The Best Liquid Dish Soap

For some people, washing dishes is the ultimate boring chore. They will avoid it at all costs until the dishes are piled up so high they can barely see the sink. For others, washing dishes is a relaxing routine, where they can shut off their mind for a little while and concentrate on the task in front of them. Regardless of which camp you’re in, doing the dishes is a necessary activity in any home. If you have the right dish soap, you can make sure your dishes are sparkling clean without any leftover stuck-on food, grease or stains.

When choosing dish soap, one of the first things you need to look into is whether you have hard water or soft water. This is because the type of water you have can affect the kind of dish soap you need to use. Hard water has a high concentration of certain minerals, such as calcium, copper and magnesium. This actually leaves your dishes looking cloudy once they are dry as there is a mineral film left on the dishes. If you don’t want to have cloudy dishes with caked-on minerals, opt for dish soap that is designed for hard water. If you have soft water, you don’t have to deal with this issue.

Many people don’t know whether they have hard or soft water, but luckily there is an easy test you can do at home to figure it out. Just take a little bit of dish soap and dissolve it in some water to see how easy it is to make the water sudsy. If you can get the soap to bubble without any difficulty, it’s likely you have soft water. If the soap doesn’t bubble quickly, it’s probably working hard at dissolving the minerals in the hard water.

• If you are an eco conscious shopper, you can find brands of dish soap that meet your needs. When you wash dishes, the water ends up in a waste water stream. It’s best to not introduce harsh chemicals into the environment, so look for eco friendly dish soaps that have plant-derived ingredients. You can also look for packaging that is recycled to further reduce waste.
• For some people, scent is an important buying factor. If you prefer your dish soap to provide aromatherapy benefits, opt for soothing scents such as lavender or bright scents such as citrus (lemon, lime or orange).
• Washing dishes can do a number on your hands, especially if you have sensitive skin. Sometimes, dish soap can cause irritation, itching, dryness and discomfort. To avoid this, opt for a dish soap formulation that specifies that it is gentle on skin. You may also want to go with one that doesn’t contain any dyes, scents or sulfates.
• To protect your hands, be sure to wear dishwashing gloves. This is especially important if you have dry skin or do the dishes often. This can greatly reduce the amount of contact your skin has with the dish soap.
• Dish soap comes in a variety of quantities, such as bottles of 16, 19 and 32 ounces. You can also buy dish soap in packs of multiples, such as three, four or six bottles. Getting dish soap in bulk can be handy, especially if you have the storage space at home.