Homemade Dishwashing Detergent and Toilet Bowl Cleaner

Making your own cleaners, pet foods, and toiletries can save you a ton of money and there are many recipes for these things online.   The problem with some of them is you have to purchase so many ingredients to make them. Sometimes the expense is well worth it because it makes your cleaner or lotion many times over.

I’ve found that some of the recipes online are not cheaper to make however people love them simply because they are more organic and not full of chemicals. My blog is about saving money so I’m in the process of trying different recipes for money-saving products around-the-house right now.  So far I’ve made dishwashing detergent, toilet bowl bombs, and cat food.

For the cat food recipe, I’ve already written an article about how much it cost and the ingredients needed to make it. For my cat, I made a 40 days supply for around $40.00. You can read it here.

Toilet Bowl Bombs and Regular Dishwashing Pods

The toilet bombs were only a few ingredients and cost me about 90 cents for about 24 of them.  I love them because they fizz and make suds as you brush the bowl. They are also made of ingredients you have at home or can get at any grocery store. Here is the recipe and a video to watch.

The dishwasher detergent, in the beginning, was the same as the toilet bowl bombs because in the video said they could be used for both. I found they were not strong enough to get my dishes as clean as I wanted, so I have made an adjustment to the recipe.  See first recipe and video below.

1 Cup Baking Soda

1/4/Cup Citric Acid (found by canning supplies in grocery store)

1 Tablespoon Liquid Dish Soap

Dry overnight before flipping out of the mold for best results.  I tried doing it sooner and they fell apart.

I was going to make laundry detergent next but decided against it because I only pay $1 for my detergent and it works well for me. I get a bottle at the Dollar General (on their dollar row) that will give me 32 loads and only cost $1. My husband wears uniforms to work and they wash the uniforms.  I work at home on the computer so our clothes aren’t that dirty. If you have children that play out in the dirt you may need to make one.  I can usually get shampoo for $1 and toothpaste as well so I will not be making those products.

The recipe for toilet bowl bombs may work great for your dishwasher as well, however, I have extremely hard water and needed something different.  Here is a recipe for hard water dishwasher detergent.

Dishwashing Detergent (not pods) For Hard Water

2 Cups of Borax

2 Cups Arm and Hammer Washing Powder (not baking soda)

2 Cups Lemi Shine

1 Cup Kosher Sale

All the instructions can be found on a site I love called Simply Designing.  She explains how to mix and store this detergent for best results.  This recipe should last for a long time as you only use 1 tbs per a load of dishes.  Also, I put vinegar in my rinse container instead of Jet Dry and it works great.  Head over there and take a look!