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Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

Ingredients I had on hand

Okay, today is the 20th of the month and I have no money until March 1st. This is rough. I need to run the dishwasher. Standing long enough to wash the dishes in the sink is just not possible. So, I did what I often do--start throwing different cleaning products in the dishwasher. I measured nothing but here is a guess as to what amount I put in.

Salt--1 tsp
20 Mule team Borax--1/4 cup
Washing Soda--1/4 cup
Vinegar (white)--1/4 cup

I may have possibly put more. As I said, nothing was measured. It would have meant standing longer. My back was hurting and would have complained even more.  Everything was just tossed all over dishes. No, I did not make an attempt to put it all in the bottom of the dishwasher. I would have had to bend!

My dishwasher has two compartment, both of which should have liquid. The door on the compartment for the second wash will no longer open. So, I deal with it. But, I don't deal with it very well. At first when it broke, I opened the dishwasher door and added anything from the list above (except for the salt). When I remembered, I added a second wash dash of something.

Today was the first time for this particular combination, and it works well, best combination so far.

Someday, I will figure the cost on this formula.  I spend about $4 on the Palmolive, so this might be cheaper.

After I used this, I found a formula for dishwasher cubes. Maybe I will try this with some juice from a free, scrounged lemons.

If you use Baking Soda, you may be upset at the white coating on your dishes. I figured out how to control this issue and resolve the white coating issue. When the rinse cycle comes on, put 1/2 cup white vinegar in the dishwasher--no more film.

For this load of dishes I used no vinegar for the rinse, just in the wash. The dishes are sparkling.

Your turn
Does anyone ever use homemade dishwasher detergent? Well, I suppose it is not detergent! Do you have another formula you like?

2 comments:

  1. What an interesting idea, and I have all that stuff in the bottom of the pantry. I don't often use the dishwasher, except for dinner parties and holidays. Breakfast and lunch people wash their own dishes here, and then the kids rotate doing the dinner dishes and it doesn't usually take long. I will definitely try this !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jane,
      I was pleased with the results at my house in a pinch.

      Delete

Okay, hoping the annoyances have gone away.