I have been staying away from making my own dishwasher tablets until now for the simple fact that I have a teen doing my dishes. Yup, I was afraid they wouldn't work and I would be left with dirty dishes and a mess in my dishwasher from a gummy, weird homemade experiment that didn't work. BUT, I finally bit the bullet and used things that I know work well to clean, would make a good "brick" of tablet, were as close to natural, and worked well to clean as possible. The result? YEA!!! IT WORKED!! :)
So without further yapping here it is...
1 Cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 Cup Washing Soda
1 Cup Baking Soda
1 Cup Kosher Salt (to soften the water)
Hmmmm... Ok that looks to be it!! Mix those bad boys up, KNOW that when you add the baking soda to the lemon juice it FOAMS HUGE so make sure to mix this in a big bowl. You could do like I did and not have a big enough bowl and amaze your 4 year old with your volcano but its messy and I don't suggest that for everyone, lol. Once the foaming stops, and you have the mixture all mixed just place into cheap ice cube trays (about half full in each cup) and let set over night. Then pop them out and let them sit out until completely dry and use as you would regular tablets. I use vinegar in my rinse cycle. That's the greatest part, you can make them as big a portion or small a portion and you need to clean your dishes. I will be scaling back a bit next go round until I hit the right amount to clean our dishes.
If you don't want to use the tablets just mix all the powders together and use them on their own as powdered dish detergent...
Click the links below to find the ingredients used above!! :) ENJOY!
I am going to give these a try. I haven't had much luck with a lot of store bought tablets.
ReplyDeleteI resort to the expensive ones.
Fleet me know because they have been working great for me but I made mine a little bigger due to the kiddo not getting the dishes rinsed enough, next batch will be a bit smaller but these have worked great so far... I would love to know how they work for others!!
ReplyDeleteUgh spell check... LET
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ReplyDeleteArgh... Deleted one I didn't mean to :(
DeleteI am going to try this! Pinned it! thanks for sharing on the HomeAcre Hop!
ReplyDeleteNancy HomeAcre Hop
Another great post. We are finally going to be getting a dishwasher (after living the past decade without one) and I will certainly be using this recipe. Thanks for sharing on Wildcrafting Wednesdays!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.herbanmomma.com
Just don't make your tabs as big as I did :) I am going to make mine a little smaller next time. It does work well though :)
DeleteJust wanted to let you know that you were my pick for this week on the From The Farm Blog Hop! Thanks for joining our hop!
ReplyDeleteDani
http://theadventurebite.com/from-the-farm-blog-hop-49/
Somehow I missed this post, it was better I did because I loved the surprise of seeing it featured!! THANK YOU SO MUCH Dani I appreciate that. :)
DeleteI've been looking for a good recipe for these too! We've been using an expensive 'pack' and having pretty good success with it as compared to a cheaper liquid, but the price is ridiculous. Thank you for this. I'll be pinning it.
ReplyDeleteIt's tough to compete with chemicals sometimes... These have been working (thankfully) for us. :) For me it's hard to find a natural dishwasher tablet that can handle the fact I have a teen that rinses the dishes. While I try to teach him to be thorough it doesn't always happen and I get frustrated and go back to using the regular tabs. I haven't had the frustration yet but I did make them a WEE bit big and so the salt leaves a film if there is too much. :)
DeleteLooking forward to trying your recipe. I had some hard plastic dishes "etch" and become cloudy in my dishwasher and was told not to use citrus soap. Wonder if there would be a substitute for lemon juice . . . .
ReplyDeleteI can't see why you couldn't just use water, you won't get the benefits from the lemons but all the other stuff will still work. It may not work as well, on the other hand it may work great, I haven't tried it so let me know if you do. :)
DeleteToday's project! As I have run out of what we were using. THANKS.
ReplyDeleteAWESOME!! :) Let me know how it goes for you! :)
DeletePotential dumb question here, use as regular tabs, does that mean just toss in? put in the soap dispenser. I don't get out much. ;) Thanks.
DeleteDefinitely not a dumb question, I just put mine in the dish soap dispenser and use vinegar in the rinse agent area.
DeleteCould I sub the fresh lemon juice with bottle?
ReplyDeleteIn doing a bit of research and being this is for the acidity and not for taste I would say yes, you can. :) You get a more balanced acidity level actually using a product like 'RealLemons' vs. fresh that range a bit higher usually but can vary. The store bought have an acidity right around 4.5 as an industry standard. Hope that helps
Deletecan I substitute the lemon n juice with vinegar? I was told not use citrus on my dishes and if you are using ar anyway it seems like it would work as a substitute
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