Over the last year, I’ve been able to experiment with homemade laundry soap and homemade dishwasher detergent. After that last bit, folks were writing in, asking about dish soap–you know, the kind you use in the sink, not the dishwasher.
Now, I have to say, the few times I’ve run out of dish soap, I just watered down some of the laundry soap, added a little bit of vinegar, a pinch of washing soda, and used really, really hot water. Rinsed the dishes in very hot water and vinegar too. Everything turned out fine, except the skin on my hands got pretty dry, even though I’d worn rubber gloves.
Yes, You Can Make It Yourself
I found recipes on the following websites that looked interesting, and from the comments, seemed to get good results, but they both use tea tree oil. I’m allergic to that, and was unable to convince my usually willing friends to “help me with a work thing.” I’m guessing they draw the line at the supper dishes.
http://frugallysustainable.com/2011/09/homemade-liquid-dish-soap-that-really/
http://thehumbledhomemaker.com/2012/04/easy-homemade-liquid-dish-soap-homemade_24.html
The Trials
Non-Castile Bar Soap formula
http://www.rodale.com/homemade-dish-detergent
Includes tips for homemade dishwasher detergent and automatic dishwasher cleaner. I liked the dishwasher cleaner recipe. The dish detergent was OK, but nothing to shout from the rooftops.
Castile, Soap Flakes ( like Ivory) or grated soap bars formula
http://www.diylife.com/2009/08/03/how-to-make-your-own-dish-soap/
I found this very similar to the laundry soap recipe to make, and I didn’t like that my dishes felt rather greasy after I used it. I tried the castile and Ivory soap flake variations, and still wasn’t very impressed.
The Results
My water is pretty hard–even though it’s city water–so that could be something affecting the performance of the various formulas. In the long run, at least as long as I’m at this house, I’ll probably wimp out and use ‘boughten’ dishwashing soap. But I always know that in a pinch, I can use my watered-down laundry soap!
