Bulk Soap Nuts

In the 2 years I’ve been using soap nuts I have been able to stop buying cleanser, laundry detergent, dryer sheets, fabric softener, bubble bath, body wash, shampoo, shaving cream, and floor cleaning products, car care products, and lots of other things… you get the idea about why I would encourage you to buy bulk soap nuts. The list of soap nuts uses is too long to share here.

When you buy a single pound you can expect to pay approximately $15-$25 US. I’m sure you’ve read all the articles on how much that would be per load and you know the relative ease of how to use soap nuts.

Now what you may not know is that this is the time of year when most US Soap Nuts importers are placing their orders for the previous/current year harvest. That means they want to sell off the soap nuts from last year’s harvest because they are not as pretty and large because they’ve lost some internal moisture. The longer they are off the tree the smaller and darker the soap nuts get. (good indication of age post harvest). They may not be as pretty, but they work just as well. You just need to soak them in some warm water for a bit longer if you are doing the tea method and cold water washing.

Since some of the US importers are proud of the size and color of the soap nuts they sell, this is your chance to get a REAL bargain by buying bulk soap nuts during the time period when they are trying to move their inventory. (don’t forget US inventory tax time is upon us also). SO… imagine being able to buy 10 lbs of bulk soap nuts and pay ONLY about $10 per lb. Great deal, right?

You can split these among a group of friends or family, and if you order just one more dollar in the NaturOli store you’d also get FREE SHIPPING.All orders over $100 receive free shipping from NaturOli.

Heck of a deal RIGHT? SO check this out 10 lbs bulk sapindus mukorossi soap nuts on special for $99.99 oh and these are also Organic, certified by EcoCert for the USDA.

While you’re there grab a bar of soap nuts soap to soothe that rough itchy Winter skin.

I thought today, since I just had an email exchange with someone on the subject of using soap nuts in the dishwasher, I’d share my own experiences and techniques for using soap nuts in the dishwasher and for hand washing of dishes.

I live in an area with very hard water and we cook with olive oil every day so I have some very tough dishwashing conditions. I also don’t always get the dishwasher loaded or the dishes rinsed immediately which doesn’t make things easier.

However, I have used soap nuts in several ways for washing dishes both by hand and in the dishwasher and had mostly good results.

When hand washing with soap nuts I strongly suggest, if your dishes are greasy or have caked on food, that you keep a shaker can of soap nuts powder near the sink. I sprinkle some finely ground soap nuts onto greasy plates or caked/cooked on food to help it to release more easily. The soap nuts powder also helps to not only release the grease from dishes but also gives the grease something to stick to so that it stays off the dish as you rinse. I’ve also mentioned previously that soap nuts powder is the best natural scouring powder I have ever used so there’s almost no scrubbing if you sprinkle soap nuts powder on a damp plate or pot even if the mess is stuck on thick.

Recently I also took some NaturOli Extreme 18X diluted it 5 to 1 with water and put it in a spray bottle. I spray the dishes now, give it a second to work it’s surfactant magic and then swipe the sponge across the dish or pot and load it into the dishwasher.

Since I also often wash dishes by hand to save the electric and water. I add either 1 teaspoon of undiluted Extreme 18x or homemade soap nuts liquid. Then fill the sink with warm water and set the dishes in it to soak for about 2 minutes. I then scrub them with the sponge and dip them in the rinse sink which I have filled with water water and 1/4 cup of white vinegar.

Some people put the soap nuts into the silverware cup and I have tried this with fairly poor results so I do not suggest this as a perfect solution.

One of the reasons that soap nuts do work on dishes so well is their ability to change the surface tension of both the water and the food or grease. However because of the nature of dishwashers you get more of a splashing of water than you get a submerging and agitation like you would in the washing machine with your laundry. That’s one the reasons I strongly suggest you either pre-soak them in the sink in warm water with soap nuts liquid as described above or your pre-scrub them using soap nuts powder.

Truth is most of the time I just use the soap nuts liquid and powder to hand wash my dishes instead of using the dishwasher. It saves me money by reducing my energy and it saves water since I can take the used water from the sinks when I’m done and use it on my plants.

