Lets drop a bomb 2 - A cleaning one!

We have hard water here at Wicked Raven Farm - which means that it has a high mineral content and it sometimes leaves stains and buildup on things - namely the dishwasher!  We also have the issue of electric hot water (no natural gas here in our area) and so if someone showers once - or two people take a shower and I run the dishwasher there isn't enough hot water to get the dishes clean.  So about twice a year I have to clean the inside of my dishwasher.  So I worked up a recipe - loosely based on my hand cleaner recipe - only this is a powder and not a paste.  It also works great for cleaning toilets if you have let them go for too long in between deep cleans.  Happens here a lot - so you are not alone - or at least I hope I am not alone!

Dishwasher (or toilet) Cleaning Powder

3/4 C. Baking Soda

3/4 C. Citric Acid

3/4 C. Cornstarch

20 drops of Lemon essential Oil

20 drops Spearmint Essential Oil

10 drops of Eucalyptus Essential Oil

Mix all the ingredients in a glass or plastic bowl and use about 1/8 cup at a time.  Sprinkle it on the area that needs to be cleaned - it will fizz up  and just let it sit and fizz for a minute, then you can wipe off the grime!  For toilet, sprinkle it in the bowl area and let it fizz and soak for a few minutes and then brush as you normally would.  Saves on the scrubbing and I haven't had to use pumice stick for a while either!  Yay!  I hate that part of grown-upping!

This is the inside of my dishwasher - at least the parts that come out and are the ones that do all the filtering and getting out of the gross junk - usually!  Right in this picture though you can see how grimy the parts are!  Yuck-O!

 

Above photo shows those parts with the sprinkle on them soaking and fizzing a little before the simple scrub.

Above photo left shows the newly cleaned parts and above right shows them back in the dishwasher where they belong - almost sparkly!  You can see in the above right photo on the left hand side the orange area - I haven't used the powder on that yet - I ran out of time. 

Store your powder in an airtight container - I use an old protein powder scoop for mine - baby food scoop or even an extra laundry powder scoop will work to make it easy to shake it out with.

I hope it makes your life easier!