How To Make Homemade Dishwasher Detergent Cubes
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of Borax (purchased at Walmart for $3.13)
- 2 cups of Baking Soda (or Washing Soap)
- 2 packets of unsweetened lemonade (or Essential Oils)
- 1/2 cup of Kosher Salt
- 1/2 cup of vinegar
- ice cube trays (I used mask shaped trays from Everything’s A Dollar $1 each and regular trays that I already had at home.)
- wax paper (optional)
- 1/2 cup Lemi Shine (If you notice that after making your batch that a film starts to get on your dishes after a short time, try adding this to the next batch that you make. Or go ahead and add now for your first batch.)
Directions
Pour Borax into a mixing bowl.
Add in the baking soda or washing soda.
Pour the kosher salt into the bowl with other ingredients.
I used 2 packets of the lemonade. I wanted a really lemony scent! (You may use essential oil if you would like.)
Stir to blend the ingredients.
This is the fun part! Pour the vinegar into the bowl. The vinegar will cause bubbling to began. (We have done so many experiments with vinegar for homeschool that I thought I was teaching another lesson.)
Your mixture should look somewhat like this. It should still be a little moist so that you will be able to press it down and mold it into the ice cube trays.
I used regular trays and the mask-shape trays. I couldn’t just stick with the simple/regular trays. You need to pack them really tight so that it binds better when it hardens. Notice how I began packing it down in the blue tray. How many trays you use will definitely depend on how hard you pack them down. Of course, my mask trays are smaller in depth, so I used a total of 2 regular trays and 3 mask trays.
Now, you’re suppose to set them in a sun-filled area (probably inside of your house) and let them harden for about 24 hours. Personally, after making this, I think that it takes a couple of days to really harden to a good solid feel. Of course, you should definitely remember to pack them down really tight. Since, it was almost 85 degrees yesterday, (Did I mention that I’m a winter girl?) I set mine on the steps until the sun went down and then brought them inside. The following morning, I set them back outside again. I’m sure these will continue to harden as time passes.
After they have hardened, remove from the trays. After emptying a couple of trays, I found that if I put wax paper around them while emptying, the cubes came out better. It was for more of a precaution, than a necessity. The regular ice tray cubes are actually too big for my dishwasher. Of course, you could always fill the tray half-way and pack it down to make smaller tablets for the dishwasher. Too late for me though. I filled mines to the top. The mask shape cubes are the perfect size for me.
These are some close-ups of the mask-shape cubes. So cute!
So, how did it work in the dishwasher? The first shot is a picture of my glass using a n0-name brand of dishwasher liquid that I had at home. The second shot is a picture after using the homemade cubes. That is not bad at all! Second picture of the glass looks great! Now, I must say also that I used vinegar in the Jet Dry rinse container when I used the homemade cube. I’ve never used vinegar in my rinse container. My mother told me to use vinegar a long time ago, but I never did. However, when trying the homemade cubes, I decided to and there is definitely a difference. These will definitely not go to waste. (I only used 1 cube in the dishwasher.)
Contact/Location
Sharon Hodge
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