Living Green Values Ep. 7 – Dishes!

While we’re in the kitchen, let us discuss dishes. I know you’re not using paper plates anymore (huzzah!) but I also know you’ve discovered the value of laundry detergent that isn’t gross!

Could we make washing dishes a less gross process as well?

No.

That’s all for this week! See you next time!

JK obviously I’m not going to do you like that. Not only can you make your own dishwashing soap in a very cheap and very planet-friendly way that eliminates a ton of packaging as well as all the usual manufacturing and transport chain that sucks up water, energy, and fossil fuels.

Dishwasher soap recipe

Turns out, just as with laundry detergent, you don’t need to purchase chemical-laden stuff with a ton of packaging—stuff that chokes out rivers with its algae-encouraging properties. It is even easier to make than laundry detergent too, and, if you’ve made that good stuff, you will have a lot of this on hand.

Behold!

1 cup washing soda

1 cup borax

1/2 cup citric acid

1/2 cup kosher salt

Mix it all up, stick it in a jar, done.

1 Tbsp per load and your dishes will be beautiful with a minimum of spots.

For those dishes you wash by hand, I simply cannot recommend castile soap enough. A gallon gets me through a full year, at least. I decant it into a smaller bottle and use it for everything. It works perfectly, has no scent (or, I guess you could throw some essential oil in there if you wanted, but I like things to smell neutral), AND you can use the same soap to wash your hands. A one-soap-fits-all experience, without anything bad in it!

Friendly reminder

A well-packed dishwasher with a full load uses less water than washing those dishes by hand!

To dry

I just let things air dry, or do a cool one in my dishwasher, but occasionally we’ll have to towel dry a dish to get room in the dish rack for a big pot or something. In which case, I use, instead of paper towels, dish towels—which dry dishes perfectly well! It’s almost like they were named appropriately!

Happy dishing!