Homemade Dish Soap for hard water areas!

Last night I discovered another wonderful item that I can make at home and save the difference.  I have never been pleased with the dish detergent that we buy from the store.  I always found that it left a cloudy residue behind.  I have been trying different types of homemade detergent not really finding one that really helped the situation.  I even found a lot that made the dishes worse!

I came to realize that the hardest problem I was having was hard water.  We live in a very small community and our water is extremely hard.  The copper in the water really made it hard to get anything clean.

After searching and searching for weeks to find something I stumbled across this recipe. I tweaked it for hard water and I have not tried it in an area that does not have hard water.

Dish Detergent
Generic Walmart Brand 2.98 ~ 75oz

Homemade Detergent

8 oz Washing Soda ( Make sure it's washing soda and not baking soda). You can find this at Walmart in the laundry section.  Cost = $3.24 for 55oz Cost for this recipe = .47 cents

8oz 20 Mule Team Borax You can find this at Walmart in the laundry section as well.  Cost = $3.48 for 76 oz  Cost for this recipe = .37 cents

4 oz Kosher Salt.  I found this in the baking section at Walmart.  Cost = $1.68 for 48oz Cost for this recipe = .14 cents

4 oz citric acid.  I use Lemi Shine because it helps a lot with hard water. I highly recommend getting this brand.  It will be the most expensive aspect of this recipe but so worth it.  You can find it in the same isle you found dish detergent at Walmart  You could use unsweetened lemonade packets.  Cost = $3.66 for 12 oz Cost for this recipe = $1.22

Total Cost for this recipe = $2.20 for 48 loads or 4.5cents per load

Savings of  $6.74 (I get about 15 loads out of a bottle at Walmart so 3 bottles would be needed to do the same number of dishes that 1 batch of this recipe)

Mix all ingredients together and store in a mason jar with a lid.  Use 1 TBSP per load.  For best results use while distilled vinegar in the rinse dispenser.  For hard water I add about .5 TBSP of extra Lemi Shine. 

The plate on the left is after 1 washing with this recipe. The plate on the right is after 1 washing with store bought detergent.