Thursday, April 28, 2011

Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

My most recent DIY cleaner? Dishwasher detergent.


I tested 2 different kinds yesterday {yes...I had THAT many dishes}. One concoction I didn't like at all, actually had to re-wash the majority of the dishes by hand. And the other, well, so far it gets my seal of approval!

Normally I use Cascade Complete ActionPacs and am starting to run low on them. I decided to try out the homemade version before running out just in case I needed to re-run the load of dishes with the Cascade if it didn't work out. But, I didnt have to. My DIY detergent left the dishes feeling squeaky clean, without water spots and shiny! Another plus? It's the easiest thing to make. So far, so good.  I haven't actually done the math yet, but, I'm guesstimating it will cost me less than $0.10 a load for the detergent.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Borax
1/2 cup Super Washing Powder
1/4 cup kosher or pickling salt (I used pickling)
4- 10 packets unsweetened lemonade powder (For the citric acid. I used 8 single serve packets)
Shake all ingredients together in an air-tight container.
Use 1 tablespoon per load
What about a rinse aid, you ask? Plain old white vinegar! As to how much I'm not sure yet - I didn't use it this time around since I wanted to test the detergent alone, but, next time will give it a go and see what happens!

Happy dish washing!



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I will be trying this soon! Thanks for the "recipe"! :) --Meg

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