Homemade Dishwasher Detergent!

I'm so excited to be sharing this with y'all! My mom, my sister and I made homemade dishwasher detergent (and laundry detergent, for that "recipe" click here) today! We just ran the dishwasher with it! I got this recipe from Being creative to keep my sanity!

So here's what you need!

1 Box Borax (4lbs 12oz or 76oz)(2.15kg) found in the detergent isle

1 Box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (55oz or 3lbs 7oz) found in the detergent isle

1/4 cup of Citric Acid (we had to get this at Sprouts) **NOTE: the recipe from the other blog says you can use 24 packages of unsweetened lemonade drink mix BUT it does stain your dishwasher and she suggests to use citric acid instead, so we did. I just thought I would let you know that you don't HAVE to use the Citric Acid, but we did.**

3 cups of Epsom Salt found in the pharmacy section

Lemi Shine rinse aid (this recipe does not work well without it) you can find Lemi Shine in the dishwasher detergent isle or you can use vinegar as a rinse aid. If your dishes are coming out with spots (which I HATE) then you need to use a rinse aide. 

Step One (and only):

             Mix the Borax, Arm and Hammer Washing Soda, salt and citric acid together in a large bowl and mix it all up! After you're finished mixing, put it in a container of your choice. We used a $5 container from Walmart and the whole batch fit inside perfectly AND *bonus* there's a little pouring spout (which I think is cute.. but I'm weird)! The soap will get hard spots over time, so far, there hasn't been a way around that. We did put 3 marshmallows on the top to help absorb moisture, so maybe that will help? We shall see!

To use:

          Put 1 tablespoon of detergent along with some Lemi Shine (follow the directions on the bottle to get the correct amount) and run your dishwasher! Enjoy your clean dishes!

In total this costs about $12 to make and with only using 1tbs for every use it's going to last a while! Yay for saving money! (If you want to check out how to make your own Laundry Detergent click here!

That's my Southern Soapbox (haha.. soap...)!