Soap Nuts

Making soap nuts liquid at home is very easy. It’s simply a matter of putting some approximate 15 soap nuts in 6 cups of water in a pot of water and boiling the water, then reducing it to a simmer for about 30 minutes.

But yesterday I started to think about ways that I could make soap nuts liquid just as concentrated without using the electric to boil the water. In essence making soap nuts liquid greener by not using any fossil fuels to create it if possible. After all one of the main reasons I use soap nuts is to reduce my carbon footprint and remove chemicals from my cleaning and personal care environment.

Here are some ideas about ways to make soap nuts liquid at home but to make the whole process greener and more efficient.

Soap Nuts Tea – Solar Power – Sun Tea Versions

Take the equivalent of 20 whole soap nuts and drop them into an empty clear plastic (or glass) container like a 2 liter soda bottle. I used an empty limeade bottle that holds 50 ounces of liquid, which is about 1 1/2 liters. Fill the bottle to just below the neck and place it outside in the sun for approximately 8  hours. Remember to shake the bottle around every couple of hours so that as the soap nuts soften from being in the water the saponin will release in greater concentration. Another helpful note is if you have pieces your soap nuts liquid will be ready faster because the broken pieces have more ready access to the saponin in the soap berry pulp. Alternatively you can crunch the soap nuts up in your hand or mash them up into pieces by any other means you devise.

I decided to be a bit scientific about this to see if there would be an advantage to using soap nuts powder to make the liquid. I have read that many people do this, and I thought as long as I was at it why not give that a try.

Here’s what I did to make soap nuts liquid using soap nuts powder and the power of the sun to get the saponin to release. For this version I used an empty water bottle that holds 3 liters of water.

Take a container similar to the above instructions and pour approximately 5 tablespoons of soap nuts powder into the empty container. Now add the water to just below the neck of the bottle, cap and shake. You will see the color change immediately to a kind of golden to carmel color. I left mine outside overnight right next to the bottle of soap nuts tea I was making using the whole soap berries.

My theory was that since they were side by side and started at approximately the same time I’d be able to see which green soap nuts liquid method was most efficient and concentrated. The 5 tablespoons of soap nuts powder is basically equivalent to 25 soap nuts. So my portions were pretty close especially since I used a slightly larger empty water bottle for the soap nuts powder version.

Now let’s discuss affordability of this method. If you use soap nuts in the laundry 20 soap berries will produce about 20 medium size loads of laundry in a standard washing machine. That’s if you use the generally accepted 4-5 soap nuts in a wash bag for each load and approximately 3-5 loads of laundry from each fresh wash bag.

I just did my first load of laundry using the soap nuts powder based soap nuts liquid. I used 1/8 of a cup of the liquid in a medium load using cold water. That’s approximately 1 fluid ounce. So in theory the 3 liter bottle of soap nuts liquid I made using this greener soap nuts powder method should yield me 101 loads of laundry.

So the same amount of soap nuts powder would only do about 5 loads of laundry because basically you use 2-3 teaspoons (1 tablespoon) of soap nuts powder for a standard load, but by putting the powder into a bottle and setting it in the sun I extracted more saponin from the powder and will get 20 times as many loads.

I’ll let you do the cost analysis on the whole soap berry method of making soap nuts sun tea yourself.

Play with the concentration yourself to if this is a viable green alternative to making soap nuts liquid for yourself without using any electricity. Yes I realize that electric is used to grind the soap nuts powder, but compare less than 2 minutes of grinding soap nuts in a coffee grinder with heating a pot of water to boiling and then simmering it for 30 minutes. Soap nuts are about as green as you can get when it comes to both laundry and cleaning, but if we can find ways to make them even greener, why the heck not.

If you want a great bargain on soap nuts pieces you won’t find a better price than this
NaturOli Soap Nuts PIECES! – 5 lb. bag! (Appox. 800 Loads!) – All Sapindus Mukorossi. 100% Natural Laundry Detergent! (Less than 8 cents PER LOAD!!) – New, Fresh 2009 Harvest NOW SHIPPING!

Once you’ve got your soap nuts sun tea to the concentrate you want, be adventurous and use it as a soap nuts shampoo, chemical free glass cleaner, natural dishwashing soap, chemical free hand soap, or chemical free jewelry cleaner. You’ll be amazed how affordable and naturally you can clean your home and all the green cleaning products you can make using soap nuts tea as the basis.

