helpful about dishwasher maintenance.
I know before i started using vinegar in every single load I do…I always had cloudy-looking glasses. Even when I used the expensive name brands. I just splash in a generous amount right into the bottom of the dishwasher right before I start it and no more cloudy dishes!
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For sparkling clean dishes load after load, a dishwasher needs monthly cleaning.
First, dump a quart of white vinegar in the bottom of the dishwasher and run it through a complete washing cycle without any dishes.
Next, clean the filter located on the floor of the dishwasher underneath the bottom rack. Some filters trap food residues on the outside surface so a simple wiping with a paper towel does the job. Other filters require unscrewing the cover to access trapped food residues. Consult your dishwasher owner's manual.
After every load, take a glance at the filter and in the bottom of the dishwasher, especially if you have children loading and running it. Picking up any food residues, labels, plastic wrap, stray silverware, lids, caps, straws, toys (you never know) will help the dishwasher clean more effectively.
Make sure the water going into the dishwasher is hot enough by running the kitchen faucet until the water is hot and using the water heating option on the dishwasher. In the short and long run, you save time and money by getting a full load of clean dishes the first time.
I fill my rinse aid area with Vinger all the time and have clean dishes. Now I will try and make my own dishwasher soap and laundry soap.
What a S A V I N G S!!!
Thank-you soooo VERY MUCH!
My powder clumped irreparably, so I added water to make a thick liquid and poured the liquid into an ice cube tray and made little pellets of dishwasher soap.
I also got cloudy glassware, disappointing my husband a lot.
Now I alternate a store bought pellet with my own homemade one and the glasses have lost their cloudiness and I figure I'm still ahead cuz I'm only using expensive stuff half the time . . .
crystalmj924 I found that the Epsom salt works better. I don't add liquid soap to mine but I also use both baking soda and washing powder and I use Lemon kool aid and place the vinegar into the rinse agent. No cloudiness.
I ran across this recipe on DIY Naturally and (of course) didn't have all the ingredients on hand. I messed around with it and came up with this variation using just three of the ingredients -
http://poppyjuice-poppy.blogspot.com/2012/02/truly-amazing-homemade-dishwasher.html
I have to say that I'm impressed with how well it is still working! We'd stopped using our dishwasher because of the nasty film left behind by commercial detergents.
Thanks for your great posting! I'm looking forward to following your helpful blog!
Warm wishes from Kansas!
I have tried several different combos of this recipe & used vinegar in the rinse aid but my plastic stuff comes out "powdery" like you can scrape it off. Regular dishes are ok though. I've also tried putting a few drops of Dawn in with it but still no luck. Any advice from anyone??
If you want clean dishes like the old days of 2 years ago try Bubble Bandit with phosphate. The stuff really works great. Clean & shiny dishes again! Hooray. You can only buy it online at http://www.bubblebandit.com
did anyone ever think that baking soda and vinegar cancel each other out and will probably not clean like you’d imagine it might? try one or the other. Vinegar also cancels out dish detergent. use acids in the rinse and you get squeeky clean, whatever, hair, dishes, etc, but not WITH the dish soap, detergent, baking soda, or any other soda. I’m not sure about borax but when I use it it makes the water feel slippery like baking soda does so I’d imagine it was a base as well. That’s why vinegar and baking soda fizz. they’re reacting to each other.
I was wondering with the liquid dishwasher soap if you can use the bar castile soap as it is so much cheaper or also if you can use octagon. I bought Octagon thinking that you could use it for dishwasher soap but I think it may have been for the home made dawn. If you can use bar soap do you know how much you would use?
another thing you can add to it to keep from hardening or clumping is dry uncooked rice in a new unused tied off knee high or a plastic baggie with holes poked in it.. I keep a small amount of dry uncooked rice in small baggies in my flour, sugar & brown sugar containers to keep out the moisture..
I’ve had great success with making laundry detergent from the recipe you posted, so I was excited to try this one as well. I made a triple batch (thinking it would be as awesome as the laundry soap), and I’m disappointed that I haven’t had as much luck with it.
I’ve run a couple of different loads, adding 3 drops of Dawn plus 1-2 T of the powder to my detergent dispenser and 1/2 – 1+ cup of vinegar in the bottom of the dishwasher, as suggested. Each time my dishes have come out not clean. Some of them are clean, but most of them are not. Some have had a sort of greasy film left on them, others still have food residue inside, and the glasses have come out spotted (not cloudy).
I’ll try thoroughly cleaning my dishwasher this weekend and not adding the dishwashing detergent as someone suggested above. Does anyone have other ideas?
ive tried this recipe WITH lots of silica gel packets thrown in and STILL have it harden like a rock. i do live in the humid south, but am not sure why else this would happen. any tips?
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