homemade dishwasher detergent

The cost of many things is outrageous and dishwasher detergent is one. I never knew you could make your own until one terrible night in February.

I had loaded the dishwasher and added soap. I closed it and then realized there were a few more things to be put in. The part of the soap dish that leaks out a little, what is it..pre-wash or something? Well, it had already started spilling out. When I reached in to load a few more dishes, my brand new robe from Al got soap on it. What happened next was tragic. The soap BLEACHED the sleeve of my robe.

I was outraged. I had no clue there were such strong chemicals in products like dish soap. I mean we eat and drink from these things, it just wasn’t settling well with me. So I started googling. Now, I usually use all Seventh Generation or homemade cleaning products around the house but we were sensing that the Seventh Gen dish detergent wasn’t cleaning the dishes and breaking down the food, even if we were rinsing them (gasp) before loading them.

I stumbled upon this great recipe for homemade dishwasher detergent in my googling frenzy. It contains 4 ingredients, was so easy to make and uses vinegar as a rinse aid. Here are the details…

Ingredients:

– Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda

– 20 Mule Team Borax

– Kosher Salt

– Citric Acid

– White vinegar

Instructions:

Using an empty 32 oz. container, such as a large yogurt container with a lid, mix the following: 1 cup washing soda, 1 cup borax, 1/2 cup kosher salt, 1/2 cup citric acid. Add all into the container, cover it and shake well. Fill the rinse aid compartment with vinegar. To use you only need 1 tablespoon per load. I used a little less because we have a small 18″ dishwasher.

The Verdict:

Amazing. This was so easy to make and it cleaned our dishes fabulously. The one down side was that I had to order the citric acid and washing soda from Amazon, but I had a coupon so I got a great deal and free shipping on both. I was able to find the other ingredients at Target and the supermarket.

For more detailed instructions on making this concoction visit this site!