Homemade Dishwasher Detergent Tablets

Want to make your own dishwasher detergent tablets and save a bunch of money?  I found a nifty recipe on Louise's Country Closet that shows how you can do just that!  All you need is four ingredients:  borax, washing soda, epsom salts, and lemon juice.  Do note that it's WASHING soda, not baking soda.  They're two different things.  The borax and washing soda can be found in the laundry aisle of most supermarkets.  The epsom salts can be found in the health aisles (it's commonly used as a soaking aid for sprains and bruises), and the lemon juice can be found in the juice aisle.

Here is a link to instructions:
http://www.louises-country-closet.com/2013/03/homemade-dishwasher-detergent-cubes.html

Measure into a bowl and mix thoroughly:

1 cup of borax
1 cup of washing soda
1/4 cup of epsom salts

Then add lemon juice until the powder forms a stiff, rather gritty dough.  I added approximately 10 tablespoons at first, then added a bit more, slowly, as needed.  The lemon juice will foam when it comes in contact with the powder.

The link above describes putting small amounts of the mixture into the sections of an ice cube tray and letting it dry, but since my dishwasher's soap compartment won't hold something as large as an ice cube, I decided to shape the dough into flat ovals measuring about 1-1/4" x 1" by about 1/2" thick. If you decide to do it this way, be sure to use gloves.  The powders aren't toxic, but the gloves will protect you just in case you have particularly sensitive skin or long fingernails.

Let the soap dry at least overnight.  Then you can store it in a sealed container and use the tablets as needed.

Here is a photo of my detergent tablets.  There was enough dough to make 33 of them, so that will be 33 loads of dishes.  :-)  I'm estimating the cost to make a batch of these ended up being about $1.25, so that comes out to about 4 cents per load.