If you are determined to try soap nuts in the dishwasher just be sure to rinse the dishes as well as possible and if they are greasy use some soap nuts powder on them to break up the grease and rinse most of it off the dishes before loading them in the dishwasher.

Soap nuts are an amazing way to reduce toxic chemicals and packaged cleaners from your home and reduce recycling waste and save money. But to make the most of them you must understand how they work and work with them the way nature intended.

While some companies like Seventh Generation create chemical formulas using “plant derived” cleaning agents specifically for sensitive skin, nature already created a natural detergent that works well to clean without irritating skin.

From Seventh Generation’s own site here is the list of ingredients in their “Free and Clear” Laundry Liquid.

Consider as you read through these ingredients that they (as is true on all ingredient lists listed from highest to lowest concentrations in the formula).

Free & Clear Natural 2X Concentrated Laundry Liquid

Aqua (water), sodium laureth sulfate, coconut alcohol ethoxylate & glycerin (plant-derived cleaning agents), sodium citrate (water softener), oleic acid & glyceryl oleate (plant-derived anti-foaming agents), sodium hydroxide (alkalinity builder), sodium borate (alkalinity builder and soil dispersant), amylase, cellulase & protease (enzyme soil removers), calcium chloride (cleaning enhancer), hexahydro-1,3,5-tris (2-hydroxyethyl)-s-triazine (preservative)

Let’s see how safe, natural, or non-irritating some of these ingredients are.

http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/ingredient/706089/SODIUM_LAURETH_SULFATE as you scroll down the page warning flags will no doubt spring up in your mind. But keep scrolling and you’ll see that this ingredient has proven to cause skin irritations in rabbits, and guinea pigs. Are we to believe that it won’t cause them in humans, especially children or those with health issues already?

Another potential cause of itchy skin is excessive alkalinity. If you review the ingredients above your will see two alkalinity building ingredients. So this too could be a cause of laundry detergents causing itchy skin or irritating sensitive skin. One way to know for sure would be to take a PH testing kit to the formula and see how alkaline it is. However, few of us would want to have to do this every time we try a commerically produced laundry detergent.

Now let’s turn to why soap nuts are considered a good choice of a truly natural laundry detergent that is excellent for those suffering from sensitive skin.

First let’s look at the ingredient list for soap nuts. It’s short. There are not long names with further explanation of the why they are included needed. More importantly none them are plant derived through chemical processes. They are simple a part of a plant, specifically the berry of the Sapindus Mukorossi Tree.

Ingredient in a bag of soap nuts are soap nuts.

Now let’s look at how the soap nuts work and how they’ve been used historically for not only cleaning but treating sensitive skin problems like psoriasis, dermatitis, eczema, and itchiness of the skin and scalp.

The particular type of saponin in greatest quantity in soap nuts are triterpenoid saponins. Wikipedia has a long explanation of them however the part most important to why they work to clean is this portion.

Most triterpenoid compounds in adaptogenic plants are found as saponin glycosides which refers to the attachment of various sugar molecules to the triterpene unit. Saponin glycosides reduce surface tension of water with foaming and will break down lipids.

In Ayuevedic medicine the soap nuts are often used as an anti-inflammatory. That pretty much says it all they will NOT inflame (irritate) tissue.

Additionally soap nuts leave no residue on the clothes when properly used so unlike commercial chemically derived laundry detergents nothing is left in your clothing to irritate your skin.

That is the brief explanation of why soap nuts are an excellent natural laundry detergent for sensitive skin.

With the beautiful weather months at hand more and more people are out digging in the dirt planting for beautification or planting vegetable gardens. With all of that outdoor work comes the need to deal with dirty hands, dirty clothes, lots of perspiration odor in your clothes, grimy faces, and more than a few preditory insects trying to have a snack at your expense.

Soap nuts in their various common use forms answer every one of those challenges, and do so chemically free and without exposing your body or clothes to harmful irritating detergents or cleansers.

Before heading out to the garden mist yourself with some soap nuts liquid as a green chemical free insect repellent. The saponin is a natural insect repellent but will not harm you or your skin like many of the traditional insect or mosquito repellents.

