How to Make Your Own Dish Soap: a Pinterest Project

The following is written by guest contributor Loren Powell.

CNN and Mashable recently hosted a contest that encouraged readers to recreate a pin from Pinterest (we're newly obsessed, and you can follow us here!). For my project, I chose to make homemade DIY dish soap — you can see the original pin here.

Cutting Chemicals and Cost

In my quest to live a sustainable life, I have faced the reality that greener is definitely not cheaper, and green alternatives often produce underwhelming results. What has stopped you from making eco-friendly choices in the past, convenience? That's the magic word these days, and everyone knows it. In my experience, making your own cleaning products is the easiest way to cut chemicals as well as costs, without sacrificing convenience. Plus, you know exactly what's going into your cleaning supplies. Who really knows how to interpret the back of a 409 bottle anyway?

Your typical dish detergents are petroleum-based and filled with emollients, chemicals and fragrance. Did you know that federal law does not require these companies to test for consumer safety? Cleaning products use what is classified as industrial chemicals, which are not adequately regulated. If every household in the U.S. replaced one bottle of dish detergent a year with a greener alternative, we could save 81,000 barrels of oil.

The Project

So, I say out with the old, in with the new. Tons of information can be found on green cleaning, but today I am here to talk about how easy it was for me to replace my petroleum-based dish detergent with homemade dish soap. Your ingredients:

• 1 box of Borax (4lb. 12 oz.)
• Epsom Salt (3 cups)
• Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (3lb. 7 oz.)
• Citric Acid (1.5 cups)
• Lemi-Shine as a rinse aid

I saw several pins on Pinterest with different recipes for dish soap. Some used baking soda, and some used washing soda. I decided to go with washing soda, because it is more caustic than baking soda. Frankly, that just means it works better. Your real cleaning power comes from the citric acid. Some recipes called for lemon kool-aid packs instead of citric acid, but they also mentioned that it may stain the dishwasher yellow. If this is something you’re interested in, the equivalent to 1.5 cups of citric acid would be 24 packs of unsweetened lemonade drink mix.

You may have difficulty locating citric acid. I called around to various nutrition/supplement stores first — that was a bust, but I lucked out and found what I needed at a local grocery chain in the canning aisle. It was labeled as Fruit Fresh Produce Protector by Ball, also known as — citric acid.

1. Mix borax, epsom salt, washing soda and citric acid together in a very large bowl (or a trash bag, whatever works). DO NOT add the Lemi-Shine. It is used as a rinse aid, and is not part of the actual recipe — although it is a necessary part of getting your glasses spot-free. The Lemi-Shine is added separately by load. You also have the option of replacing the Lemi-Shine with white vinegar.
2. Now put your detergent in a pretty container, get yourself a cheerful scoop, and voila! It takes about 2 tablespoons of detergent and one tablespoon of Lemi-Shine per load. At that rate, you can clean a lot of dishes very cheaply. Good luck!

Do you have anything to add? Have you tried it yourself? We would love feedback! And don’t forget to follow the new Coffee Table boards on Pinterest.