A few weeks ago I decided I was going to start making my own cleaning products. So I started looking around on the internet for recipes. I made my list of supplies and went shopping. Total I probably spent about $20 for all the stuff. The first one I made was dishwasher detergent. At first I was super excited about the soap. It seemed to be working really well, and it does. But I am glad I didn't post this right after I started to use it. I gave it some time to really get a feel for how it works. The soap does do a fantastic job. My only problem with it is that I am not sure I am really saving any money. After looking at a few different websites I realized I need to use white vinegar when I washed my dishes (this is where I start to have an issue). I went and bought a big bottle of white vinegar. For the store brand it was about $2.50 for the big bottle, there were some bottles that were $3.50+. If you add the cost of materials and the vinegar together, I probably ended up spending about $4.00 to make the soap. Now I could have just bought store brand dishwasher detergent for about $2.50. The whole reason I wanted to make my own soaps what to help save money, and I don't feel like I really am accomplishing that. But here is how I made it....
Ingredients:
1 Cup Baking Soda (I used Washing Soda)
1/2 Cup Kosher Salt
15 packets of lemon Kool-aid, the unsweetened kind. (You can also use 1/2 Cup Citric Acid, this can be found in the canning isle.)
Mix everything together and you have dish washing soap!
I use 1 tablespoon of the mixture with 1 cup white vinegar. I pour the vinegar into the bottom of the dishwasher. This seems to be pretty important. If you don't use it then your cups and plastics can come out looking foggy. I also tried to just use 1/2 a cup of vinegar, but I noticed my dishes weren't getting as clean.
Just to add a little cuteness to the jar, I used some of my letter stickers. On the front I labeled what it was and then put how much you are suppose to use on the back side. This is mostly for my husbands sake, in case he ever feels the need to run the dishwasher when I am not home.
And there you have. My biggest complaint is that I don't feel like I am saving any money by making this myself. My other complaint is that the mixture sticks together. I think it is because of the kool-aid, so if you used the citric acid it may not do that.
NEXT......
I also made my own liquid dish soap.
Here is how I made it...
Ingredients:-1 ½ cup of hot water
-½ cup castile soap-1 tablespoon of white vinegar (I used Kirk's Original Coco Castile Bar Soap)
-1 tablespoon of Arm&Hammer’s Super Washing Soda (used to thicken the soap)
Mix all the ingredients together and put in your liquid dish soap container. Again, this works really well.... but as you can tell from my picture it looks a bit solid and it is. When I first made it, it was super clear. It didn't even look like there was anything in the jar. Then as it started to cool, I noticed it began to solidify. I have to put it in the microwave for about 30 seconds before I use it, which is kind of annoying. I have been looking to see what I did wrong, and I think where I messed up is that I used bar soap instead of liquid castile soap. So you may want to look for that instead.
My next project will probably be laundry soap. So we will see how it goes....
On another note we are 10 days out from the big birthday party!
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