After using soap nuts powder as a chemical free hand scrub for my mobile mechanics it seemed sensible that if soap nuts worked that well on oily greasy hands they’d work equally well on dirt on the hands and under the finger nails after gardening. So a few weeks ago after clearing an area for a ginger garden I had filthy gardener’s hands. Okay some people wear gloves but I’m am very hands on in everything I do and gardening is no exception. My nails are fairly short but even so I had plenty of sandy black grit under them and anyone who has ever gardened with their bare hands knows getting the dirt out from under your nails is a challenge and requires serious scrubbing.

I was amazed at how great my nails looked after a short scrub with soap nuts powder. I was equally pleased that scrubbing my hands with soap nuts did not dry them out.

Once I finished the gardening for that day my next challenge was the dirt that was all over me and my clothes, not to mention the eau de armpit I’d acquired from working in the afternoon sun.

I dropped the clothes into the laundry and popped my soap nuts in their wash bag into the washer and headed for the bath tub for a soak and a some serious scrubbing (or so I thought).

A few months ago I started sprinkling soap nuts powder into my bath water and the tub filled knowing that there would be a lot less scrubbing required because the same way soap nuts change the water tension in the washing machine they do the same in water used for any kind of washing.

Once the tub was filled I slid in, and took a spoon of the soap nuts powder I keep on the side of the tub for and started on my feet. I should mention at this point I also usually garden bare foot so there was serious dirt caked on my feet after watering in the new garden. I make it a habit to scrub my toe nails with soap nuts powder at least once a week to deter fungal growth and keep my nails white naturally. I have some scientific documentation on how well the saponin from soap nuts works as an antifungal treatment so if you need a good anti-fungal detergent try soap nuts. I’ll share that data in one of my next posts.

Back to soap nuts and gardening.

I sprinkled a bit of soap nuts powder onto my damp skin and lathered it up all the way from toes to top and then took the bottle of soap nuts liquid I keep on the side of the tub and washed my hair with it. Yes soap nuts shampoo too. Hey if I’m going to keep my house and body free of chemicals then my hair deserves the same treatment.

Keep in mind I have very coarse full hair below my waste so there is a lot of it to wash. I have had to learn to adjust to using soap nuts shampoo because since there is not real lather guaging how much can be challenging. Once in awhile I get brave and use the soap nuts powder mixed with some vegetable glycerin for shampooing also. I have found that you really need to have your hair very wet to shampoo with soap nuts and you need to use as little as possible and rinse really well. I always squirt a dab of vegetable glycerin into my damp hands after I shampoo with soap nuts because my hair tends to be coarse and when I do that the comb glides through my hair with no resistance. I can’t even say that was true when I used to use regular sulfate sudsy shampoo and hair conditioner. I’ll dedicate an entire post to soap nuts shampoo in the coming weeks because I know many people want to try it but don’t know where to start of who to use soap nuts for a shampoo.

On a side note since I started washing my hair with soap nuts shampoo I have notice a great deal less breakage and my hair seems to be growing faster. I suspect this is due in part to how healthy my scalp is because of using soap nuts.

But back to soap nuts being a dream come true for a gardener.

The last item that needed scrubbing was my face (and then of course the bath tub). I sprinkle a little soap nuts powder (finely ground) onto my hands work up a nice lather and clean and exfoliate my face all in one action.

The bath tub took a sprinkling of soap nuts powder on the grimy bath tub ring and some swooshing with my bare hand and my bath tub was spotless again.

Now think about this if I had used one product for each of the things I described above I would have purchased at least 7 products to do what I did with soap nuts; one item which I get packaged in muslin bags from NaturOli.

Seven products packaged in plastic:
Laundry detergent
Hand soap
Body Wash
Shampoo (and Conditioner)
Face Wash
Face Scrub (for exfoliating)
Bath Tub cleanser or soft scrub (read my post on soap nuts as a scouring powder)

Not only did I get my body, hair, hands and feet, face, clothes, and bath tub clean I did so with no negative impact on my person or the environment.

