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I don't use bar soap, but I do use whatever store's house brand of body wash, purchased in the largest volume I can store. CVS and Target seem to work the best for me.
I buy all my soaps and detergents at the 99cents Only Store. $1 is so cheap it's not worth my time and effort to make my own or look for something less expensive. And their Awesome laundry detergent works great.
Here's one good tip. Back a few years ago they took phosphates out of dishwasher detergent for environmental reasons. Consequently, they don't work as well as they used to. And hard water scale isn't removed and it builds up on your dishes. I put about a cup of vinegar in every dishwasher load and fill up the jet dry dispenser with vinegar as well. My dishes look better and cleaner now and you can't smell or taste the vinegar on the clean dishes.
Yellow snow...a sears tech told me vinigar in the dishwasher over time will eat the rubber seals away so I stopped using it, about 6 weeks ago I started addind 1/2 tsp of t.s.p with the dishwasher detergent I have never had another dirty dish, I have read people have had problems with a film on dishes using tsp but I think they may be using to much it only takes 1/2 tsp. Tsp is phosphates and I may be opening myself up here for flack from environmental concerned people read this, however farms, restaurants and hotels still use phosphates, it was taken from our detergents due to algae blooms in rivers and lakes, which is still a problem due to the agricultural use of it. I need clean dishes and this works.
The recipes are for soaps, not detergents. Results will be (sorry for the pun) spotty.
Unsweetened Kool-aid is citric acid. The lemon smell would be useful IF a good dishwasher didn't wash away all traces of smell on dishes as a normal activity...
Chemically, the recipes show a complete lack of understanding of the properties of the ingredients. For instance, the second recipe calls for baking soda, washing soda, and lemon juice. When baking soda is acted upon by an acid like lemon juice, it BECOMES washing soda. The general function of washing soda in cleaning is to eliminate some of the problems of hard water (free calcium ions) so that the soap doesn't form a crusty mass instead of cleaning. Someone washing using rainwater would be as well off using plain soap.
The internet is a wonderful source of urban legends and totally unsubstantiated claims. Jill Homemaker is unlikely to come up with a real detergent in her home lab. The action of hot water and soap will do OK for many folks for a while, but our parents and grandparents were no dummies. They quickly understood the advantages of detergents over soaps and changed over.
Interesting.
I made my own auto-dishwasher soap from borax, baking soda and lemonade mix, to keep on hand for emergencies. It does an okay job.
For plain bar soap, Kirk's RULES. If you can find it. If not, online. I get a dozen at a shot.
I made my auto dish soap with borax washing soda kosher salt and unsweetened koolaid too, ya its ok in a pinch, try in in your tolet bowl, I use 1/8 cup and than scrub with the brush, it sparkles, and smells fresh and clean. We Also use kirks barsoap, and everytime someone visits I have them wash their hands with it, lol, I have had quite a few people who have now converted to kirks, its the best. I have some dr bronners liquid and bars also, its more pricy than kirks and in my opinion not even as good.
99 percent of the time bleach is not necessary. I use Distilled Vinegar on almost everything and the high acidity (5%) will kill virtually every germ imaginable. My dh and I make our own laundry soap.
People who spend money on things like Swiffers, amaze me. Such a waste of money.
20yrsinBranson
Why would you use vinegar when it is more expensive per ounce than generic bleach? I also buy only white sheets, towels and undies. I wash everything else in cold with our homemade laundry soap (I too am a biochemist and get the "detergent" thing, for aobut $7 I get 6 months of laundry soap for the two of us) first, then finish the laundry with a load of hot water, soap, and bleach for towels and/or sheets or undies. That way the E. coli on the things that wipe our skin is last, less chance of contaminating other clothing. And the bleach does a fine job of disinfecting the towels/sheets/undies as well as leaving the washer and dryer smelling clean and fresh until the next weekend. I have a neighbor who insists on doing her towels and sheets on Friday, then do the rest of her laundry (clothes) over the weekend. I just think that's backwards.
Dishwasher...truly it depends on where you live. We stick with Cascade. We live in the foothills on the West Coast and have a high boron and salinity content to our water, very alkaline...soil in our front yard will actually get frothy when water is poured on it. If I use anything without phosphates we get cloudy glassware. My clear drinking glasses look like someone poured milk in them. And wash them like that often enough led to me losing a bunch of glasses because they became permanently etched and many broke, I suspect as they became brittle.
General cleaning...I still use bleach. But I don't go crazy. I work in a medical lab with known positive HIV blood and a bleach solution still is used to clean the counters in the lab. I use only a 1:20 bleach:water solution for keeping the mildew down in the shower and cleaning toilets. If you are using straight bleach then you are creating a fume hazard and wasting something that is fairly toxic to create. The process of making bleach releases dioxin=toxic. So keep bleach to a minimum. Otherwise use straight vinegar (which is more expensive where I live) as it is 5% acetic acid which will work fine for most cleaning. But I can still get a gallon of bleach for $1.00 and an ounce or two diluted with water will last in my cleaning bottle for a few weeks.
Vinegar is a great wash for fresh produce and around our house I can wash the strawberries and they will stay fresh for over a week in the fridge. Unwashed they only last a few days.
And lastly, get rid of the sponge. There is no good reason to use one. Seriously, throw it away and replace it with something that you can, and will disinfect regularly. If you cannot commit to throwing a dish cloth into the laundry every day (I have a neighbor that swears by putting it in the dishwasher with the dishes each night), then splurge on the wet wipes. Pushing bacteria around on your counters or the kids' faces with a dish rag is just gross.
Oh ok yes thats what I do, ijust thought maybe I missed something and the gov. Brought it back, lol. The tsp is great in dishwasher, do you agree? I only found out about this about 6 weeks ago, I was researching what could be wrong with my dishwasher . Turns out its fine, I do a load everyday and havent had a dirty dish since I started using the tsp. I have also used it in an occasional load of expecially dirty laundry. Thanks
For those of you who want to and insist on using sponges, you can disinfect them by dampening the sponge, putting it on a microwave safe dish, and then heat in the microwave oven on 100% power for 2 min. The steam produced from the water vapor will kill germs on and in the sponge. The sponge should be as free of soap residue as possible. Best not to use a sponge longer than a month, and disinfect the sponge 2 or 3 times a week. Then let cool (it will be very hot).
I don't use sponges anymore, I use either paper towels or microfiber cloths to wipe down counters (w/a water/bleach mixture) and a dish brush to scrub dishes. I put the dish brush in the dishwasher with each cycle.
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