With a frugal mindset and looking to swap chemical cleaners for more natural alternatives in our housekeeping/cleaning, I was on the hunt for a simple, low cost, non-toxic dishwasher detergent. I had tried a few recipes in the past; some didn’t fit the simple requirement I was looking for, one worked for a time but due to hard water issues began leaving a terrible film. Others simply just didn’t work, that is until I found THIS recipe. Thank you doTERRA for creating an affordable, yet effective, non-toxic recipe that you can literally just throw together! I have been using this home-made dishwasher detergent for over a year and I am just as pleased with it now as I was when I first tried it. My dishes come out sparkling clean with no nasty residue. (And by the way, we still have hard water issues.) Are you curious if it really is as easy and effective as I say it is? Follow along with me as I walk you through it step by step. But first, a little calculating!
Ingredient and Price List:
Baking Soda 4 lb - $2.24 ($0.14 per cup)
Citric Acid 7.5 oz - $2.97 ($0.79 per ¼ cup)
doTERRA OnGuard Cleaner Concentrate 12 fl oz - Retail: $19.33 Wholesale: $14.50 ($0.81 per tablespoon)
doTERRA Grapefruit Essential Oil 15 ml - Retail: $24 Wholesale: 18.00 ($0.10 per drop)
Total cost per batch - $1.84
Approximately 10 loads per batch (1/4 cup)
Grand total per load of dirty dishes: $0.184
Whew, enough of that math stuff (my head is spinning), I am about 99% confident that those numbers are pretty accurate ;) Please don’t fault me too much if I am off. You get the picture though, this recipe is definitely low cost, which I LOVE!
The Baking Soda and Citric Acid, I buy from Walmart and the OnGuard and Grapefruit I purchase from doTERRA. I am a Wellness Advocate so I receive the wholesale prices, which makes it cost even less for me! If you would like to find out how you can get the wholesale prices too, click on the ‘Contact Us’ tab and send me a message for more information.
Now on to the fun stuff! It really is almost like a science experiment in the kitchen!
You will notice that the mixture will expand as you are waiting. Don’t get too freaked out, it will fall back down but it can catch you a little off guard the first time or so. Just make sure you choose a large enough bowl. doTERRA’s recipe calls for molds to make tabs… while tabs may be more aesthetically pleasing because of the expansion, I really didn’t think it worked well and I don’t have the patience to continually flatten the molds for 4 hours, SO this is the lazy man’s version and I think it works just as well. After waiting the 4 hours you will want to break apart what is left in the bowl until it is a powder consistency. Lastly pour into a glass storage container, I like mason jars, and you are ready to go!
We pre-rinse all of our dishes and we also use distilled white vinegar as our rinse aid. I put the detergent in the wash and pre-wash compartments in my dishwasher. And that’s it; super simple, super inexpensive and super effective. I just can’t say enough, HOW MUCH I LOVE this recipe! I hope you will too!!