Oh and after I make soap nuts liquid (soap nuts tea) I take the spent soap berries and sprinkle them around in my flower beds to deter insects, especially ants. They break down over time right into the soil and while they are breaking down the soap nuts act as a natural insectide and insect repellent but with no harm to either my plants or the ground water.

Wahooo … now who could not like soap nuts. Whether you are looking for ways to cut household expenses, have sensitivity to chemicals or fragrances, or want to reduce the waste you produce soap nuts offers a solution. Oh and they are so much less expensive to use than all those packaged chemical cleaners and personal care products.

I can make a 3 liter bottle of soap nuts liquid at home for approximately $2.23 cents using 1 1/2 ounces of soap nuts. That’s if you buy the NaturOli soap nuts in a one pound bag. I buy the 4 pound bag of NaturOli Nuts Soap Nuts so in point of fact my cost for the 3 liter bottle of soap nuts liquid is actually $1.35. Since I harness solar power to make my soap nuts liquid I have zero energy cost for it too.
Read the post on making soap nuts liquid greener http://www.soap-nuts.info/2009/04/01/making-soap-nuts-liquid-greener

I use that 3 liter bottle for laundry, counter tops, insect repellent, dishwasher detergent, dishwashing liquid, liquid hand soap, for mopping the floors, washing the cars, and shampoo.

Costing out the soap nuts powder is a bit different since I do both a fine grind and a coarse grind depending on what I am using it for. If I use the fine grind to wash my face or as a hand or foot scrub I use about 1/8 of a tsp yes only that tiny bit does the job.

The coarsely ground soap nuts powder I use for scouring sinks, bath tubs, toilets I use about 1 tsp for each sink, bath tub, and toilet.

In my next post I’ll give you the numbers on how much using soap nuts powder for personal care and as a chemical free scouring powder costs.

The next time you head out for time in the garden be sure you have your soap nuts ready!

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.

I have a personal stuffed animal collection that dates to my childhood some 40 plus years ago. Many of these critters have extreme sentimental attachments because of the people I received them from over the years. Despite my attachment to them whenever friends visit with small children I drag out a few of the stuffed animals and introduce the kids to them.

Now as anyone who has been around a few children knows, little people like to not only touch but often taste, smooch, and snuggle with furry things. More than a few times a little person has shared some bodily fluids with my stuffed animals. No harm done because the stuffed critters just get popped into the washing machine with some soap nuts, and exit the machine soft and fresh smelling.

There are many benefits to washing your kids (or your own) stuffed animals in soap nuts.

One benefit is the lack of residue left behind on the fabrics, so no  worries about the kids sucking on the paws and ears and getting anything dangerous into their little systems.

Another benefit especially for older stuffed animals is that when they get washed in soap nuts there are no concerns about the fabrics breaking down because soap nuts have no harsh chemical surfactants in them which erode fabrics causing the fabric to thin or become threadbare. That means less chance of the filling coming out through a weak place in the fabric.

Another benefit to washing stuffed animals in soap nuts is that soap nuts are naturally anti-bacterial and anti-fungal so even germs and viruses won’t linger in the fabrics.

Additionally if the stuffed animals get left out on a shelf while not in use they can get dust mites growing inside in the stuffing. Again soap nuts will take care of those nasty little critters making the stuffing less likely to irritate allergies in your children.

On a side note I make it a habit to wash our bed pillows in soap nuts about once every two weeks to kill off dust mites and remove body oil and odors. Keep that in mind if you have allergies and hate to sleep on a pillow encased in plastic to reduce the allergens. Soap nuts are also a natural hypoallergenic detergent so no concern about contact dermatitis for kids with sensitive skin snuggling with their stuffed pals.

Back to the stuffed animals though.  Odors from bodily fluids, food, and dirt can build up in the furriest of stuffed animals. Soap nuts are also great for that because in the same way that they remove odors from clothing and cloth diapers they also will remove odors that can build up on the fabric and in the stuffing.

A word of caution, before washing your stuffed animals be sure to check seams and stitch any that have come open from wear and tear. Your kids will not forgive you quickly if their favorite bear ends up missing his guts because he was bounced around in the washer or dryer.

