Don’t you hate when you run out of dish soap? It happened to me yesterday- somehow my dish soap had tipped over into the sink and went entirely out of the drain, leaving me with a stack load of dishes and nothing to wash them with. Not wanting to hit the store during a snow storm, I tried a few alternatives. Here are the dish soap alternatives that work when you run out of dish soap but still need to get those dirty dishes done.
For this dish washing adventure sans dish soap, I turned to liquid hand soap. Sure, you need to pump a lot in there, but with 99% of germs being eradicated and the soap still frothing and bubbling almost as great as dish soap does, liquid hand soap fills that void when nothing else is at hand. I was able to wash all my dishes successfully (and rinse them completely with lukewarm water) using liquid hand soap on my dishes.
In the past, I have also used shampoo. While I don’t like wasting my shampoo to wash my dishes (you have to use a decent amount since it doesn’t bubble well), in a pinch (like when you don’t have the cash to buy dish soap until payday a week away), shampoo works quite well. The only problem with using shampoo to wash your dishes is the rinsing- you have to rinse your dishes in super hot water or else you get stuck with residue and that shampoo smell that lingers on your dishes and can be tasted when you eat food off of them later. But a super hot rinse gets rid of all the shampoo residue.
I have used bubble bath as well, which obviously bubbles great, but is more slimy than shampoo or liquid hand soap, and doesn’t really clean the dishes so much as provide a lot of bubbles. I’ve had better success with liquid laundry detergent (yes, I’ve tried that, too) than with bubble bath. The only problem with using laundry detergent is that you have to rinse your dishes in super hot water AND for a long time to fully rinse the dishes, and get the slimy slick residue off. But the kitchen will smell nice and clean when you’re done.
Overall, I would have to say liquid hand soap works the best if you are out of dish soap and still want to wash your dishes. It gets the dishes clean, doesn’t leave an unpleasant residue, and you don’t have to burn the crap out of your hands rinsing your dishes after wards. A far, far second to actual dish soap, but any one of these alternatives will do the trick if you have nothing else and don’t want to have to go to the store and buy dish soap.
Source:
personal experience
