Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

I am so stinkin excited!  I flipped the casserole dish over so you could see how clean it is.  I cooked baked oatmeal in it this am and put it in the dishwasher with all the crud still stuck to it!

Making homemade cleaning products is really addicting.  It is fun to see how clean you can get stuff with a few simple, nontoxic products.  Best of all, I feel like a real supermom, by saving sooo much money!

I have been using my homemade laundry detergent for quite a while now and still have a little over half a gallon left.  Since I made the laundry detergent, I already had almost all of the ingredients for the dishwasher detergent.

I found the recipe for dishwasher detergent at One Good Thing by Jillee.  If you haven't checked her blog out yet, you might want to find a couple good hours to read through her awesome ideas.  Feel free to click on the link above to read all of her great background info on the detergent.  I am just going to give you a quick recipe for it here.

1 cup of Washing Soda (or baking soda)  If you made the laundry detergent, you already have this!
1 cup of Borax Once again, used in the laundry detergent
1/2 cup of Kosher Salt
1/2 cup of citric acid or Fruit Fresh  Fruit Fresh is used in canning, so you can usually find it in the baking aisle or the area of your store where you will find canning jars

Mix all of the ingredients together.  I put mine in a gallon ziplock bag.

When you are ready to wash your dishes:
Put 1-2 TBS of the powder AND 2-3 drops of liquid dish soap (like Dawn or whatever you have on hand) into the detergent well.
Dump 1/2 cup-1cup of white vinegar into the bottom of the dishwasher (Or you could fill the little jet dry compartment with vinegar.)

Wash! And enjoy living the homemade/frugal life with me!

I used 2 TBS of powder, 2 drops of liquid soap, and 1/2 cup of vinegar.