Dream Book Design

Calling All "Natural Products" Friends

For the past couple of years I have really strived to make all of our cleaning products in our home natural. If you can get your home just as clean by using natural ingredients, why wouldn’t you? So far, by trial and error I have found my favorites for almost everything. One of the last things to switch out was our dishwasher detergent. I picked up a bottle of this detergent at Sprouts a few weeks back:

It seemed so great at first. It was reasonably priced and made the dishes do just what it said “leaves dishes sparkling clean”. Now three weeks in, it sucks. Not the type of suck that just leaves your glasses every now and then a little foggy, the type of suck that leaves your coffee mugs looking like this:

Keep in mind, I rinse out each and every dish of ours before even putting it in to the dishwasher. I grew up in a house where we would barely rinse the dishes off, because we were teenagers that were assigned to do dishes every night {my dad actually titled who evers job it was that night “dish-wench”}. As a teenager you are way more interested in getting the dishes done so you could get on AIM to chat with your friends, and you could care less if the dishes came out with food still on them. Well now, no longer being a teenager, or someone who uses AIM {although doesn’t Facebook kind of replace that?!} I care about how my dishes look. Before I used this detergent, my white plates, bowls, and mugs came out sparkling white. No stains whatsoever. Now this.

Here is where I need help!!! Do y’all use a natural detergent that you love, and have been using for more than three weeks?! Please give me any and all tips. Also, if you have other natural cleaning products that you think I just have to try, tell me! Or better yet, do you have recipes for homemade cleaning products? After-all, I am totally cheap all for a good deal.

Thanks and I look forward to seeing what you guys love.

<3,

Comments

  2. Anonymous says

    Would you mind doing a post on the other natural cleaning products you found you really liked? I would love to make the switch but am having a hard time with certain products and getting frustrated.

  3. Kelly Palmer says

    We have been using Seventh Generation brand automatic dishwasher gel in the lemon scent for a few years now and love it! I think when we first tried this brand we tried the powder and it left a powdery residue but have had no problem with the gel. Hope this works for you 🙂

  5. Erin says

    I’m pretty happy with Trader Joe’s brand, but I recently read a comparison study by Katie at Kitchen Stewardship blog, and Biokleen came out on top. I’ll probably try that next.

  6. Erin says

    also, I recently made a homemade kind using a recipe I found on Pinterest. Total fail. Residue and coffee stains…Such a bummer. All my other cleaners are homemade, but I’ll let the pros handle the dishes 🙂

  8. Catherine says

    I had the exact same issue with Ecos detergent. So don’t go trying that! We are back to basic, powdered stuff from the grocery store brand. It rinses cleanly and I can use very little!

  9. Amy says

    I’ve tried a few natural automatic dishwashing detergents, and the best one I’ve tried so far is the Seventh Generation brand. Their regular dishwashing liquid works great as well, and I was convinced that only Dawn could do the job 🙂 Hope that helps!

  12. Anonymous says

    Had the same problem here – NOTHING worked (we tried every natural product) – they all lack phosphates (I think??) and therefore leave residue. I finally read about LemiShine on a message board and it has made a world of difference! It’s natural and we sprinkle it in along with our regular soap tabs. I bought ours at Walmart and since we only need a little, it goes a long way. I checked out their website for hints before purchasing. Since our water is pretty hard here, we haven’t had perfectly clean dishes ever until adding this.
    Good luck!
    Krys