DIY Dishwasher Soap Tablets!!

This has been on my list of things to try for a long time. And since I am now doing "Try It Tuesday" on my snapchat(soapychef), it was a good excuse to do it!

Dishwasher soap is expensive, and I remember years ago, when they first started making the tablets, that you weren't even supposed to touch them with your bare hands! I am not sure if that is still the case, but I do still hold it by the wrapper and put it in as carefully as I can so I don't touch it. And this is cleaning your dishes!! And you eat off your dishes!

I will admit that I am not one of those people that is always reading ingredients and stressing over organic this, organic that. I do it for my food clients and I do it for my soap clients, but it is not entirely who I am personally. But that doesn't mean that I want to eat off of dishes that have unknown ingredients essentially baked onto them in the dishwasher.

But mainly I wanted to do this because of the cost and the convenience. We have 3 small children and run the dishwasher at least every other day, if not every day. We need a lot of dishwasher soap. And even when the grocery store has sales on the soap, it still isn't as cheap as doing it yourself!

So I did a bunch of research on Pinterest and YouTube and kept finding the same recipe over and over. I did like this video the best though. Here is the recipe I used:

1/2 Cup Borax
1/2 Cup Washing Soda
1/2 Cup Epsom salts
1 Tbsp Baking Soda
1 Tbsp Citric Acid
2 Tsp Essential Oil (I used orange)
2 Tbsp white vinegar

You can find borax and washing soda in your laundry aisle at the grocery store. Epsom salts can be found at any pharmacy or any place that sells beauty products. Citric acid can be found at Target or Walmart near the canning supplies. Essential oils can be found at health food stores and also at craft stores.

This is what they look like.

To make this recipe, just mix all of the dry ingredients in a bowl. I wear rubber gloves because the ingredients can be abrasive and make my nails scuff up. Make sure there are no lumps. P.S. I doubled the recipe. 

Then add the essential oil to the mix and continue to mix with your hands until it is well incorporated.

Then add the vinegar very very slowly! If you have made a volcano in science class, you know that baking soda and vinegar react!! Just add a few drops at a time and mix mix mix.

Your mixture should look like wet sand. You should be able to grab a handful and squeeze it and it will stay together and not break apart.

I molded mine into ice cube trays, but you can use any mold you have, especially if you have one of those silicone brownie molds.

I left mine in the mold for about an hour and then released them onto a sheet tray lined with a soft towel. They came out perfectly.

I tested one immediately (with a family of five, there are always dishes to wash) and I was very impressed. My dishes looked just as good as they do with my Finish detergent and my dishwasher itself looked really shiny and clean.

All in all, a success!

Hope this works for you too! Please comment if you have any questions or want to show me how you did it!

And if you would like to see what I do for my next "Try it Tuesday", follow me on snapchat!

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Week 1 - Success? Maybe.

I tried. Not sure I succeeded, but I tried!

Sunday was "Soapy Sunday".
I made these adorable lip balms. They were made inside these little coin purses. One is flavored with margarita, and the other with pina colada. Yum.
These little purses are crazy adorable and I can't wait to see how they sell at my show in 2 weeks.

Monday was "Makeup Monday".
Since I am not a seasoned makeup artist and I am not used to doing tutorials, I just shared my favorite mascaras and lip products.
Here they are!

I applied the Rimmel Scandaleyes on my lashes to show how good a drug store mascara can be!!

Pretty good for one coat!! 

Tuesday was "Try it Tuesday". I made a wool dryer ball. I pretty much hated every minute of it. My hands kept cramping up when trying to roll it tightly and the ball kept falling out of my hand and unraveling. But I didn't give up and finally ended up with a good product!

In case you are wondering, you use these in the dryer instead of dryer sheets to help with cling and also to decrease your drying time. I am happy with the result, but I don't see myself adding this to my product line. I was literally sweating!!!!

Wednesday was "Wet Nails Wednesday". I talked about my history of nail biting and how I finally quit. I talked about it a lot in my last post here as well. After talking about how I did it, I then did a manicure with Essie's "High Class Affair" color. I thought they came out pretty nice!

Thursday was "Thirsty Thursday". I attempted to make one of my favorite drinks - the Thai iced tea.
I went to the Asian grocery store and bought Thai tea and brewed it with some cardamom and star anise. I added my sugar straight to the hot tea mixture. Then, when it cooled, I poured it over ice and then added some fat free half and half. It was just "okay". The flavors were right, but it just didn't taste rich enough. I know that in restaurants, they use sweetened condensed milk or real cream instead of the fat free stuff, but I was trying to lighten things up. Next time I will try it with the sweetened condensed milk for sure.

And finally, Friday was "Foodie Friday". This was probably my favorite day this week. I am a chef, but most of the food I make for my food business is more day to day food and the same goes for the meals I make for my family. It was fun to make something a little more fancy for a change.
I made a mushroom and kale risotto. So so yummy! The mushrooms came from the same Asian market where I got the Thai tea. And the kale came from my own garden! I am looking forward to stepping up my game for next week!

All in all, I had fun and it was cool to hear the feedback from my snapchat followers as I went along.

If you joined me on snapchat all week, thank you so much! If not, add me and join me this week!!



Please follow me anywhere and everywhere!
www.thesoapychef.etsy.com
www.facebook.com/thesoapychef
www.instagram.com/the_soapy_chef
snapchat: https://www.snapchat.com/add/soapychef
Twitter: www.twitter.com/thesoapychef
YouTube: https://goo.gl/bEur1Q