Also reusing a bottle you already have further reduces recycling making this an even greener way to use soap nuts.

The first load of laundry I did with the soap nuts powder based soap nuts liquid just finished. When I removed the clothes from the washer everything smelled good and clean, even the laundry bag of socks. So this method passed the sniff test.

Since it took me awhile to finish this post the first load is now dry and the results seem great. Lots of soft clean laundry just like I get from soap nuts in a wash bag or stove top soap nuts liquid.

Go ahead … experiment … worst case the soap nuts liquid is less concentrated than you want and you either add more powder or soap berries to it and put it back out in the sun.

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Soap nuts liquid is very easy to make and is a perfect homemade green cleaning product. Actually soap nuts lquid can be used to replace almost every chemical in your home with a green alternative.

Soap nuts liquid recipe:

Place 12 to 15 soap nuts (about 1.5 ounces) in about 6 cups of water. For best results, bring to a boil and simmer for approximately an hour. You will know that you have fully extracted from the soap nuts when they turn very light tan or gray and are mushy. Allow to cool and strain. Store the soap nuts liquid concentrate in an airtight glass jar. Like all botanicals, the infused soap nut liquid is best stored in a cool place away from direct sunlight. This 100% pure soap nut liquid solution has absolutely no preservatives of any kind; hence it has a limited shelf life of a few days, unless stabilized. Refrigeration will extend its shelf life. This is typical of virtually all water-based botanical solutions.

The following is only a very short list of some homemade green cleaning products using soap nuts liquid.

Green Multi-purpose Household Cleaner
Pour soap nuts liquid into a spray bottle. Use full strength or dilute as desired. Use for sinks, counters, floors, and to wash your dishes by hand.

Chemical Free Window and Glass Cleaner:
Fill a spray bottle with about 8 oz of water. Add a half-ounce of soap nuts liquid and a half-ounce of vinegar. Spray and then wipe clean with dry cloth.

Chemical Free Dishwashing Detergent:
Fill the dishwasher soap dispenser with soap nuts liquid. Wash as usual. Tip: For extra sparkle, add a half-ounce of vinegar to the rinse dispenser or during the rinse cycle.

Chemical Free Carpet Cleaning Liquid:
Soap nuts liquid works exceptionally well in carpet cleaners because it is so low sudsing and odor reducing. Add about a quarter cup of soap nuts liquid to hot water in the portable cleaner. Great for urine stains.

Chemical Free Jewelry Cleaner:
Soak jewelry in soap nuts liquid for a few minutes. Use an old soft toothbrush to remove debris. Rinse with clean water and polish with a soft cloth. Soap nuts have been used as a fantastic jewelry cleaner for centuries.

Chemical Free Pet Shampoo:
Soap nuts also have a natural insect repellent property so not only will your pets be naturally cleaned they’ll be less likely to attract various pests such as fleas, ticks, and lice. The natural antifungal properties of soap nuts are perfect for pets with skin irritations, rashes, and hot spots. Soap nuts liquid is also perfect for washing pet bedding.

Chemical Free Shampoo:
Use soap nuts liquid to shampoo hair. Leave in for about 5 minutes.
Rinse as usual with luke warm water, or diluted vinegar. If you prefer more suds, add a little your favorite shampoo.

Next post all the wonderful ways to use soap nuts powder for green cleaning and chemical free scrubbing.

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Soap nuts are the central ingredient in my house cleaning and laundry practices. But with the holidays my fine china, linen table clothes and napkins, and the fine silver gets used and often abused.

Polishing my silver flatware has always been an odious task for me. Probably going back to childhood when I was forced to clean the silver for my paternal grandmother as a regular task when I visited them. Cleaning silver was never easy, but with soap nuts it is a breeze.

I’d read that soap nuts have been used for centuries as a chemical free jewelry cleaner, which I hadn’t tried, but for some reason I never thought about polishing my silverware with soap nuts before this.

After a dinner party on December 24th, for my mate’s birthday, I had tons of dishes and silverware to wash. I was dreading it, especially since I recently decided to abandon the dishwasher and do my dishes by hand. So when it came time to clean that huge pile of silverware I thought I’d be at it for days instead of hours.

Much to my own surprise cleaning the tarnish off the silver flatware  with soap nuts liquid was so easy I am thinking of using the silver more often. I use soap nuts liquid for cleaning many things, and since I started handwashing dishes I use it as my dish liquid. All it took to clean the silverware, even the stuff with food caked to it in a crust was a few squirts of soap nuts liquid on a sponge and a tiny bit of rubbing with the abrasive side of the sponge. Wow chemical free silverware polish, what a joy!

