CLEAN IT TUESDAY | two ingredient dishwasher detergent
A couple of weeks ago, a friend posted a link on Facebook for homemade dishwasher detergent using only baking soda and dish soap. I was immediately intrigued because 1) it was only two ingredients 2) they were ingredients I already had on hand and 3) these days I'm looking for any way I can to save money.
The next day, armed with my camera to document the process, I loaded my dishwasher without scrubbing any dishes. I wanted to test the true cleaning power of this new concoction.
I chose four dishes in various locations in the dishwasher for my testing process. Again, I chose not to scrub or rinse out my dishes before washing.
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| Dried leftover applesauce from my son's snack the day before. Blech. |
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| The last remnants of my mother-in-law's cake that my husband devoured. |
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| Leftover plate from our dinner the night before. That A1 was really dried on. |
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| It's hard to tell, but in the bottom of this mug was honey and herbal tea. |
The original post that I read was pretty vague about how much baking soda or dish soap to use. She said that she just sprinkled the bottom of her dishwasher with baking soda (she estimated about 2 tablespoons) and put two-ish drops of soap into the dispenser. So the first time, I did exactly that. I put 2 tablespoons of baking soda and 2ish drops of soap.
However, through some trial and error I have come to this altered measurement that works for my size dishwasher (which is on the smaller side).
- 1 Tablespoon of baking soda sprinkled on the bottom of the dishwasher
- 3/4 teaspoon of dish soap to be placed INSIDE the soap dispenser
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| 1 Tablespoon of Baking Soda |
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| 3/4 teaspoon of Dish Soap |
Hitting start on your dishwasher knowing that you have dish soap inside can be a little nerve wracking. I am well aware of how quickly soap bubbles can fill a kitchen! So if you are anything like me, you might want to check on your dishwasher every few minutes or so the first time you try this. And if you are going to err one way or another, I would err on not enough soap over too much.
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| A full load! |
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| Applesauce... GONE. |
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| Chocolate Cake... GONE. |
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| A1... GONE. |
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| Honey... GONE. |
Totally impressed. It cleaned all of my dishes... zero food remained. What is even better than that? Each load only costs mere pennies. Pennies!
Would I do it again? Yes! I've been doing it ever since! The one time I have used my old store bought dishwasher detergent I actually had to re-wash three dishes. Craziness.
Now, there is one complaint that I have. The baking soda can sometimes leave a film on plastic-ware. You can't really see it, but I can feel it on my son's sippy cups. I have tried to reduce the baking soda to see if that helped, but the dishes didn't get as clean when I did that. It's a negative I can overlook for the money that we will be saving.
*Special Note*
My specific measurements may not be the most effective for your dishwasher. As I previously mentioned, I have a small dishwasher. If you have a larger dishwasher, you may want to increase your measurements but I would recommend doing it slowly, testing your new measurements out over a couple of loads.Good luck and happy money saving!