Don't fret or call PETA on us...we're not asking you to put Scruffy in the dishwasher to scrub out those caked on stains (though plenty of pets like to clean our leftovers clean when we're not looking). It might be Pet Month, but the image above is just a humorous aside related to this great DIY cleaning formula we found online that can save you quite a bit of money compared to store bought dishwashing cleaners. At 8 cents a load and doubling up as a light scouring powder around the kitchen, we're definitely going to try and make a batch for ourselves. Directions below the jump...
posted originally from: AT:LA
Here's the condensed instructions of the formula created by Lynn Siprelle of The New Homemaker:
Mix the following ingredients in a plastic container with an airtight lid. You're going to shake up an assortment of powdery ingredients, and you don't want to find yourself recreating a disaster from I Love Lucy:
- 1 cup borax
- 1 cup baking soda
- 1/4 cup salt
- 1/4 cup citric acid (Unsweetened Lemonade-Flavored Kool-Aid can be used also, but be sure to avoid any other flavours due to their food dye content)
- 30 drops a citrus essential oil of your choice
Shake it, but don't break it. Now you've got a mixture you can dole out into your dishwasher, one tablespoon per cleaning agent receptacle in your dishwasher. We personally don't have a dishwashing machine (though we'd most certainly welcome one the next time we move), but we like Siprelle's advice to use this powdery cleaning mix in a shaker canister (she recommends a popcorn salt shaker, but we're thinking more like pizza parlour shaker for our kitchen sink stains).
[Creative Commons Photo: Aaron_M]
I've tried this recipe so I wanted to post a couple of comments that might be helpful.
Baking Soda- Use Washing Soda instead. When you use baking soda in this recipe your dishes will come out with a white film on them and it's very hard to get rid of.
Citrus Oil- The oil will cause it to clump so throw a couple of those silica gel packs in there to hold the moisture. Otherwise you'll literally have to scrape the powder out when you want to use it.
If you have hard water, this mix won't work very well for you. Using vinegar in your rinse dispenser will help but you'll still have lots of water spots.
It's really, really hard to make a dishwashing detergent that will match up to commercial detergents. I've been working on recipes for a while now and I haven't found anything that knocks my socks off yet. I'll let everyone know if I do though! Happy washing.
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I've done some research on this and some people say that the borax and/or washing or baking soda scratched their glasses over time.
view Fatica's profile
In my experience you want to be using a smaller amount of baking soda, it depends on the power of the dishwasher I think. But too much and the glasses and even the dishwasher appliance parts will have a slight build up of dry white powder left on them. The recipe does work great but only if you get the mixture just right for your machine.
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