Homemade Dish Soap

In an effort to save money and to rid our household of harsh chemicals I have been making my own cleaning products. My first experience was my own laundry detergent. I have since made my own soap scum remover. My latest endevor has been dish soap.

I looked for a long time trying to find a recipe that made the most sense and this recipe is the one I decided to try. It includes only four main components and was rather simple to make:

I used Arm & Hammer Washing Soda, found in the laundry detergent aisle, Kirk's Castile bar soap, Tea Tree Oil essential oil, and white vinegar. The recipe I followed actually used liquid Castile soap, but I used the bar soap and just grated it. I also doubled my recipe so I don't have to make it that often.

Make sure to let it cool completey and stir well to make sure the soap dissolves into the mixture. There won't be a lot of suds, but I noticed I really didn't have any. I could see the soap was mixed well in the water, but suds have always made me feel like the soap was "working".  I have read, however, that you may have a better chance of suds if you have soft water. We have hard water so that is probably my problem. 

Cost wise this was very inexpensive. The Castile soap was $3.39 for three bars. So one recipe would be $.56. The washing soda is $3.24 for 55 oz. and we are only using 2 TBS! So you can see how extremely minimal the cost is to make.

I thought it worked pretty good. My dishes seemed to come out clean. I will keep you updated as I use it more, if you try it yourself please feel free to comment and share your experience!

Hope you enjoy!

UPDATE: In an effort to mix it better, I ended up making really foamy. I thought that the foam would go down like usual, but it stayed. I have still been using it. It is a little harder to squeeze out since the foam is so thick. Not sure if that was suposed to happen or not!