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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