Make: Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

Yet another homemade product, are you sick of me yet? Well, I initially made this out of necessity. We had run out of dishwasher detergent and the dishes in the sink we're piling up and I was desperate. And a friend and I were recently talking about making it ourselves anyway so I looked up a couple recipes and I already had everything so I gave it a go.

Making your own cleaners is hit or miss, they usually get the job done "enough" but for me I need them to work extremely well, not just "its good for a natural product". A semi-clean house is not clean in my nook. So I was skeptical to say the least! But we've been using it in every load of dishes for a week and they are crystal clear and clean. I'm SO impressed. Honestly, this works just as well as the tabs we were using up from costco before we ran out. I know the added essential oils have a lot to do with it, they are super potent and help break down grease. And thieves has anti-bacterial properties so its a super cleaning machine!

I don't feel the NEED to make every single thing that's in our house but if it saves us money, I'm all about it. And I like knowing exactly what's going on our dishes to clean them. Everything in non-toxic in this concoction.

Note: I didn't plan on putting them in ice cube trays to make tabs. I added a tiny bit of water to mix in the oils really good but left it as a powder and it hardened rock solid in the jar after an hour. So I dug it out with a fork and put it in molds this time to save it. Next time I'll just blend up the dry ingredients and mix in the oils by hand and just keep it as a powder. One less step!

Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

Ingredients:

2 cups washing soda
1 cup baking soda
1 cup citric acid
1/2 cup kosher salt
1 teaspoon castile soap
10 drops of thieves essential oil
10 drops of lemon essential oil
*1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons white distilled vinegar (I skipped this, see note above)

Directions:

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl
mix in castile soap and the thieves and lemon essential oil
Stir until the soap and essential oils are mixed throughout, you may need to do this by hand
Put the mixture in a jar and use a heaping tablespoon in each load. I usually add vinegar to the rinse aid compartment too.

*If you want to make hard tabs to use:
Skip the 1tsp of castile soap. Gradually add vinegar a little bit at a time and mix well (some fizzing will occur and the mixture will start to clump) You may not need the entire amount of vinegar, so add it a little at a time.
pack well into two ice cube trays (take your time doing this and make sure they are well compacted)
set ice cube trays out to dry for at least 24 hours in a sunny spot
take tabs out of trays and store in a tight-lidded container