With very little effort I have sparkling clean and very shiny silver flatware. Now here’s really great part of this is that the silver is my mother’s wedding silver. Actually I have two sets, one is Mom’s and one belonged to my father’s parents. Over the years it has been neglected and often cleaned in a way that has scratched the surface causing even more tarnish to build up. I thought we were destined to have tarnish on this beautiful silverware forever because of the damage already done to it.

You’ve probably read somewhere that toothpaste is a good homemade way to clean silver. I warn you against it though because toothpaste, by its nature, is abrasive and it will cause fine scratches in your silver that will actually encourage more tarnish over time. If you want a homemade silver cleaner, then try soap nuts liquid.

I really should do some before and after pictures on this one because the results astounded me. Cleaning with soap nuts has made my life so much easier and healthier but to have more soap nuts uses makes me even happier.

Once again soap nuts exceeded my expectations, made a nasty cleaning experience into a happy one. I am thrilled that I did it all chemical free with no harm to me or the environment and without having to buy a special product just to do this one occasional task.

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If you aren’t familiar with what soap nuts are then please visit our What are soap nuts? page.

If you already know what soap nuts are and have purchased some but have only used them as a chemical free laundry detergent alternative then please keep reading.

Soap Nut Uses:

• Chemical free laundry detergent
• Chemical free dishwasher detergent
• Chemical free window and glass cleaner
• Chemical free stove top cleaner
• Chemical free gold and silver jewelry cleaner
• Chemical free plant cleaner
• Chemical free stainless steel polish and stainless steel pot cleaner

Some of the uses listed above require you to create what is commonly called “soap nut tea”. There are two recommended ways to do this.

1. Soak one cup of soap nuts in 4 cups of water overnight, pour the soaked soap nuts and water into your food processor and liquify the nuts, then strain the liquid into a bottle. Be sure to squeeze every bit of juice out of the chopped soap nut mixture. Store in cool dark place.
2. Bring one cup of soap nuts in 4 cups of water to boil. Let simmer for about 20 minutes. Allow soap nuts to cool. Bundle the soapnuts into cheesecloth or a muslin bag and squeeze all the liquid out of them into the pot of soap nuts water. Now allow to cool and pour into a bottle. Store in cool dark place.

After receiving my shipment of soap nuts from Lullwater Soapnuts I used the stove top method to make soap nut tea. I pour it undiluted into my dishwasher soap cups and filled the rinse agent cup with distilled white vinegar.

WOW … sparkling clean plates, glasses, and silverware. What I love about that is that it reduces my cost of dishwashing drastically, there are no harmful or toxic chemicals being baked onto my dishes, and the soapnuts tea that goes down my drain is not polluting the environment.

The vinegar as the rinse agent ensured that my glasses were spotfree and saved me the expense of a packaged rinse agent. Since vinegar is anti-bacterial I can be sure my dishes are sanitized as well as clean.

Many dishwasher powders, gels, and liquids now contain chlorine based bleach. When I used those and ran the dishwasher my whole house stunk of bleach, which meant that every member of my household was breathing toxic chlorine vapors.

I can only imagine how much bleach residue was being baked onto my dishes, glasses, and silverware in the drying cycle; and then passed into my family’s bodies when we ate off the plates.

An added bonus is that the pot I boiled them in sparkled after I rinsed it with water. No need to wash it, it was already soap nut cleaned.

I also made a small difference in my carbon footprint because there was no packaging to recycle. I actually put the boiled soap nuts into a muslin bag and tossed that into my silverware container in the dishwasher to add a bit of extra cleaning to my dishes.

After I’d run the dishwasher I just dropped the used soap nuts into the garbage disposal, although you can also toss them on a compost heap because soap nuts are naturally biodegradeable. I don’t have a compost heap, but from my reading I know that soap nuts, which are naturally anti-mibrobial converts my wastewater from the dishwasher from blackwater to greywater because no toxic chemicals are being drained f. If you wonder about those terms check out the Wikipedia article on greywater 

Next post will be recipes for mixing soap nuts liquid with other non-toxic household items to create a chemical free window and glass cleaner, and how to make an antibacterial hand soap that is chemical free, and enviromentally friendly.

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