Can I use regular soap instead of dishwashing liquid when handwashing dishes?
You can definitely use body soap for dishes. It takes a little hotter of water, and you need to rinse a little more carefully. Body soaps (that is bar soaps) tend to be more eco-friendly too. There is more to it than that, depending on the other ingredients in your products, but using soaps instead of detergents is a good start toward greening up your home. Look up the differences between soaps and detergents if you are interested. The difference between products made for dishes and skin…is that dish liquid is better for cutting grease than soap, which is formulated to not strip all the oils from skin. Also the fragrance of bathing soap may be formulated to hang a little longer, and get stuck in your plastics, etc. whereas the fragrances in dish soap are meant to rinse away. It may surprise you that lather is not an indicator that either soap or detergent is working better or that you have enough product to do the job if you have a lot of bubbles. Check out Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps.
