VEGAN OPULENCE: Homemade Dishwashing Detergent Tablets

I'm on a quest to make all of my own stuff. Whatever it be, I want to figure out a way to do it myself, thus saving money (product, containers, gas, make-up to go get item ;) ), time, our health, and the earth (not to mention I just love creating things)! I started with Homemade Laundry Detergent, easy Homemade hand-soap, All purpose cleaner, and there are at least three others that come to mind that I'm going to try and perfect before exposing the world to them. This one was actually my favorite to make. I guess because it makes cute little detergent cubes that are well-structured and self-contained...? I don't know, but anyway, this is really easy, especially considering I already had 3 of the 4 ingredients. The two main ingredients are also two of the main ingredients in the homemade laundry detergent. Do you see how all of this is starting to pull together and make money saving sense?

This is an old 52 oz jar of coconut oil that I washed. I couldn't get the sticker paper off, so I just wrote on it!

Like I always mention (because I know how I think when looking at homemade recipes) if you're wondering "why would I go buy this stuff when I could just buy the pre-made detergent?" Well, the answer is that this is WAY cheaper. You buy a big box or canister of each, and you can make this recipe over and over, not to mention these ingredients can be used for a variety of other homemade recipes. Plus these ingredients are considered natural and safe!

Ingredients:

1 Cup of Borax (found in the laundry aisle)

1 Cup of Super Washing Soda (laundry aisle, not the same as baking soda)

1 Cup of Lemi-shine (dish detergent isle) OR you can also use citric acid, I've even heard of people using powdered lemonade. I think you could use lemon juice, but I haven't come up with the ratios for that yet.

1/2 Cup of Kosher salt or Epsom salt

Vinegar for your rinse cycle (if you have hard water)

All of these ingredients are considered "natural" and straight from the earth. Lemi-shine is basically just citric acid derived from fruit. You can purchase citric acid in bulk online for considerably cheaper than the Lemi-shine. Even though the Lemi-shine is cheap, I always like to go as cheap as possible. I'll be ordering my citric acid today.

You'll also need:

A closable container (I've re-used a 52 oz jar of coconut oil, washed of course! A tupperware container or even a ziplock will do)

3 plastic ice trays

A bowl or ziplock to mix the ingredients in

(these things can be washed and re-used of course, this is not poison :))

A mixing spoon

A tablespoon for measuring

Directions:

Mix Ingredients well in a medium sized mixing bowl or a large ziplock

Spoon 1 Tablespoon into each cube of the ice trays (feel free to use 1 tablespoon of the powder if you need detergent right away, the detergent is finished at this point, we just want to mold it into cubes)

Set aside (where children can't reach) for 24 hours (don't mess with it, it has to stiffen up)

After 24 hours break tabs out, and put them in your container!

Use 1 per load, and always use a little vinegar in your rinse cycle if you have hard water. Otherwise you'll have streaky or foggy dishes.

If you don't have ice trays, you can get creative, or you can put this in a mixing bowl and let it sit out for 2 days, stirring occasionally. If you don't stir, the citric acid will make this one big block! You'll need a knife or ice pick then :(. The ice trays are WAY less fuss in my mind.

This makes 48 loads. Feel free to double or even triple the amount, if you wash a lot of dishes! Here are the pictures of what this process looks like: