Castile Soap - Letâs dish about dishwasher soap.
When it comes to dishwashers, we are pretty sure there are two kinds of people in this world: Those who rinse and scrub their dishes within an inch of their lives before placing them delicately in the dishwasher to be cleaned, again. And those who leave every uneaten morsel of dinner on every inch of surface area because everything is just getting tossed in the dishwasher anyway since, as its name suggests, that's it's a job.
You just throw in a splash of dishwasher detergent or toss in a brightly-hued space-looking dishwasher pod (whose colors, when found in nature, suggest I will poison you). Or maybe you use those chalky dishwasher tablets that never seem to fully break down and then you always find gross little bits of dishwasher detergent powder stuck to *something*.
But then ok, let us ask you this: What even is the point of dishwasher detergent if you have to clean the detergent? And then itâs like, dishwasher not cleaning? Maybe that's why.
Furthermore, if the goal is to get your dishes and cutlery clean, wouldnât it just feel nice to know that the things you eat from or put directly in your mouth are actually, in fact, clean? And we donât mean just visibly clean, like from the melty lasagna cheese or cake crumbs left over from dinner. We mean properly clean, like the dishwasher soap used to make them usable again is clean, too. Free of harsh chemicals and synthetics, and definitely doesnât leave any invisible toxic residue behind.
Listen, we donât know about you, but we kind of want to know what goes in to the stuff that cleans our flatware. And we definitely want to know that itâs free of unpronounceable toxins.
Most people use the terms soap and detergent interchangeably and we get it â they are both used for cleaning. In reality, though, their chemistry is completely different, and without getting too technical, the bottom line is this: Soap is natural and biodegradable. Detergent is not.
A quick liâl history primer
This will probably impress your dinner guests, so feel free to bring it up next time you have people over.
The earliest evidence of soap can be traced all the way back to 2800 BC, but mass-produced soap in bar form wouldnât become widely available in Europe and the U.S. until the late 18th century.
Detergents, however, only came about around the time of World War I, when soap ingredient shortages meant manufacturers had to get crafty â and went on to develop synthetic cleaners to meet demand.
By the 1950s, detergents had overtaken traditional soap products in homes across North America.
And here we are today, washing our forks and knives before placing them in a dishwasher to be washed a second time. Funny how that happens.
Your meals are homemade. Why shouldnât your dishwasher soap be, too?
Thatâs right, detergent companies - we can also get crafty!
So, letâs DIY this thing, shall we?
Below we present two homemade dishwasher soap recipes â one liquid, the other gel, both starring your preferred scent of Cove Castile Soap, and both sure to keep chemicals out of the equation.
We feel pretty great about these homemade dishwasher soap recipes, and we think youâll love them, too! Itâs all so surprisingly easy, not to mention impressive (âWhy yes, Dinner Guest, I did make this dishwasher soap from scratch, would you like the recipe?â)
Plus, knowing the things you eat with are properly clean and free of chemicals will leave you free to properly enjoy your food - with your mind on your meals, and your meals on your mind. You know, the way nature intended.
