Homemade Dishwasher Tablets

I ran out of dishwasher detergent and I don't need anything from the store so I decided after some years' break to make my own. I was inspired by this recipe a friend shared with me recently. I didn't want to use the lemon drink mix, and I am not very good at following recipes, I always change them a little (although I like to think of it as a skill it really is more of a handicap and changing recipes or not measuring because "real cooks don't measure" etc. doesn't always end up well...) so I came up with this recipe:


Homemade Lemon Scented Dishwasher Detergent Tablets

1 cup washing soda (if you don't have washing soda, no need to run into the store, although they have it at laundry aisles, just follow the instructions below how to MAKE some from baking soda!)
1 cup baking soda
1/2 cup citric acid
1/2 cup salt
(no need to use your fancy sea salts or pink Himalayan salts here, just the refined cheap table salt will do)
20 drops lemon essential oil
1 cup water

1. Make your washing soda from baking soda if you don't have any: Heat baking soda for 30 minutes in an oven proof dish in 400F and your baking soda magically becomes washing soda! This has something to do with chemistry, NaHCO3 becoming Na2CO3, but let's not go there. You can google it if you want to know more.
2. After the newly made washing soda has cooled down, mix in all the other ingredients. If you prefer powder form, just leave the water out and use as is.
3. Mix well, let it do its fizzing (I kept thinking that it could be useful for the dishwashing if the fizzing happened in the washer?) and form into little balls and let dry. You can also press the mixture in ice cube trays. I only had heart shaped ice cube molds and lego shaped molds so that's what I got... Fun and fancy.

TIP: Use vinegar instead of rinse aid.

Aren't they cute?

Follow this link to see my other nontoxic and homemade detergents recipes (there is another dishwasher detergent recipe too).