Going Green: Dishwasher Detergent

I'm going to start with one of my favs, the dishwasher detergent. Searching for a good recipe wasn't too hard and I was very excited to try it because we go through A LOT of dishes in this house. We have no disposable anything so if you need a glass of water, it's literally a glass. Same thing for plates and silverware. Oh lord do we go through the silverware, especially butter knives thanks to T's love of peanut butter & jelly sandwiches. Anyspoons, onto the goods. This recipe is super easy, super cheap and yields a LOT. I should warn that this recipe is specific to hard water. So if you have a water softener, you will need to do a further search for a soft water friendly detergent.

We have our starting line up:

1 Box Borax
1 Box Washing Soda
3 Cups Epsom Salts
24 packets UNSWEETENED Lemonade mix*
Lemi-Shine Rinse aid

*note: some say that the lemonade mix will stain the inside of your dishwasher, especially the little cup area that you put it in, but I've been using it over 2 months now with zero issues. Personally, I'm not overly concerned about the staining as long as my dishes end up clean.

Grab a big container because as I said, it yields A LOT! Mix the entire box of Borax with the entire box of Washing Soda. Add the 3 cups Epsom Salts, mix. Add the 24 packets of lemonade mix, mix. Make sure you really mix this stuff up good. You'll notice that it takes a on a yellow hue from the lemonade mix and when it comes into contact with water it will really show the yellow.

Transfer to an air tight container. If you do not put it in an air tight container the mixture will clump, be warned. I've run into the issue, but I just give it a good mix before using. To use at 1 tablespoon of the detergent mix into the prewash compartment & 1 tablespoon lemi-shine into the detergent compartment. If you don't have both, put the dishwasher detergent in the normal place and sprinkle the lemi-shine at the bottom of your dishwasher. I have been known to use 2 tablespoons of the detergent on our heavily soiled loads though. Food for thought.

In this house, I keep a small container under the sink (with instructions for use in the event T EVER does dishes) and the remaining portion in a garbage bag that has all the air pushed out (well as much as possible.) So far I haven't had to tap into our extra stash and I have probably 3/4 of the original container still in there. You could probably cut the recipe down if you wanted to, but I'm too lazy to try to figure out the math and I prefer to do as much in bulk as possible. Saves me time later.

I've been using this mix now for well over 2 months and I have to say my dishes have never looked better. We have super hard water in my area and I have navy blue dishes. I got to the point that I never used the dishwasher due to all the spots on our dishes. It grossed me out to be honest. So everything was hand washed, but when I found this recipe the lady swore by it and she was right. Occasionally we will have some dishes that need to be rewashed, but that's more due to my lazy rinsing before loading.

The grand total for my lord knows how many months worth of dishwasher detergent: $18.40.
Borax: $5.00
Washing Soda: $4.00
Epsom Salts: $2.00
Lemonade Mix: $2.40
Lemi-Shine Rise Aid: $5.00

Overall impression: Very effective detergent and a permanent fixture in this house!