Follow Me on Pinterest
Instead of posting links to Making Do Ideas on this blog now (I'll just post my own projects here though they are few and far between now), I'm now posting them on my Pinterest Board named Making Do Stuff.
You do not have to have a Pinterest account to see it.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Washing Soda for Greasy Dishes

Well, I have finally figured out how to get the oils off my greasy dishes finally. I have never had such a hard time doing this anywhere else I have lived; I think there is something strange with this rural water. I have tried all kinds of things: changed dishwashing soap, added boiling water, added bleach (this works semi-decently, but kills my hands), washed with fireplace ashes (aka lye), and on and on. But my dishwater still looked like this. And no plastic thing came out of there non-slippery. It has really truly annoyed me.

So I was reading an excerpt out of an old 1900s book titled something like "Teaching the Bachelor how to care for the home." Fun stuff - stay-at-home Mrs. Cleaver type lady explaining to bachelors how to care for the house - something that would teach me a great many things I am sure. It said something like, "If you have really greasy dishes add some washing soda to the wash, just make sure you rinse well use gloves or wash your hands afterward to keep your hands from drying out."

I just bought washing soda for the homemade laundry detergent I made. So off I went to try this out. And it works! I put in a very small shake of washing soda and a small squirt of dawn and my plastic feels like plain old plastic again. I am so happy! I have used it for three weeks now and I believe I have finally beat the grease monster. I don't use gloves since I hate washing with them. I have forgotten to wash my hands afterward and they do get a little dry, so it dries out your hands if you let it sit on there.

I keep an old Parmesan shaker full of washing soda next to my dishwashing liquid to help me shake just a little into the sink.

4 comments:

Shari said...

Make sure you label that shaker...it would be no fun at all to have washing soda a top Spaghetti!

p.s. I've been loving reading your tips, thanks for the suggestions!

Melissa Jagears said...

Yep, definitely labeled that with a sharpee so no one gets confused and consumes it!

Marla said...

Call me goofy, but what is considered "washing soda"?

Melissa Jagears said...

You're not goofy, it's not very easy too find,click on the laundry detergent link in the article and that article will tell you what washing soda is