Try It In Your Dishwasher

Even though I don't use Rockin' Green for my diapers anymore, I still use it on my regular laundry. When I started running low on dishwasher detergent, I couldn't wait to try Rockin' Green in its place because I have heard from more than one source that many people use it as an almost 'universal' cleaner. Unfortunately, this is not the part where I tell you that it worked fabulously and I will never use anything else ever again. I found it to be fairly bad at getting my dishes clean, but this might be because I did not fill the soap dispenser in its entirety. Anyway, this prompted me to search for 'homemade dishwasher detergent' and this is what I found.

This website has a couple different recipes for homemade dishwasher detergent, but I chose to use 1 cup borax mixed with 1 cup washing soda. While reading answers on a forum discussing dishwasher problems, one reader suggested using the above mix with a few drops of dish washing liquid in the dispenser with straight vinegar as the rinse aid (which is what I had anyway) so that's what I did. I mixed 1 cup each borax and washing soda in a container, put two tablespoons and a small squirt of Dawn (it's hard to just do a few drops because it just comes right out :) ) into the dispenser and voila. Everything came out fine, no better or worse than when I used cascade. Of course, that was only one run and I am now on a quest to challenge this combo to see what it will and will not clean. I so hope it continues to work as this would be a very green (minus Dawn) and frugal option for me and anyone who wants to try it!