Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Homemade Dishwasher Detergent


Happy New Year!

Now that the holiday's are behind us it's time to clean up!  I thought you might like to make homemade dishwasher detergent with me today -

You might be surprised to find that you have almost all the ingredients to make Dishwasher Soap already, especially if you've made you own laundry soap (recipe here)
.  
I bought the Citric Acid and Lemon Essential Oil at our local Health Food Store.
I thought the Citric Acid was a little pricey at $5.99 for the small bottle in the photo above so I went looking around the internet and found Citric Acid on E Bay, I found a five pound package here with free shipping that I've used and I'm quite happy with it.


It gets a little messy but when I was done I swept the powder up and put it in the mason jar. 
Speaking of mason jars...  I store my dishwasher soap and now what's left of the Borax in them because they seal tight and keep the moisture out.  My Borax was starting to turn into a solid brick from the box being open.
Here's the finished product in a quart sized mason jar.  One tablespoon washes a load of dirty dishes and lasts a couple of months at our house.  
The Recipe:
1 cup Borax
1 cup Baking Soda
1/4 cup Salt
1/4 cup Citric Acid
30 Drop Lemon Essential Oil

Add the mixture to an air tight container, use 1 tablespoon of powder for each load of dirty dishes.  If dishes are still dirty due to hard water, try 2 tablespoons of powder.

We've been using this for about a year now and it works great, I'll never buy dishwasher detergent at the store again (=

Edited to add:  I forgot to mention I've been using white vinegar in the rinse aid dispenser of the dishwasher as well.  Why pay out more $$$ when plain white vinegar works like magic!

Thanks for visiting my blog today -
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16 comments:

Unknown said...

I love your recipe for the dish washing soap. I also use a recipe similar to this one. If you don't mind I have a couple of extra tips:

1. When you put the soap in the mason jar instead of using the metal part in the ring. Cut off the top of a salt container and you have a pour spout.

2. If you have hard water substitute the citric acid with LemiShine. It will remove the water spots and film. If you have real hard water you can double the amount of this.

3. To keep moisture out of the soap mix. Take a small amount of rice and wrap it in cheese cloth. Tie it and put it in the jar. It will absorb the moisture and keep the soap mix from hardening.

Jan Hunnicutt said...

Brenda thank you! These are wonderful ideas for the dishwasher detergent. I'll have to look up LimiShine and give it a try.

Rice to absorb the moisture is pure genius! Thank you so much for stopping by and adding to my post!

Unknown said...

You are very welcome.

Misty said...

Thanks Jan, I will try this as soon as I can afford the Citric acid. I do a load of dishes a day!

Anna from Natures Home Spa said...

Great post Jan, I have a good DIY laundry detergent but I've been needing a dishwasher detergent recipe. This will be fun to make, I really enjoy DIY recipes like this!
Anna

Jan Hunnicutt said...

Hi Anna,
I hope you like the dishwasher detergent as much as we do!

I need to look up Lemi shine like Brenda suggest earlier today =)

Hugs, jan

Jan Hunnicutt said...

I wanted to post an update about LemiShine, I "googled" it and found some interesting info on a chemists blog here: http://www.chemistry-blog.com/2012/05/18/whats-in-lemi-shine/

From his findings LemiShine appears to be Citric Acid. I thought it was pretty interesting & informative.

Anna from Natures Home Spa said...

Jan, I just ordered citric acid, thanks for that link, it was only $14.95 for 5 lbs, and $12.00 for 4 lbs, both free shipping. I LOVE free shipping. Good link!

I'm making bath bombs and melts, and your dishwasher detergent. Fun!
Anna

Jan Hunnicutt said...

That's a great price for the Citric Acid Anna, I agree I love free shipping too.

5 lbs will be great for making bath bombs and melts too. I was thinking about chocolate bath bombs in the near future, lol =)

Anna from Natures Home Spa said...

Jan, in getting out my ingredients to make the dishwashing detergent I found I do not have Lemon essential oil, but I do have Lemongrass e.o.
Can you tell me if I can substitute the Lemon EO or even leave it out?
thanks, Anna

Jan Hunnicutt said...

Hi Anna,
That's a great question! I've thought of trying Orange Essential Oil so why not try Lemongrass EO if you have it?
Jan

Anonymous said...

Brilliant! I buy environmentally friendly dishwasher soap because it does not have phosphates. Yours does not either and would be MUCH cheaper! I found you on Gingerly Made linky party. Have a great day.

Cyn said...

hello there..in the event of us trying to go more natural and save money i LOVE this idea. I am going to try it. Here in Arizona we have massive hard water and my dishes always come out with resdue.

Jan Hunnicutt said...

Hi Cyn,
I'm in Arizona too and we have extremely hard water in our area as well. The other day I added two more tablespoons of Citric Acid to my batch of Dishwasher detergent and it seems to have helped.

Refilling the rinse aid with white vinegar helped too! I'd let it run out & it sure doesn't take very long to be able to tell on the glassware =(

Tracey said...

Thanks so much for this recipe. I use so many other DIY cleaners around my house, but have never tried Dishsoap. I have orange oil, so I will try that (not a fan of lemon scent). Will definitely add to my to do list!

Jan Hunnicutt said...

I hope it works as well for you as it does for us Tracey! The Orange oil will be nice in it, I'm going to try Orange one day too.