Today I’m sharing a different kind of recipe, homemade dishwasher detergent!
I’ve been testing out this DIY Dishwashing Detergent for long enough and now it’s time to share. :)
Why Make Homemade Dishwashing Detergent?
You could be eating the most healthy foods on the planet and still have influences aside from food effecting your health.
There are so many chemicals that surround us that we don’t really think about them all.
After putting laser focus on our diet, I started thinking more about the other products we use around the house. Cleaning products, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, conditioner, make-up, etc. Among the daily use products that contain toxins that don’t necessarily list ingredients on the bottles are the things you may not be thinking about effecting your health.
Jeff & I recently watched the documentary Chemerical, on Netflix although it’s available below. So you can watch the entire movie here on Paleo Porn. :)
The documentary tracks a family’s transition as they remove all chemicals from their life. You can see the success and difficulty each family member experiences as well as the effects it makes in their everyday life.
After watching this documentary I started weeding out the products we have around the house. I started researching products more and more and looked for ways to create homemade versions of the products I regularly use.
Quick Oven Cleaner Recipe
I started easy and cleaned the oven with baking soda, vinegar and elbow grease. It was all I needed!
Homemade Dishwasher Detergent Recipe
When I was getting low on dishwashing liquid I decided not to restock and looked for a recipe I could make at home. I found a four ingredient recipe on DIYNaturals and ran with it!
Simple enough I found three of the four ingredients at Target and Walmart, but they’re also available online. I picked up the fourth ingredient I needed, citric acid, at Fruitful Yield.
Homemade Dishwasher Detergent
Ingredients
- 1 cup 20 Mule Team borax
- 1 cup Arm & Hammer super washing soda
- 1/2 cup citric acid
- 1/2 cup kosher salt
Directions
- In a large bowl (with a lid) that you'll use to store the detergent add borax, washing soda, citric acid and salt. Note: You can also add these ingredients to a large yogurt container or in my case the first time I used a large glass Tropical Traditions coconut oil container but the second time I found it easier to keep it in the large mixing bowl as seen in the image above.
- Using a spoon mix everything and combine well.
- Store in a dry place out of reach of children and make sure everyone knows that this container is not-edible.
- Use 1 tablespoon per load. See diyNatural for tips on how to avoid clumping and to see a Q&A on this recipe.
- Note: MAKE SURE not to drip any water into the mixture and continue to stir 1-2 times a day (or whenever you use it) so it does not become a solid rock.
- Enjoy! :)
