Furthering my quest of going toxic free and natural, I discovered that dishwashing detergent, even ‘claimed’ eco friendly, still have toxins in them. I was getting a little frustrated while looking for a suitable store natural brand because each one either had PEG’s or SLS’s or other toxins.
I looked on pinterest for a homemade recipie but they all had Borax in it. Borax is a very posionus substance if ingested so why would I use that on dishes or anything else in my house?
I’m not sure how I came across  this posting I think one of my friends sent it to me and I thought, why not try it?
So I edited the base of what she posted and then added my own variations as follows:
- 1 cup minus 1 tbsp of aluminum free baking soda
- 1/3 generous cup of citric acid (really full ‘mound on top’ cup)
- 1/3 under generous cup of  coarse salt (just under full cup)
- 20 drops of organic essential lemon oil
- white vinegar with 3 drops of organic essential lemon oil
I combined the dry ingredients in a bowl, then I added the drops of essential oil and mixed them again, I used a wooden spoon.
As Dr. David Suzuki suggests to use vinegar as a rinse agent, thats what I did, but added 3 drops of essential lemon oil. I’m sure you could use more or less.
I used 2 tbsps of the mix for my HE dishwasher that was full to the brim with dirty dishes and pots.
Make sure you store this in an air tight  glass container, the one below I laying around in my cupboard.
This morning (as we run our appliances at night to be more efficient and cost effective) when I looked at the dishes, they came out clean, streak free and smelled great.  I’ll keep posting how this goes for me, updates on when I have heavy dish loads or really greasy and see how it holds up.
My machine is a Bosch energy star high efficiency dishwasher.
***Update April 8, 2013***
I’m sorry for the late approval on comments, I was not receiving my proper email notifications but have now fixed that.
Some of the main questions is about the citric acid and essential oils; I found and researched these for myself, please don’t take my word or anyone’s word for products you are going to use. Look at the products yourself, investigate and come up with your own variation, then share with me what you find.
I’ve found that when my water softener wasn’t full, and not ‘softening’ the water, the solution didn’t work as well. I also found that regular vinegar worked a bit better than the orange peel/vinegar solution.
I am now alternating every other load, using the home made solution one load and then using  Seventh Generation Automatic Dishwasher Detergent on the next, I picked Seventh Generation because (taken from site) has these awesome things about it;
- Now contains enzymes for more cleaning power
- Chlorine free
- Phosphate free
- Non-toxic
- Plant-derived enzymes
- Biodegradable formula
- Scent derived from whole essential oils & botanical extracts (Lemon)
I’m not being paid by them nor have I received any promotional products or free things from them, I just discovered them at our health food store last week, when I ran out of my homemade solution.
I also take out the food trap and appliance and wash and clean separately every week, to keep the washer working as best as possible.
All the best!
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