Moving on to the dishwashing detergent..

Love the homemade laundry detergent! I think my whites are whiter.. not gonna say the colors are brighter, but they are clean!
Thus, I went back to the blog Being Creative (to keep my sanity) for her automatic dishwasher detergent recipe,, here;
http://beingcreativetokeepmysanity.blogspot.com/2011/01/dishwasher-detergent.html

The savings is amazing, even though I coupon and sale shop spending pennies per load, well I can't beat those prices.

I spent $21.60, including tax, for the cleaning supplies. And I invested $4.52 on two Rubbermaid containers with pour spouts for airtight storage.

This took about fifteen minutes to mix together yesterday;

Lemonade Kool-aid!
The recipe calls for either Lemonaid Kool-Aid or citric acid.
I couldn't find citric acid.
Make sure you don't buy sugary Kool-Aid, that would be a sticky mess.



I should have used the large soup pot as it would have all fit
inside but I was too impatient, that pot was in the dishwasher and
I wanted to jump into this project... thus the two bowls.
I had some spillage over to the island.
It was nice clean spillage!

About the Lemi Shine --- I put this right in the mix rather than
following the suggestion she gives of sprinkling one tablespoon in for each load.
I don't want that extra step when I'm doing dishes.
Plus we have a water softener so I'm hoping
using less of it will be sufficient. It's all an experiment.
I'm using the Lemi Shine half strength.

Only 1 tablespoon is used per load so I put tags on the containers 
as I didn't want to use a permanent marker on the Rubbermaid.
Should the detergent be a disappointment I'll want
to use the Rubbermaid for something else.
One of the containers will go to the cottage where lots of other 
people use the kitchen so I want the amount to use right on the container.
I could get some contact letters and stick them on.. nah. I think not. 
The grocery bag contains the leftover mixture,
I used three bags and made it as airtight as possible.


It will be interesting to see how long $20 worth of ingredients lasts in this house. 

Here's the recipe and blog post from the Being Creative blog.



Here is what you need.

 Dishwasher Detergent ingredients:
1 box Borax (4lbs 12 oz or 76 oz ) (2.15 kg) found in the detergent isle
1 box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (55 oz or 3 lbs 7 oz) found in the detergent isle
24 packages of unsweetened lemonade drink mix, like kool-aid. (**Note: lemonade will stain soap dispenser yellow, another option would be to use citric acid instead of lemonade. You can usually find citric acid in the canning isle )
3 cups Epsom Salt
Lemi Shine rinse aid (this recipe does not work very well without it) You can find Lemi Shine in the dishwasher detergent isle at just about any store. You can also use vinegar as a rinse aid. If your dishes are coming out with spots on them that means you do need a rinse aid.






Use Lemi Shine as a rinse aid. It works wonders. Just sprinkle about a tablespoon in the bottom of your dishwasher before you start it. This stuff is awesome!!

If you want you could cut this recipe in half or even smaller to just try it out. You will still have to buy large boxes of Borax and Washing Soda which you can store for later use.
Mix Borax, washing soda, salt and lemonade together in a large, very large, bowl. When ingredients are mixed together well put soap in a container of your choice. I picked up a container at Walmart in the kitchen center with a pouring spout for $5.00 and it is big enough to hold an entire batch of dishwasher soap. The soap does get hard spots in it after a while so do be prepared for some hardening, I have not been able to get around that no matter what I do.
It even has a pouring spout to make things easy.
Use 1 tablespoon per wash cycle. It has no fillers so you do not have to use nearly as much to get the job done! This recipe is for hard water users, if you have soft water you may want to browse the internet for a better recipe for soft water.

Are you ready for the breakdown??
1 box of borax $4.69
1 box A & H washing soda $3.19
24 packages of lemonade $2.80
3 cups of salt $2.00, this one is a guess because I already had salt in my storage and who knows how much I payed for it.

Total= $12.68

1 tablespoon at a time........you tell me how long that's going to last.


To top off my project me and my Cricut got together :) and cut out letters from vinyl to label the container. Yes I know they are a little crooked but I am to cheap to buy transfer paper for all my vinyl needs, besides I am storing it in the cupboard under my sink. I tried my first load yesterday and was quiet impressed with how clean my dishes were. I hope it works well for you too!

I especially love the fact that I'm stocked up on cleaning products and will not have to even think about checking the inventory of laundry or dishwashing detergent for many months.

There are plenty of other things to do,

speaking of --- how are your menu lists and gift buying lists coming along for the holidays?

May the Lord be before us during these days filled with many distractions.

Lifting Him up..

Sideline Grandma... .