Dish Soap, Revisited
By Jenn | January 22, 2009
It’s time again to talk about dish soap. Because I’m almost out of dish soap.
A couple of months ago, as you undoubtedly recall, I had an encounter with crazy expensive bulk dish soap– and since I’m not looking to replicate that experience, it’s now time to either just buy another bottle of detergent or make my own… and Team Tiny Choices is always up for a DIY challenge!
Ya’ll may remember that Karina experimented with making her own, and while she did end up with a usable product, it just didn’t sound like it was all that fun to use. And washing dishes needs to be as fun as possible (except when you’re, you know, just washing dishes).
A few interweb searches later and I’m no closer to finding a tried-and-true recipe for homemade liquid dish detergent, so now I’m putting it out to you, dear Tiny Choosers:
Do you make your own dish soap? Do you have a formula to share?
[Image by via Creative Commons]
Related posts:
- The Story Of The Bulk Dish Soap
- Homemade Liquid Dish Detergent
- Low Phosphorus Detergent: A water waster?
- Using up ALL the bar soap
- Tiny Choices Q&A: How do you wash dishes?
- Tiny Choices Giveaway: Soap Nuts!
- Easy Peasy Tip: Use Bar Soap!
Topics: Crafts/DIY, Home |
I wouldn’t say that it isn’t FUN to use, but it is quite different. no suds, doesn’t dissolve well in water unless the water is smoking hot, but applied directly to a sponge or dishrag and then used on dishes (which is how I usually wash dishes, with minimal water) it is quite effective.
but it is WEIRD! I’ll bring you some tonight, so you can try it out.
Oh great, thanks! I’d love to try it out!
i guess this all depends on what you consider FUN to be when washing dishes. :) if you want to keep it simple and cheap, couldn’t you just use baking soda? there wouldn’t be any foam, but it’s pretty effective at cleaning. and hey, you could add some vinegar for foamy effects!
to be honest, i am lazy, and continue to buy dish soap. but i do buy the largest bottle of 7th Generation dish soap i can find, and use that to refill the smaller stainless steel pump bottle that I keep on the counter. Not as much fun as DIY, but it’s easy, cheap, and it works for us.
After a thoroughly unhappy attempt to make liquid dish soap out of old fragments of bar soap, I’ve used two things, either of which have worked well:
1. Dr. Bronner’s liquid soap concentrate diluted about 1:6. You’ll need to shake it before each use, but you’ll only need a little bit of it. And as a bonus, the same dilution makes a very nice shampoo.
2.Old-fashioned Octagon bar soap — I lather up my home-crocheted “tawashi” and use it until I need to lather it up again. If you keep the bar of soap dry between uses it will last for a month or more. I like this because there’s no plastic involved.
Check out “Better Basics for the Home” by Annie Berthold-Bond. She’s got recipes for everything (including dish soap). http://tinyurl.com/better-basics
Here’s my ‘home-perfected’ hand-washing dish liquid.
It’s a no-suds one (and it’s a bit runny, and it gets cloudy — so ’shake before use’) .
On the up-side, there is no cooking or grating required, and it funcutions just like commercial liquid, including grease cutting.
“Try This” Dish Liquid
1 cup Hot Water
1.5 tsp Washing Soda
1.5 tsp Borax
(stir that together until dissolved)
3 tbsp Vinegar
4 tsp (or 1 or 2 tbsp) Dr. Bronner’s (or other) Liquid Castile Soap
4 tsp (or 1 or 2 tbsp) Glycerine
1 tsp TKO Orange (or similar ‘orange oil concentrate’ product)
Let me know how this works for you-all, and if you think of any improvements.