I love making my own dishwasher tablets because it saves me a ton of money, smells divine, and gives me a sense of accomplishment and control over my choices. Not to mention that a mason jar of these hanging out on the counter just looks pretty! They leave your dishes clean ( I use them in a combination with vinegar as my rinse aid in the dispenser) and smell so fresh and bright. These Homemade Dishwasher Tablets take less than 5 minutes to make!
Feel free to experiment with your favorite essential oils to create a smell you love.
Homemade Dishwasher Tablets
Ingredients:
1 cup Borax
½ cup Epsom salt
1 cup Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
⅓ to ½ cup lemon juice
8 drops lavender essential oil
Directions:
1. Combine borax, Epsom salts, Lavender essential oil, and washing soda in a bowl until well combined.
2. Add lemon juice 1 Tbsp. at a time until mixture is damp but not soaked, you want it to hold together and not be crumbly.
3. Press mixture firmly into ice cube trays then tap on the counter to level out.
4. Allow to dry for at least 3-4 hours before removing
5. Store your homemade dishwasher tablets in an air tight container (a pretty mason jar if you have one)!
1 recipe will fill a standard ice cube tray.
To Use:
Put 1 tablet in your dishwasher detergent tray.
If you have hard water you may want to add some distilled white vinegar (a natural rinse aid) to your compartment where you normally put “Jet Dry”. The vinegar is a water softener that helps prevent spotting on dishes (plus this will also help you save money).
Try out my recipe and let me know what you think!
- 1 cup Borax
- ½ cup Epsom salt
- 1 cup Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
- ⅓ to ½ cup lemon juice
- 8 drops Lavender essential oil (feel free to change to whatever essential oil you prefer)
- Combine borax, epsom salt, Lavender essential oil, and washing soda in a bowl until well combined.
- Add lemon juice 1 Tbsp. at a time until mixture is damp but not soaked, you want it to hold together and not be crumbly.
- Press mixture firmly into ice cube trays then tap on the counter to level out.
- Allow to dry for at least 3-4 hours before removing
- Store your homemade dishwasher tablets in an air tight container (a pretty mason jar if you have one)!
- recipe will fill a standard ice cube tray.
- To Use:
- Put 1 tablet in your dishwasher detergent tray.
- If you have hard water you may want to add some distilled white vinegar (a natural rinse aid) to your compartment where you normally put "Jet Dry". The vinegar is a water softener that helps prevent spotting on dishes (plus this will also help you save money)
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Hi Jody
Would love for you to share this at Friday Favorites this weekend (party goes live on Thursday nights). Where do you find “washing soda?” Thanks, laura
You can find it in the laundry soap aisle at the grocery store or at Walmart.
These look so easy and quick! I love this stuff. I haven’t tried making my own dishwasher tabs yet with essential oils. On my list!
Ok, this sounds awesome. I may actually do this one! So explain, are you working with Manuela? I see that you post here but I’ve been confused…
Terri, Jody is a contributor to this blog. Normally one post a week is from her. She’s a whiz with soap making and lots of homemade stuff!
As to the dishwasher tabs, I had no idea how easy they are to make and they are on my to do list too. Let me know if you make them and what you think. There are lots of different recipes out there but I love that Jody’s uses lemon juice!
I need to give these a try. I am about out of dishwashing detergent, and I hate buying it, because it is so expensive. I didn’t know about using vinegar as a rinse agent. Thanks for sharing your recipe. Pinning!
Do you have to put the essentials oil in this recipe?
I don’t think so. It says to change the lavender to whatever essential oil you want so my guess from the title of the post is that lavender is a scent. I plan on making it without scent so I’m leaving out the lavender.
I can smell these from here. Yay DIY! Thanks for posting. Hello from Motivation Monday.
Thank you for linking up to Wonderful Wed. Blog Hop. Pinned! I recently started using essentials oils and will have to try this.
Blessings,
Diane Roark
ouramericantravels
recipesforourdailybread
I love the small of lavender and lemon, I’ll have to give this a try.
Thanks
Thank you for coming to last week’s Inspire Me Monday Linky party. I’m Janice one of your hostesses.
Thank you so much for this recipe. I made them and they work great. I have one question though……I didn’t use lavender, but used lemon essential oil instead. I let them sit out overnight so they would be completely dried out before storing in a mason jar. After putting them in the mason jar, when I went to use them the next day, I noticed they don’t smell very good. If they are sitting out, they are fine, but when I close them up in a jar, they don’t smell very pleasant (even thought I used extra lemon essential oils). Has anyone else had this problem?
Should that be freshly squeezed lemon juice or the bottled stuff?
Either would work. But freshly squeezed is preferred.
These work great! I do have hard water so I used white vinegar in my rinse container. Thank you for a great recipe. This will help save money or when I just can’t get to the store.
sadly, I was so excited about these, I made the first tray, and started a load of dishes. Meanwhile, I made three more trays. That same load of dishes is now on its third run through the dishwasher, and I’m feeling less than confident that this recipe is going to be a success for me. Do you think I can use the 53 tablets I gave left for anything else??
Did you use vinegar in the rinse agent as suggested?