Cheat Sheet: Make Your Own Disinfectant At Home—With Just Dishwashing Liquid!

It’s the weekend. You decide to stay productive by doing some cleaning at home. You march to the kitchen to get going, only to find your bottle disinfectant already emptied out. (Possibly like your dreams for a better Philippines? You tell!)

You know heading out just for that one bottle isn't always a good option. But that's because you didn't know there’s a new household hack that won't have you risking your health further. It's nothing fancy—it's just your dishwashing liquid.

Dishwashing liquid, as the Japan Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) and the National Institute of Technology and Evaluation (NITE) concluded in a recent research, is among other household products that carry cleaning actives known as "surfactants."

The study found that when used at the right levels, surfactants in some detergents can make an effective cleaning agent for SARS-CoV-2—or the virus that causes COVID-19.

METI and NETI have also proven a "significant reduction" on the virus count on surfaces and items, when exposed to a surfactant diluted to 0.05% -0.2% for 20 seconds to five minutes.

Joy Philippines, a leading local brand of dishwashing liquid, called this innovative and accessible to the average Filipino family.

"This would mean convenience and better value for money given the product’s multipurpose use of disinfecting various items, not just in the kitchen but other household items as well," the brand said.

If you've been hard up from buying all these expensive disinfectants, you might want to go DIY with just dishwashing liquid. Here's the step-by-step, as recommended by METI!