Soap to Nuts

Recently I learned about soap nuts, and couldn’t wait to try them.  They are dried nuts from the soapberry tree used as a laundry detergent.  

Dave is quite picky about what goes into our septic system (that means no powder – laundry or dishwasher), and I personally can’t stand the smell of most laundry detergents.  It’s been years since we’ve used fabric softener, and I’ve been looking for any excuse to dump those stupid plastic bottles of detergent that pile up in the recycling bin.  

My soap nuts arrived on Saturday, just in time for me to go to work.  You can’t get more earthy-crunchy than this, can you?

I’ll admit that if I do a load of laundry, it’s an occasion worth marking on the calendar.  I’m spoiled, and Dave does 99% of our laundry.  You will recognize, then, just how inspired I was this morning, when I ventured downstairs with the girls’ sheets and comforter, to brave the wild space that is our laundry room.

Five nuts go in a little bag (included) inside the washing machine with your clothes, and they last for five loads of laundry.  After that, you throw them in the compost.  Inside the earthy-crunchy cloth bag is a plastic liner, because they are a bit sticky.  I threw them in, started the machine with a splash of hot water to activate the oils in the nuts, and then swapped over to cold.  I’m too lazy to try to figure out the evils of heating my water with oil vs. using detergent in a plastic bottle.  I really do care about being kinder to the enviorment, but I have five kids, two jobs, and a life.  If the nuts work, they stay.  Otherwise, we’ll chalk that up as one of my kooky ideas and go back to buying whatever laundry detergent happens to be on sale.

How did they work?  Well, the girls’ sheets are fairly new, and white with a flowered pattern.  I’ve been a bit worried about that, because they seemed to be getting dingy recently, thanks to the super-suckiness of my washing machine.  They are now bright white and odor free.  There is not a single bit of smell to the sheets or the comforter, though the nuts did smell a bit vinegary.

If these things can clean my kids clothes as well as the sheets, then I am sold.

This last photo I add for those of you that know me well; notice that the little sack inside my washer is wet – I really did do laundry!  

Explore posts in the same categories: Reduce-Reuse-Recycle

Tags: fabric softener, laundry detergent, soap nuts

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