Soap nuts are also an additive free laundry detergent so you don’t need to be concerned about chemical exposure like you would with regular laundry detergent. Since soap nuts are perfect for handwashing and safe for even the most delicate fabrics like silk, you can be sure your kids treasured stuffed animals will

Every time I toss my 22 year old Rodney The Reindeer and his pals Rhonda and Little Rodney into the washing machine I am thrilled with how soft, fluffy, and gently cleaned they come out.

Soap Nuts – Green Laundry has never been so soft, fluffy, easy, or affordable

If you are at all concerned about the potential dangers and skin irritations caused by packaged laundry soap and detergents, then soap nuts should move to the top of your must have list.

Besides the lack of disclosure on most cleaning product labels, often even the ingredients that are disclosed are couched in terminology that few can decipher.  Naturally derived is one of my favorite terms to avoid in packaged products. The reason I avoid products with that terminology is that although it may be derived from a natural source, how they extract the natural properties is left to be guessed at.

The buying public are a trusting bunch, and manufacturers know it. They word things in such a way that we feel safe to use their products. The EPA is even in on this now, giving certain products a “stamp of approval” as being safer. Well now don’t we all feel better that they are safer than others in their class.

If you’re interested in reading about the DfE logo and program here’s the link http://www.epa.gov/dfe/pubs/projects/formulat/label.htm

If you’ve never noticed the DfE logo this is what it looks like.

U.S. EPA Design for the Environment logo

I personally will continue to use soap nuts as my choice for laundry and cleaning because I’d rather have an additive free detergent than one that has additives that are simply safer than the additives used by other companies. Let’s remember that there are no regulations on listing in ingredients for cleaning products, they are protected by various governmental agencies to hide behind proprietary formulas and never disclose one single ingredient to us.

Soap nuts are the only truly additive free detergent, because used in their traditional form they are just as nature grew them.

I work at home so I rarely drag out the fancy dress up clothes. However, this past weekend a group of our friends went to Ft. Lauderdale for a boxing event and a weekend away.

Boy did I miss my super soft soap nuts laundered bed linens and towels. That’s another story though.

The point of this post is that since we did the dress up thing I wore several of my silk suits and since they had not been “dry cleaned” in months (or longer) I felt they needed a little freshening up. Soap nuts to the rescue once again.

I had not actually washed any of my silk clothes in the washing machine previously, usually resorting to expensive and stinky dry cleaning to keep the silk looking good. Sometimes my silk came back from the cleaners stiff as a board, which really made me mad. But since I started using soap nuts I wash most of our dry clean only clothes in the washing machine on either gentle or hand wash cycles, in cold water and then dry them on low heat. Soap nuts are a perfect chemical free alternative to dry cleaning, and much less expensive.

Truth is I had a big pile of “dry cleaning” sitting on a shelf in my closet because I just couldn’t bring myself to pay someone to put toxic chemicals on my clothes. I’d rather not wear them, than add to the chemical pollution on the planet. A few days before we left for our weekend I took the plunge and machine washed  several pairs of lined silk slacks and jackets, as well as some cashmere sweater sets for the evenings.

Let me tell you, my silk looked gorgeous, was super soft (the only reason I wear it) and needed virtually no pressing because there were only light wrinkles in it from the suit bag being folded.

One common problem with washing cashmere, wool, cotton, and even synthetic fiber sweaters is stretching (sagging). Another common problem is sweater pilling. You know those fuzzy lumps stuck all over the sweater that you have to comb to get rid of.

Well, since it’s been cool in Central Florida our sweaters got dragged out of the space bags and even after several washing and wearing not a single pill, no shrinking or sagging, and soft as they can be.

Funny that the big detergent manufacturers are now marketing special products for fading and sagging problems with bright colored clothes and sweaters. Funny because their own products are the cause of the problems in the first place. Soap nuts preserve the life and looks of  your clothes naturally.

Man I love my soap nuts.

