Because I have been struggling with morning sickness, things go unattended to and I've not made it to the store as often as I have needed. That being said, necessity is the mother of invention.
I ran out of dish washing detergent for our dish washer. I hopped on line and searched for a home made recipe.
Behold, the world's cheapest way to wash dishes!
What you will need:
washing soda
borax
white distilled vinegar
Mix equal parts washing soda and borax together (both two of the cheapest washing products under the sun). I did a half of a cup of each in a plastic Tupperware. Mix/shake ingredients together so they are mixed well. To wash a load of dishes dump 1 tsp of mixture, yes folks, only 1 teaspoon of the mixture into the bottom of your dish washer. Fill the compartment that is labeled for detergent, ( the one that pops open to release the stuff, not the one that has the holes for the detergent to leak out) use with distilled vinegar. (I put some vinegar into a squirt bottle and don't even measure this out just squirt until it is almost full. I can't imagine that i use fore than 1/4 C vinegar for each load.) Then run your dishes as you normally do.
Know that your dishes will NOT smell like vinegar after they are washed. Trust me, I currently have a pregnant nose and would know if they did. This has been wonderfully helpful and it took awhile for me to perfect. The measurement was not right on the recipe I found so I had to come up with what would work. If you use too much borax/washing soda mixture, your dishes will be covered in subtle white residue. I also poured my vinegar into the rinsing boost place in my dish washer and there was the same white residue. Be sure to follow the directions I outlined and your dishes should come out nice and clean!
Try it out. It will save you $$ and tips to the store. :)
