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
Lisa
13 years ago
Tried this recipe and I loved it! Do you mind if I link your page to my blog? I have a DIY section and I’d love to include this (crediting you, of course!) Thanks!
Carole
13 years ago
Glad you liked them Lisa and I would be honored to be on your blog. Thanks for your comment!
For those that asked…ACV cannot be substituted for the lemon juice. You can use vinegar (any kind) to help with the spots, but you MUST have some form of citric acid (aka the lemon). I’ve made a dry mix with lemon kool-aid before, and it worked fine. Anything with citric acid will work.
Anonymous
13 years ago
In Germany you cannot buy borax for personal use anymore because it might be harmful for the unborn. Maybe one should consider this, at least if someone’s pregnant?!
Carolyn
7 years ago
More harmful than alcohol?
I’d l8ke to see studies on that. It’d be good to know. Even though 8m WELL past that t8me in my life
Carolyn
7 years ago
Siiiigh, I’m sorry I didn’t proof that better. It’s hard to see the tiny letters (and numbers apparently) in the reply box.
E.M. Williams
13 years ago
I like this idea im gonna try it, but why couldn’t you just use like a small-ish ice tray or something similar and mash the mix into the cube slots… does this make sense to anyone else?
Anonymous
13 years ago
I tried this yesterday and it was way too wet to form. Woke up this morning to dried tops, but the bottoms were super mushy. I took the link back to the original recipe and it calls for 8-10 tbsp. of lemon juice instead of 3/4 of a cup, so I will try that next.
Alicia F
13 years ago
I just tried this last night and this morning I went to put them in a container and they crumbled… what did I do. I did use parchment paper not wax could that have done it?
Ouisher
13 years ago
I just made these & mine too were really wet. I just kept adding equal-ish amounts of the borax and washing soda & 1/2 amount(s) of epsom salts. (Per the recipe). It finally got to the point where I could form them. Assuming I make these again, I will use 1/2 the amount of lemon juice & just add more little by little if necessary. Hope they work!
Anonymous
13 years ago
I made them and also found a white film on dishes. I also used white vinegar in the rinse cycle. What do I need to do?
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106 comments
Tried this recipe and I loved it! Do you mind if I link your page to my blog? I have a DIY section and I’d love to include this (crediting you, of course!) Thanks!
Glad you liked them Lisa and I would be honored to be on your blog. Thanks for your comment!
Thanks so much! Here’s my post, if you’d like to read it: https://shoestringmom.com/2013/08/07/homemade-dishwasher-tablets/
For those that asked…ACV cannot be substituted for the lemon juice. You can use vinegar (any kind) to help with the spots, but you MUST have some form of citric acid (aka the lemon). I’ve made a dry mix with lemon kool-aid before, and it worked fine. Anything with citric acid will work.
In Germany you cannot buy borax for personal use anymore because it might be harmful for the unborn. Maybe one should consider this, at least if someone’s pregnant?!
More harmful than alcohol?
I’d l8ke to see studies on that. It’d be good to know. Even though 8m WELL past that t8me in my life
Siiiigh, I’m sorry I didn’t proof that better. It’s hard to see the tiny letters (and numbers apparently) in the reply box.
I like this idea im gonna try it, but why couldn’t you just use like a small-ish ice tray or something similar and mash the mix into the cube slots… does this make sense to anyone else?
I tried this yesterday and it was way too wet to form. Woke up this morning to dried tops, but the bottoms were super mushy. I took the link back to the original recipe and it calls for 8-10 tbsp. of lemon juice instead of 3/4 of a cup, so I will try that next.
I just tried this last night and this morning I went to put them in a container and they crumbled… what did I do. I did use parchment paper not wax could that have done it?
I just made these & mine too were really wet. I just kept adding
equal-ish amounts of the borax and washing soda & 1/2 amount(s) of epsom salts. (Per the recipe). It finally got to the point where I could form them. Assuming I make these again, I will use 1/2 the amount of lemon juice & just add more little by little if necessary. Hope they work!
I made them and also found a white film on dishes. I also used white vinegar in the rinse cycle. What do I need to do?