Monday, November 28, 2011

Super Easy homemade dishwasher soap

Of course I stole this off Pinterest, but it was SO easy that I wanted to post it so "all" could see....and to run the numbers on whether it is cheaper. (since I'm in such a numbers-crunching mood, it seems).

Ingredients (all found at Walmart):

2 cups Lemi Shine
2 cups Super Washing Soda
2 cups Borax
1 cup Kosher salt
White vinegar for rinsing aid

Instructions:  mix and dump.  1 Tbs per load.

Cost breakdown:
Lemi shine (used all):  3.77
Borax:  .71
Washing soda:  1.12
Salt (had on hand, but whatever):  1.00
Vinegar (had on hand) : not including because this is a rinse aid
Total cost:  $6.60
Number of loads:  112
Cost per load:  $0.059

Compare to Cascade (75 ounce package):  Cost per load:  $0.65.  BUT, this is per TBS and Cascade recommends more than this per load.

Conclusion:  So it saved a few bucks in all.  And I'm not a scientist...so I can't set whether the ingredients in the Arm & Hammer and Borax are "healthier" than those in Cascade. But I think over the long run this will be cheaper and easier, especially when you only use 1/4 to 1/3 of the boxes of washing soda and borax...you'll only need to buy the Lemi Shine every other month or so.  Makes things easy.


Bigger-Deal Conclusion:  My dishes were cleaner and shinier.  Glasses weren't grimy and "foggy", but squeaky clean and sparkly.  For this reason, I love the homemade dish soap!

4 comments:

peter marie said...

Your baby food looks awesome!

Totally going to do this dishwasher soap when I'm out of my current stuff. I just can't find a brand that does the job and this sounds fantastic!

une autre mère said...

I was waiting to hear if it made your dishes shinier. So glad it did! I'll have to hop on the bandwagon! :)

Julie said...

Ooooh Im going to try this!

Anonymous said...

I'm with Katie. Hopping on the bandwagon. We buy the Target or HyVee cheap stuff, and it does about as well as Cascade, but I like the sound of this better. And white vinegar--my staple cleaner--why haven't I thought of that? Thanks, Liz! --Jess