When we took our trip to Memphis for the fencing tournament, I knew I would be doing a load or two of laundry, so I brought a plastic bag with some of my home made laundry powder, and a small bottle of vinegar for softener.
However, I didn’t remember to bring any dish soap, or buy any at the grocery store. Oops! I discovered that a half tablespoon of laundry powder works for washing dishes, as long as I used a lot of vinegar in the rinse water.
I wouldn’t want to use the laundry powder very often on dishes, but it is fine in a pinch and kept me from going back to the store to buy anything.