In a pinch, make your own dishwasher soap

I try to wait until I have a full load to run the dishwasher.  That usually happens every few days.  But I frequently fail to coordinate that with having enough dishwasher soap on hand.  So then I have to go out and get some, which can be annoying.  I could stock up, but that would be too simple. :-0

So I found a recipe online one day when I ran out and discovered that you can use Arm & Hammer Washing Soda, which I also use in making homemade laundry detergent, baking soda (for the grease) and lemon juice (to clean the spots off of glass) to make a very good dishwasher soap.  It works too!

Who knew? How to make your own lavender liquid castile soap

I have been a fan of Dr. Bronner's soaps for as long as I can recall. The fragrances are refreshing and wonderful.  The soap is versatile -- I use it as shampoo, for dishes, as handsoap of course, and just about anything else I can think of.

But it isn't cheap, especially when you use a lot of it.

So I began to wonder, more as an exercise in logic than as a necessity, if it would be possible to make my own version of this. The lavender scent is my favorite most of the time, so I focused on that.

Lo-and-behold, there are recipes online that can show you how to make castile soap, no less, as well as how to make liquid castile soap from a bar.  I didn't feel quite ready to tackle making the soap itself, but I remembered buying bars of Kirk's castile soap some time ago.  They sell for about $1 a bar, as opposed to a bar of Dr. Bronners which costs about $5.

So I went to Cub and bought 3 bars of Kirk's soap for about $3.  I shaved about a third of a bar and then put the shavings in a washed out bottle of a sport drink.   I filled the bottle with water and let it sit.  I turned the bottle upside down once a day.  In about five days the mixture was the consistency of liquid castile soap.  I then added a few drops of lavender oil, and voila...

And it smells almost as good as Dr. Bronners!