The budget won't let me buy any until Friday night but dishes gotta be cleaned! What would you do to make sure you have dishes that won't wipe you out with botulism?
I'm talking regular, everyday dishes with leftover ketchup, milk residue in cups, and so on.
I'm thinking maybe running the load two times through the dishwasher on a high temp wash might work out okay, but are there any better ideas you could bestow upon me, frugal friends?
How would you clean your dishes if you didn't have any dishwasher tabs or dish soap?
byu/TrustyBobcat inFrugal
Posted by TrustyBobcat
36 Comments
Dish soap to use in the sink is extraordinarily cheap! In the future, you might want to consider simply rinsing things out after being done with them, and then they won’t be a big mess like this
Do you have hand soap or even body wash you can use to tide you over? I’d still want to use some sort of cleaning agent, but just make sure to rinse very thoroughly under hot water since they’re not intended for dishes
Hand soap can be used as dish soap.
Hand wash with hand soap or shampoo?
handwash using regular soap should work just fine
That’s what I would do! I’d also put a cup of white vinegar on the top rack. I bet they’ll get clean enough.
The other thing I’d do is knock on my neighbor door and ask if I can borrow two tabs and return them on Friday. But I have pretty special neighbors and I know they’d help me out.
I would rinse them with hot water, and scrub them with a cloth. Then I would spray rubbing alcohol at least 70% on them. Let them sit for at least 30 seconds. Then rinse and dry.
Vinegar
If you are washing by hand= you could use hot water and salt. It won’t get the grease off, but it should clean the dishes enough to prevent illness. In the dishwasher, maybe fill the little cup baking soda?
Can you get some dish soap from a food bank? Or from a friend or family member?
Do you have any baking soda and/or vinegar? Peroxide?
I would start with the hottest water you have in the sink to soak. Scrub with baking soda or vinegar on a rag if you have it. Then tub of regular hot water with cap full of peroxide to sanitize. If you don’t have peroxide, I’d use the hottest water you have (if you dump some boiling water in) to rinse them, if you’re worried about sanitizing them a bit.
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Ask a neighbor or food pantry or church? They may have something. Your health is important.
I wouldn’t use the dishwasher – it really requires a commercial product. I’d use hand soap and accept some residue that wouldn’t do me any harm on the dishes
I’d go to a public grocery store with a water bottle and fill it up with their bathroom soap maybe a few pumps. It’s usually antibacterial.
Hand wash with regular soap.
Even bar soap should work.
For extra greasy pots and pans lye and water will turn the grease into soap, which you can rinse away easily – obviously be super careful because lye will turn the natural oils in your skin into soap if it gets a chance.
I’d use a bit of shampoo or hand soap to soak off the oils in the sink first. Then run in dishwasher with vinegar or lemon juice for a good acidic rinse.
Is this… rage bait
Really any kind of soap plus really hot water should be fine. I worked in food service, and yeah, soap is important, but the emphasis from a food safety perspective is always on the temperature of the water.
I would choose laundry soap if you have to hand wash in the sink. Just rinse well.
Soak in boiling water. Once it’s cooled scrub with some vinegar and rinse. You’ll survive until Friday
Hand wash.
Wash them with whatever soap you have, maybe shampoo, then put them in the dishwasher and run a hot cycle to sanitize them. Don’t put any soap in the dishwasher!
I wouldn’t recommend it on a regular basis but handwashing with shampoo or bar soap will do in a pinch
hand wash with a bit of laundry detergent
FYI you can save money buying the cheapest powder dishwasher soap you can find. Those pods are full of plastics, and all the contents dissolve in the first wash. The powder works great.
Soak them well in hot water, wash with any soap you have. Washing in the dishwasher without detergent might work too sanitize them and get soap residue off, but without the abrasion of detergent ingredients, it’s just soaking them in hot water.
My old roommate ran the dishwasher for months not knowing we needed soap. So there’s an idea
I would use what ever soap I had on hand.
Botulism will not develop in dirty dishes. You can use some leaves or pine needles to scrub the dishes before rinsing with water, a lot of water.
If you just run them through a dishwasher cycle they should be fine. You might not want to do that if company was coming over but I think you’ll be okay
Vinegar water. Vinegar contains natural anti bacterial agents and will cut grease.
I’d grab some change from the jar and go to the dollar store for a small bottle.
Hot water scrub and rinse. Sanitize with dilute bleach in water.
You can do what commercial kitchens sometimes do and sanitize with bleach. Wash, rinse, and then sanitize by letting them soak for 1 minute in a mixture of 1tbsp bleach to 1 gallon cool water, then air dry.
Personally I would go the – “ask a neighbor if they can loan you some dishwashing liquid because you didn’t realize you were out and can’t get to the store until the weekend” route, if your neighbors are halfway decent you’ll be building your neighborly camaraderie. If you *can* get to the store and can put together at least $1.50-$2.00 in loose change head to the dollar store/dollar tree or a Walmart/Target because I am pretty sure you can find liquid dish soap for under $2 even if just travel sized, and you should have some on hand anyway (for example if you lose power).
If you’re not up to either of those options, hand wash what you need using a small amount of hand soap, make sure to rinse thoroughly. Any dishes you don’t specify need I would wipe down and load into the dishwasher and let chill there it’s only a day and a half.