Dishwasher Blues

Our dishwasher hasn't been cleaning well lately.  It felt like dishes were being washed before putting them in for a wash cycle, which defeats the purpose of having a dishwasher to begin with, right?  Imagine the frustration when they still had leftovers on them after going through two cycles.

Time for an intervention!!!

I decided to peruse through one of my favorite sites for some inspiration (Pinterest of course) and came across a bunch of homemade cleaning product recipes.  Initially, I was a huge skeptic when it came to homemade cleaning products.  Uneducated, really.  Then, I started using a vinegar/water/essential oil spray for all purpose cleaning.  It works great, so I wanted to at least give the dishwasher soap a try, but I really didn't think it was going to work.
 
It felt like being in 6th grade science class again.  I was presented with a problem and needed to do a scientific experiment and find the best conclusion!  Going into it, I expected to be disappointed.  There was going to be a powdery substance left all over the dishes!  There was no way the glasses would be sparkling!

The dishwasher was full, so here was my chance!  I put in 4 Tablespoons of the Borax mix, filled my rinse cycle compartment with vinegar and hit "start"! 

Here is what the dishes looked like before the cycle.  I picked the perfect dinner dishes for my little experiment.  Eggplant Parmesan! 

Here is the finished product!

Beautiful!  IT WORKED!

If you are interested, you can find the recipe I used here.  The recipe is perfect, but I used a little bit more of the Borax mixture (4-5 Tbsp) and don't measure the vinegar out.  Initially, I filled the rinse aid compartment with vinegar, and now I just refill the compartment each time I run it.  It does the job just fine.  Each refill seems to require only 2 additional Tbsp of vinegar.

It does a beautiful job!  It is also septic safe, which is a huge bonus for us!   

Happy washing!