Homemade Dish Soap

Here in SW Madagascar, it is difficult to find inexpensive liquid dish-washing soap.  So, thanks to a care package from my mother-in-law, Laura, Drew and I decided to make our own dish-washing soap.  It turned out pretty well and it made a lot of soap! I think we can definitely save money and stock up by making our own homemade dish soap.  

Here are the fairly easy directions for making your own dish-washing soap:

Ingredients:

3/4 tsp. Arm & Hammer Washing Soda

1/4 bar of Octagon Soap

1/2 gallon of water

This recipe will make 1/2 a gallon of dish-washing soap. 

Directions:
1.  Grate soap into some water in saucepan.  Heat while stirring, but do not boil.

2.  When soap is dissolved in saucepan, add the washing soda into the saucepan and stir for about 1 minute.

3. Pour the remaining water into a big container with a funnel.  Add the saucepan mixture to this container.
4.  Cap container and shake.  Sit overnight.

* Important Note: Make sure to shake the soap container before you use the soap.  Also, the soap does not lather, but it still works well.  

We put some of our new homemade dish-washing soap in an old container.  It works great and we won't run out of dish-washing soap for a long time!