DIY Laundry and Dish Detergent

I know this isn't a yummy food recipe, but it is one of my favorite recipes....

Have you ever wanted to make your own laundry soap and dish detergent? There are several benefits of DIY. First, homemade detergent is inexpensive... I mean REALLY inexpensive. Pennies a load. Second, when you make it yourself, you know every ingredient that goes into the detergent. Just Borax, washing powder, and soap. No strange chemicals that are unpronounceable. Third, it is great to have knowledge of how things are made and feel confident in your ability to do it yourself.... even if you have no intention of doing it yourself right now. Knowledge is power.
Of course, I take no credit for this recipe. There are so many wonderful money saving sites that share homemade recipes such as this.

Laundry Soap (Duggars Recipe)

Ingredients:
1 five gallon bucket with lid
1/2 cup Borax
1 cup Washing soda (not baking soda)
1 bar Fels-Naptha soap. Other natural soaps can be used too such as Ivory.

I picked these ingredients up at Wal-mart for a grand total of $7.19. The Fels-Naptha (97 cents) was all used up but the Borax and soda will do MANY more batches.First heat 4 cups of water in a pot on the stove and grate the soap. It looks like yummy cheese, so watch your kids. Seriously, I had little hands trying to snitch it, LOL. Put the grated soap in the pot and heat until melted. When the water and soap is melted, fill a 5 gallon bucket halfway with warm water. Pour the melted soap in and add the Borax and Washing soda. Stir.
Fill the bucket the rest of the way with warm water. At this point, I do add some lavender essential oil (about 20 drops), but that is totally optional. Let stand overnight. When you are ready to use, fill an old laundry soap bottle halfway with the detergent. Fill the rest of the way with water. Use about 5/8 cup per load (top loading) or 1/4 cup (front loading).

I have used the laundry soap and it works great.
Dishwasher detergent:

Ingredients:
1 cup Borax,
1 cup Washing soda
1/4 cup LemiShine (on the dish soap aisle) Can also use citric acid which is supposed to be better but harder to find.
1/2 cup Kosher salt

Mix in container. Use 1 TBSP per load. Using too much will leave residue. Also, for a more natural alternative, use white vinegar in the dishwasher's rinse agent spot.

I just mixed this up and have not personally tried it. I'm crossing my fingers that it works. I'll edit the post later (after a week or two) and update on the effectiveness. We have really hard water here and white streaks are a problem.

Please share your experiences (and recipe tweaks) in the comments.