Homemade dishwasher soap tablets are an easy to make recipe and are very inexpensive at 3 cents a piece! I’ve been using this recipe for years and love them. This continues to be one of my most popular recipes year after year!
Providing financially for a family of 8 is always a balancing act. When my older kids were babies, I couldn’t believe how much money it cost to provide for their basic needs. If only I could go back to those cheap days! Babies don’t even compare in cost to teenagers and college students.
*KA-BOOM*
That is what happened to my budget once my kids hit high school. College made a sound that is only audible to creatures in another realm.
As a result, I am always on the search for simple ways to cut my expenses. You already know how much I love obsess over my DIY cleaning and laundry products. Yes, they are extremely cheap compared to the store bought stuff, but the fact that they work great has me permanently converted.
I am proud to introduce you to my newest DIY product that I have added to my repertoire. Homemade dishwasher soap in tablets! I decided to give them a try because I already had the products on hand from my other recipes. What could it hurt, right? I am now converted and have I mentioned they only cost 3 cents each!I think that beats the enormous price I was paying for my tablets before 🙂
This homemade dishwasher soap mixes together really quick and I learned through experience that you need to be sure they are wet enough to form or they fall apart. Also, to keep them from sticking to your hands, I have found wet hands makes it so much easier. If you have sensitive skin, you might want to wear disposable gloves when forming the tablets. When forming your first tablet, be sure it fits into the dispenser of your dishwasher. Flat rectangles work for mine, but every machine is different!
Want more great DIY cleaning products? Here are our favorites!
Make your own tablets at home that are inexpensive and easy to make!
Total Time:1 hour 10 minutes
Yield:22 tablets 1x
Ingredients
Scale
1 C Borax
1 C Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
1/2 C Epsom salt
3/4 C lemon juice
Instructions
1. Mix dry ingredients together in a medium sized bowl. Add the lemon juice and mix completely. You want the mixture to be wet enough to mold without falling apart. Add additional lemon juice if needed.
2. These dry very quickly so working quickly and one at a time, portion out a tablet around 2 tablespoons. I used a small cookie scoop. With wet hands, form the tablet into whatever shape needed to fit the soap dispenser in your dishwasher. Place on a sheet of wax paper and let dry for a few hours before putting in a storage container. If a tablet happens not to fit into the dispenser, just toss it in the bottom of your dishwasher.
Author:Carole Jones
Prep Time:10 minutes
Cook Time:1 hour
Category:Cleaning
Method:No bake
Cuisine:American
Nutrition
Serving Size:1 tablet
Calories:0
Sugar:0
Sodium:0
Fat:0
Saturated Fat:0
Unsaturated Fat:0
Trans Fat:0
Carbohydrates:0
Fiber:0
Protein:0
Cholesterol:0
Carole Jones
Carole Jones is an Arizona-based cookbook author & food blogger. She's authored The 30 Minute Cooking From Frozen Cookbook and the self-published Take 5: Chicken e-cookbook. For the past 15 years, Carole has shared her culinary adventures cooking and baking for her six brutally honest children here on My Kitchen Escapades. Hot, crusty bread is Carole's love language, but her two adorable grandchildren are a close second. Yes, second. Don't judge.
106 comments
Carole
13 years ago
I’m not quite sure!!! I have some under my sink that have been there for over a month. Wish I had some ideas for you!
Andrea
13 years ago
Is the lemon juice you use lemon juice concentrate?
Andrea
13 years ago
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ebony Clewis
13 years ago
Carole! I used this mixture as was recommended by my friend Tiffany Holland from Indiana! I decided to place the mixture in an ice tray where the molds were made like stars!! The ice trays were from Walmart and were an unbelievable price of $0.50 for two. Then I went to the dollar store (Dollar Tree), and purchased a heavy weight star shaped clear glass bowl to put them in just yesterday. I made the mixture yesterday also. I am still waiting for it to completely. I was so anxious that I tried to see if the tablet would come out easily and they slid out like ice cubes would! I put them back in because again, they are not completely dry! I can’t wait to try them but I am going to get more bowls and make more to give away as Christmas presents! What a cool idea! Thanks a millions!
Oton Tooh
13 years ago
Hi, this is beautiful , thank you. Instead of epsom salt , can i use citric acid? or, all of the ingredients, plus the citric?
Carole
13 years ago
Oton – Since I have never tried it with citric acid, I really have no idea. The epsom salt is there to help soften. If you try it, let me know how it goes!
Nancy
13 years ago
My friend and I followed this recipe and it was really watery. We had to add more of all the ingredients except the lemon before we could form them???????
olsenfam6
13 years ago
I don’t see that anyone asked already, so I was wondering if you used real lemons or like a concentrate?
Carole
13 years ago
I used the stuff from a bottle but either would work!
Jessica Iaquilino
13 years ago
Made a small batch as an experiment, it worked SOOO much better than the Finish tablets I’d been using. I have an apartment sized (18″) dishwasher so I toss the tablets into the bottom, no residues, no more stuck on foods, it’s great! I do not have hard water so I didn’t really need to make any alterations. I am molding them in an ice cube tray which measures out perfect for my dishwasher, larger ones might need to use more.
Just a tip as I’m seeing that larger batches seem to ‘separate’ over time, I am pre-mixing all the dry ingredients into baggies to add the lemon juice to later, from there, just pour it into the trays to mold, no touching required!
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106 comments
I’m not quite sure!!! I have some under my sink that have been there for over a month. Wish I had some ideas for you!
Is the lemon juice you use lemon juice concentrate?
This comment has been removed by the author.
Carole! I used this mixture as was recommended by my friend Tiffany Holland from Indiana! I decided to place the mixture in an ice tray where the molds were made like stars!! The ice trays were from Walmart and were an unbelievable price of $0.50 for two. Then I went to the dollar store (Dollar Tree), and purchased a heavy weight star shaped clear glass bowl to put them in just yesterday. I made the mixture yesterday also. I am still waiting for it to completely. I was so anxious that I tried to see if the tablet would come out easily and they slid out like ice cubes would! I put them back in because again, they are not completely dry! I can’t wait to try them but I am going to get more bowls and make more to give away as Christmas presents! What a cool idea! Thanks a millions!
Hi, this is beautiful , thank you. Instead of epsom salt , can i use citric acid? or, all of the ingredients, plus the citric?
Oton – Since I have never tried it with citric acid, I really have no idea. The epsom salt is there to help soften. If you try it, let me know how it goes!
My friend and I followed this recipe and it was really watery. We had to add more of all the ingredients except the lemon before we could form them???????
I don’t see that anyone asked already, so I was wondering if you used real lemons or like a concentrate?
I used the stuff from a bottle but either would work!
Made a small batch as an experiment, it worked SOOO much better than the Finish tablets I’d been using. I have an apartment sized (18″) dishwasher so I toss the tablets into the bottom, no residues, no more stuck on foods, it’s great! I do not have hard water so I didn’t really need to make any alterations. I am molding them in an ice cube tray which measures out perfect for my dishwasher, larger ones might need to use more.
Just a tip as I’m seeing that larger batches seem to ‘separate’ over time, I am pre-mixing all the dry ingredients into baggies to add the lemon juice to later, from there, just pour it into the trays to mold, no touching required!