UPDATE: I tried the original recipe and some of my dishes came out with a slight powdery film. So I did not have any citric acid, but I added the unsweetened lemonade powder that this blog suggested. I also added an extra rinse cycle. This did help, but a few things still had the residue. So, next I am going to try to not use as much powder. I was using about 1 Tablespoon and a half. So I am going to just try 1 Tablespoon. I will keep you posted!There are many, many recipes out there for making your own dish washing detergent. Here is one from Tip Nut.
There are varying opinions on which one gets them the cleanest and which one causes spots or a film. I personally chose to try the one from Tip Nut. It is simply this:
1 cup of Washing soda
1 cup of Borax
Mix well. Use 1-2 Tablespoons per load.
I have hard water, and even with a store-bought detergent my dishes still have spots and my glasses still look cloudy so I don't think this could do any worse.
You can also use vinegar as your rinsing agent. I have tried this in the past.
For some other recipes go here, here, here for a more in-depth recipe or here.
Some people use Baking soda and some use Washing soda. I have read that Washing soda does a better job, but we will see. If you want to know the difference between the two go here.
If you do this, let me know what works best for you!
Also, check out more Make It Yourself ideas at Centsible Shopper.
I would like to try this! Do you know how much you should use if you have a water softener?
ReplyDeleteOne of the links I gave had soft water. It was this one . She says this,
ReplyDelete"What kind of water do you have? We have soft water here in Portland where I formulated this. You might need more salt. Fiddle with it. And also, as I said in the article, you can't leave food on the plates; it's just not that kind of cleaner, but then, most of the natural dishwasher powders won't dissolve the food."