I'm a snob..

for a good dishwasher soap that is. I do not want to wash my dishes before I put them in a dishwasher. That's stupid. And... I think... for a mom of kids - obvious. Why do what the machine itself is supposed to be doing???

We use cascade. We have tried 'cheaper' brands in the past only to find out that - well, basically, they don't work. Not for our house. Not for our messy oatmealy type dishes. Dishes that have been sitting out for hours or maybe days. (oops! Did I just divulge too much??) lol!

Anyways, we always came back to cascade. One problem. I don't care for the chemically smell that comes from the dishwasher when using it. ugh. (or the price for the amount of dishes we use!!!)

So I came across a make it yourself recipe on-line. I have known about this recipe for months, but honestly, had little faith in it - so I have just been sitting on the information. Until last week. We ran out of cascade and I decided to give it a go. I'd make a small batch and just planned on tossing it when it didn't work.

Weeellllll!!!! I am eating my words of unbelief!!! It works. And it works good!! My plastics don't even have that microscopic whitish film the cascade left behind!! Ahem... did you hear that??? The homemade batch works BETTER than the fancy store bought stuff. And.... it's cheaper. I'm sold.

Here's the recipe if you also want to 'give it a go':

1/2 cup washing soda (not baking soda - and it is at King Soopers - and many other places)
1/2 cup borax (even Wal-mart carries this one)
1/4 coarse salt (I have coarse Kosher salt in the kitchen -easy peasie)

Mix together. Use one Tablespoon per load. You can 'heap' it if you want to. But I don't. It works great for our nasty dishes. (And if you know how un-super-clean I am, you can imagine how not immediately I get to the dishes.)

And finally - pour some white vinegar in the rinsing area. This may be key (but honestly I have been doing this for some time - even with the cascade)

Super easy. Super cheap. Lasts a long time. There ya go! You're welcome!!! :)