Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

After successfully using the homemade laundry detergent for several months, I started wondering if I could make dishwasher soap too.  A quick pinterest search later and I had a recipe! 

1 Cup Borax

1 Cup Washing Soda

1/2 Cup Salt 

1/2 Cup Lemi-Shine

Combine all in airtight container.  Use 1 Tbs per load.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy! 

*I also always use vinegar as a rinse aid in every load, no matter what detergent I use*

I still had the soda and borax left over from the laundry detergent.  I think I've made 4 batches of detergent and one batch of dishwasher soap and still have half a box leftover each.  We always have salt too, so the only thing I purchased for this was the Lemi-Shine.  It's key to the recipe because it prevents the dishes from being cloudy, especially if you have hard water like we do.  At first I didn't think I could find it, but trip #2 to Walmart and there it was!  Apparently they were just out of it the first time. It's located in the dish soap aisle near the rinse aides and was about $2.50 ish.  Unfortunately, I think this small container will only make two batches of soap.  Still saving money though since I won't have to buy everything else!

For now I'm storing it in this plastic food container.  I wanted to make sure it worked before buying anything more fancy/permanent. 

Definitely saving some space compared to the Finish packaging!  I wasn't unhappy with the Finish brand, and was really only using that one versus Cascade because it was cheapest at Costco.  My only complaint was that if I didn't use vinegar as a rinse aid, the dishes would have little specs of detergent on them.  

The results? AWESOME.  I really didn't expect it to be different at all, because I thought I was happy with the Finish.  However, I compared glasses (did not photograph well at all) and realized that the Finish glass had more water spots, and left a film on the inside of the glass!  The homemade batch left all the dishes looking shiny and crystal clear, with few water spots.  They also felt much smoother compared to the almost waxy film left by the Finish.  I had always blamed the poor quality on the old dishwasher, but it looks like it was my soap all along! 

After I rearranged underneath the sink and finished taking pictures, I looked up to find Zoey sitting like this staring at me!