Don't eat that!

I jumped on the band wagon!  

Not this one!

The DIY bandwagon...  I made my own liquid laundry detergent last week.  I'm not sure I did it right...  Is it SUPPOSED to be that watery??  

Wondering if my version would be helped by also beating our clothes on rocks...  The clothes don't still smell... maybe it's ok...

Anywho!  This weekend I made my own dish washer tabs!  We've had fits with our dishwasher for a LONG time.  We have hard water and I'm sure there is build up in the tubing for the top rack because it just doesn't get hit as hard as the bottom...  So I've been working on it.

Someone passed on some news from their dishwasher repair guy (so it's 2nd hand advice) (now third) that the little store bought dishwasher tab gel covers may not dissolve all the way and the little gummy bits get caught and clog up inside the spinny water shooter thingys.  (I don't think that was the actual label for that part) but you know what I mean...  So a month or so back, I switched to the powder again.  Eh.  It's ok, but not great yet.

So I found this recipe via Pinterest.  The credit goes to, of ALL things, Raisingheathens...  I threw Holy water at my computer screen and clicked on the link.

I made little briquets of the tabs by using my mini muffin pan.  I keep them in an old container of store bought dish tabs because if I had a cutesie glass jar sitting around the kitchen, someone would break it.  

It was super easy to make and after they'd dried about 30 minutes or so, Meri knocked them out onto some wax paper.  She hit the back of each piece of muffin tin with my meat tenderizer hammer.  They dried to hard little rocks by the next day.  

That night my mother-in-law asked what we had baked.  Umm... Don't eat those.

The finished product is a smidge too big to drop in the actual slot in the dishwasher so I just drop one into the silverware holder.

 

Dishwasher tab recipe

1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda
1/2 cup sea, kosher, or other coarse salt - I used Sea Salt because I had some on hand.
1/2-3/4 cup lemon juice, from a bottle

Stir well and use the medium Pampered Chef cookie dough scoop to make them uniform in size.  We used a bit of Saran wrap to press each one down into the muffin tin piece.

So far, I think they're doing well in the dishwasher!  I still pour in a little vinegar with each batch too.

What DIY thing do you do that you are liking the result of?