Finally! My Magic Formula for Homemade Dishwasher Tabs!

YAAAAAYYYYYY!

Shall I yell it again? YAY!

What’s all the excitement about?  THESE!!!!

Backstory —> I went almost completely “green” last year, ridding my home of toxic chemicals while still keeping it clean and fresh.  And while I know that I did nothing that hadn’t been done in years past – I mean way way back in the day before all these newfangled products came along anyway –  It was a BIG score.  I have made everything from toilet fizzies to “soft scrub” to dish detergent.  But the ONE thing that I just had not been able to get just right is the dishwasher detergent.  Powder.  No.  Gel.  No.  Tabs. Uhm, no.  So I let it go and continued buying the most non-toxic eco-friendly version(s) I could find.  Unfortunately, those are also the most expensive.  No es bueno.

Not one to back down from a challenge or be defeated by one, I decided to give it a go again.  Truth… I had a revelation.  Maybe I should try using the individual ingredients I was mixing to try to make the commercial-like dishwasher detergent, starting with the basics.  Hmmm, now there’s a novel idea!  Since I ran out of the commercial junk and had a fully loaded dishwasher, this was as good a time as any.  I put equal amounts of baking soda, washing soda, salt, and lemon juice directly in the machine and ran it.  SUCCESS!  My DH only had to put 1 utensil back in the sink to rewash!  Hell, we put back more than that with the big brands!  I just chunk it up to not getting off stuck on gunk before putting it in the dishwasher.  Shruggs.

Since this simplest of “recipes” worked, I forged ahead and made a full batch into homemade dishwasher tabs using an egg mold.

Note:   The lemon juice was a revelation too!  Usually you’ll see folks using things like lemon kool-aid, Lemi-Shine, or other citric acid.  That got me to thinking…. WHY use all these when I can just go right to the source and use the actual lemon?!  Brilliant.
Also, there is absolutely NO WATER in these.  That means that they are super concentrated little power tabs.  There are virtually NO big brands that can say that – every single cleanser that I ever bought included water as 1 of the main ingredients (i.e. they are mostly water, something that should be practically FREE).

My lesson in all this – don’t over think things.

Enjoy.

<Editted to add…>  On the first wash load, I added a cup of vinegar in my rinse cycle out of fear of cloudiness (a problem I’ve had with previous formulas).  After that first time, I did not add vinegar, but I also did not use the “heated dry” option.  Instead I just opened the dishwasher and let the dishes air dry.  Not a spot or bit of film or cloudiness in sight!  Just to be safe though, I added vinegar to the final formula that I made into tablets.