Make Your Own Natural Dishwasher/Scouring Powder

15 drops each of Tea Tree and peppermint oil? If not, what's a good ratio? I personally don't like the smell of Tea Tree all that much. Does the peppermint balance that smell out?

I'm curious about the question of how to make this into a gel. What kind of liquid that's cheap could effectively dissolve the ingredients and suspend them that would also safely clean dishes and not add yucky stuff to the sewers? Other than glycerin, I have no idea.

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All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by frost. (LOTR)

Hata, I sit there and shake the dang bottle till I like the smell. Probably about ten each to be truthful. Next time I need a batch I'll make it while you're here and you can count.

Lynn Siprelle, Editor

Exciting! I'm looking forward to trying your recipe.

Lynn Siprelle, Editor

Try filling to the lines or dispenser(s) with the liquid laundry soap recipe that can be found online - works great!
Use vinegar in rinse dispenser.

What kind of water do you have? We have soft water here in Portland where I formulated this. You might need more salt. Fiddle with it. And also, as I said in the article, you can't leave food on the plates; it's just not that kind of cleaner, but then, most of the natural dishwasher powders won't dissolve the food.

Lynn Siprelle, Editor

We had a irridescent film on all the glassware. It scrubbed off by hand with a scouring pad but the dishwasher just put it back on.

I wasn't using salt, though, just the baking soda and borax. I've started doing 1 c. borax, 1 c. soda, and 1 c. Ecover dishwashing powder. It works beautifully. No more film, sparkling dishes, easy to make and easy on the checkbook.

Are you using a rinse-aid as well? Plain old vinegar in the rinse-well of the dishwasher is what I sometimes do.

If your water is medium- to very-hard you may need to either use more powder in the dispenser or add more salt or citric acid to the mix to soften the water. Citric acid, aka, sodium citrate, is among many other things, a water conditioner or softener.

If there's not a brew shop near you, you can get some in a pinch in the canning section of your grocery store. It's called "Fruit-Fresh(R)"--what you sprinkle on your apples to keep them from browning. It's mostly citric acid. That'll get you by for one batch or so until you can land a source. You can buy online at bulkfood.com or amazon.com, no less.

Keep trying, you'll hack it!

Anhata
www.familynaturally.com
Your Family's General Store, Naturally

"Toxic is as toxic does." Here's exactly what Wikipedia has to say:

Boric acid, sodium borate, and sodium perborate are estimated to have a fatal dose from 0.1 to 0.5g/kg.[5] These substances are toxic to all cells, and have a slow excretion rate through the kidneys. Kidney toxicity is the greatest, with liver fatty degeneration, cerebral edema, and gastroenteritis. Boric acid solutions used as an eye wash or on abraded skin are known to be especially toxic to infants, especially after repeated use due to its slow elimination rate.

Example: a 40-lb child is 18.1 kg, which means a fatal dose of borax would be between 1.81 and 9.5 g. That means that child would have to consume about a half-teaspoon to two teaspoons of straight, non-dilute borax, assuming a kid would eat something that nasty-tasting (keeping in mind that as nasty as it is, kids are weird). Of course, you don't keep household cleaners--any household cleaners, including baking soda--where your kid could reach them, right? RIGHT? And it would take a lot less, say, bleach, to severely injure or kill a child that size with a lot greater harm to the environment in general.

If you go to PesticideInfo.org, you'll see that borax is considered neither acutely toxic nor a likely carcinogen. That website is run by the Pesticide Action Network North America, which keeps an exhaustive database of environmental toxins.

Bottom line: Borax is a problem if you repeatedly expose someone, especially small someones, *directly* to it, usually as a strong solution applied to the skin or eyes. Otherwise, washing dishes and clothes with it is not a big deal; it rinses away and doesn't compromise the environment.

Lynn Siprelle, Editor

I wasn't using a great deal of water or time rinsing them off. Usually I just scraped the plate well the minute we were done with it and then took a wet, cold dishcloth to wipe the residual off before I put it in the dishwasher. Never even ran water over it.

And it really depends on the dishwasher. The modern ones will take a lot of food off the plates if not all, even WITHOUT dish soap. My old dishwasher--at least 20 years old if not older--would not.

Right now I don't have a dishwasher. We just got tired of the roll-around and got rid of it, and right now I do the dishes by hand.* Some day in the next five years we have plans to remodel the kitchen, and when that day comes we'll be putting in a modern, under-the-counter, water-saving dishwasher. yippee!

*Though! See this for progress on that front!

Lynn Siprelle, Editor

Yeah, it can get clumpy. You can put a dessicant packet in with it--you can usually find them inside vitamin jars, etc.

Lynn Siprelle, Editor

I've tried it myself and liked it.

Lynn Siprelle, Editor

I am on a search for dish liquid for hand washing...but not finding much...I have read my box of Borax but it just has a picture of dishes no instructions...a powder would be fine too....I use home made laundry detergent made from Ivory, Borax, and washing soda and water...about to try that if I can't find anything els

But it won't suds. I assume you're talking about my dishwasher recipe.

Lynn Siprelle, Editor

Are you looking for a homemade dishwashing liquid because it'd be cheaper, or because it'd be non toxic/less chemicals, or some other reason?

I ask because I looked and looked and couldn't find any recipes for homemade handwashing liquid. Then I found out that castille soap, which you can buy cheaply in bulk, and Crystal White, also very very cheap, are both non toxic/less chemicals/phosphate free/biodegradable dishwashing liquids.

I mostly use Crystal White for the kitchen now and castille soap to refill the liquid soap dispensers in the bathrooms. I have the foaming pumps so a half an inch of soap goes in the bottle, fill the rest of the bottle up with water, mix, and voila. I used Dr. Bronners (All One!) which is concentrated and lasts forever this way.

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Of all the wonders of nature, a tree in summer is perhaps the most remarkable; with the possible exception of a moose singing "Embraceable You" in spats.

-- Woody Allen

Absolute none!

hee. love dr. b's...

Lynn Siprelle, Editor

You can always try this: http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art29321.asp
But it doesn't suds up. It does clean very well, though!
Or, try using something similar to Dr. Bronner's... maybe make your own! http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/liquidsoap/ss/basicliquidsoap.htm
I LOVE this powder recipe for the dishwasher!!

I don't know.

Lynn Siprelle, Editor

If you've got the old stuff, why not just use up the rest of the old cleaning supplies as you normally would? As you say, throwing it away is needlessly wasteful.