I’ve been wanting to try making dishwasher soap for a while and finally got around to buying the necessary ingredients. There are a lot of recipes out there, but I went with simple – Borax, washing soda, coarse salt, and citric acid. All items that can be found at your local store. I paid about $9 for everything but the Borax (which I already had). Borax is around $4 for a box.
The citric acid came in a 7.5 oz container which is almost one cup. So, I doubled the recipe (the original used 1/2 cup citric acid) because why just make a little bit when you’re testing something, right? Since I doubled it, it didn’t fit in my handy peanut butter jar. So, I had to rummage for another container. This one doesn’t seal very well so as soon as I use some up, I’m going to transfer it. If there’s a next time, I’ll only make a single batch.
It was really quite easy! Just dump all the ingredients together, stir them a bit, and it’s ready to use.
Recipe
1/2 C Citric Acid
1/2 C Coarse Salt
1 C Washing Soda
1 C Borax
Use 1 T per load.
When I figure out how much it cost to make it, I get about $2.45 for a single batch or about $.05/T. I’m not sure it’s any cheaper than the Palmolive Eco gel I normally buy.
What about you – do you make your own or buy it? Why?
Update – I didn’t like this as much as I wanted. It may be that because it wasn’t in an airtight container, it clumped up and made it hard to use. It wasn’t really any cheaper than my normal detergent so I never made it again.
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