Homemade Dishwasher Soap

I tried something new today and I am really happy with how it worked.  I'm trying to do more than just pin ideas and actually try some of them.  ha ha   I made the dishwasher soap and used it today and my dishes look great. I also put vinegar in the rinse agent spot like it said and I plan on continuing to do that, too.  I'll put the recipe below and also the website that I got it from.


Home Made Dishwasher Detergent

• 2 c borax
• 2 c Arm & Hammer washing soda
• 2 c lemi shine*
• 1 c kosher salt

 The borax, washing soda and lemi shine should be in the laundry and dishsoap section  Kosher salt should be with the baking items.  

  

 

1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir until mixed.
2. The citric acid in the lemi shine will make everything get a bit hard.   The lady suggested letting this mixture sit out in a bowl for a couple of days, stirring often so that's what I'm doing. You will still get a few little "balls" of detergent, but that is just fine!  You just don't want it all in one big piece!  
3. The lemi shine suggests running an empty dishwasher cycle with just that in order to clean your dishwasher.  
4. Fill your rinse aid spot with white vinegar.  I did this and the dishes looked great!
5. Use 1 tbs of detergent per load of dishes.  I do about a 30/70 split with 30% in the pre-wash spot and 70% in the wash spot.  If you don't have a prewash spot, you can put it all in the wash spot. My first time using it I did use 1 - 1/2 TBSP

*You can experiment with the lemi shine amount.  The original recipe that the lady on the website found  called for only 1 cup but said to add more if you have hard water.
http://simplydesigning.blogspot.com/2011/05/hard-water-stains-dishwasher-detergent.html