Homemade Dish washing detergent

O.K., a little background story first.

Where we live, we have hard water.  Which means, we get calcium and soap build up like crazy.  Every once and a while our dishwasher would get so caked with that stuff, we would need to run it with harsh chemicals, just to get rid of some of it (it was never able to get rid of all of it).  And then, we would also need to take apart the parts we could, to chip off whatever we could.  The wire racks were covered with hard white powder, and the soap door mechanism was so guncked, it couldn't open during the cycle.  Needless to say, my dishes weren't exactly as clean as they should be.

I tried all kinds of dish washing detergents, to find one that would clean better, and not leave build up behind. I was getting so frustrated with it all, I began researching homemade detergents.  I wasn't having much luck at first, until, I stumbled across this simple little gem of a recipe.

2-5 drops *blue Dawn (yes, that specific)

1/4 -1/3 C white vinegar

about 1/2 Tbl. baking soda

So, you simply add 2- 5 drops of blue Dawn dish soap to the dispenser.  (I have found that "drops" are relative, but for me, that turns out to be about 1/4 tsp.)  You'll want to start with less rather than more, because it will depending on the size of your dishwasher.  And if you add too much, you'll be cleaning soap bubbles off your kitchen floor for the rest of the day.
Then, in a small container, add the vinegar, and place it on the top rack.  I have a mini plastic container that just stays in my dishwasher all the time.  I have it leaning over, so I don't have to use as much, before it spills over and does it's job.

And finally, I just drop a spoon full of baking soda onto the dishwasher door before I close it, and, voila!

It cleans my dishes beautiful!  And not only that, it cleaned my dishwasher, and stopped the build up.  In fact, I ended up having to run the dishwasher empty a couple of times first, with this recipe, because all the build up was coming off.  After I ran it a couple of times, I just used a damp rag to wipe the rest of the white stuff off the walls, without any effort at all.  My dishwasher looks almost like new again.  I love it!  And the best part is, it's all normal ingredients that I have in my house anyway (and usually buy in bulk).

I also just use white vinegar in my rinse-aid door, and it works just as well as the chemical stuff you buy.

*If you've ever researched homemade cleaning products, you'll find, that blue Dawn is like this magical cleaning ingredient, that can solve all your cleaning woes.