So if you often take clothes to the dry cleaners, consider machine washing in cold using soap nuts. Using soap nuts as a chemical free alternative to dry cleaning  will save the planet, save you lots of money, and extend the life of your clothes.

I’ve been perfectly happy with how white my white clothes are using only soap nuts with no whitening additive. We live in Central Florida which means that we have lots of white clothing and under garments. In addition if you’ve read any of my other posts you also know that my mate uses white cotton handkerchiefs. He has no complaints about our white clothes either.

However, after doing some research on chemical free stain removers I read that if one soaks the stained garment in salt water overnight that stains, even tough ones, come out more easily. Through a bit of inductive reasoning I started to think that maybe adding salt to my laundry along with the soap nuts might be a bit of a help for both tough stains and whites without bleach in the laundry.

Many people who live in areas with hard water have water softeners installed which use either rock salt or salt pellets. These water softeners are very common in Central Florida.

Yesterday I decided to give it a go and tried adding sea salt to my laundry to see if it made any difference in either stain release or whitening of my whites. In truth the only issues I really had were some synthetic handkechiefs that had a bit of a dingie appearance.

Well I am happy to report that ALL of my whites were even whiter by simply adding course ground sea salt to the water. I used between 1 tablespoon and 1/4 of a cup depending on load size. All of my clothes came out as soft as with soap nuts alone, but those dingie handkerchiefs and some grubby socks were white as could be with the addition of some salt. No need for bleach to whiten anything. I waited for the washer to fill and then sprinkled the salt around the wash tub to allow the salt to dissolve rather than clump up on the clothes. This technique should work well no matter whether you use soap nuts in the wash bag, soap nuts liquid, or soap nuts powder as your green laundry detergent.

I should also add that I did the laundry in cold water, and since it was pretty darn cold here the water was VERY cold. So don’t think you’ll need to use warm water to make this work. I didn’t.

Also for those of you who have hard water and don’t have a home water softener try the salt trick to soften the water and enhance the natural cleaning of soap nuts for all of your laundry.

If you are like me and refuse to use packaged stain removers or bleach (even eco-friendly bleach) then try adding some salt to the laundry.

I’m also thinking that I will mix some soap nuts powder and sea salt together and see if it makes cleaning the toilets, bathtubs, showers, and sinks easier.

My next few posts will be about other eco-friendly ways to remove stains if you use soap nuts.

Be sure to stay up to date with my posts because very soon we’ll be sharing some amazing news from NaturOli about a new soap nuts product they are about to launch.

If you have heard about soap nuts but still haven’t tried them, get a Soap Nuts sampler  and experience the benefits of this all natural laundry detergent.

You’ll see soap nuts powder offered on some websites for sale. Folks, please just grind the soap nuts yourself from your bits and pieces and use a container you already have to reuse and renew and make soap nuts even more green.

Now if you are going to grind soap nuts powder for use as a chemical free laundry detergent then you will want to grind it to a very fine powder, something close to a dust because you want the powder particles to dissolve as they release the saponins and go out of the washer and down the drain, not stick to your clothes.

However, if you plan to use soap nuts powder as a chemical free scouring powder or cleanser, like for scrubbing sinks, pots and pans, and the toilet bowl, then you will want a more coarse grind.

I share this tip because I have tried it both ways and find the more coarse powder gives not only more scrubbing power because of the size of the particles, but it also gives you more “suds” so you can gauge the amount needed more easily.

By the way, I have been scrubbing my toilet bowls with soap nuts powder for a couple of weeks now, and the black ring has barely returned and now a quick swish of some powder on the dry edge of the toilet bowl and the toilet brush dampened in the water is all it takes for a quick touch up.

NO MORE SCRUBBING TOILETS!

Boy do I love that. But as any of you who have read more than one of my posts knows I just generally love soap nuts and can’t say enough about how much I enjoy cleaning my house and doing laundry now that I have this wonderful green and truly natural cleaning alternative.

We “live” in our home. In other words, we lie on the couch watching television and often nap on the couch or have overnight guests who sleep there. We’ve also been known to eat dinner or snack in front of the television which means more than a slight chance of food or drink spilled onto the upholstery.

Besides all of that abuse there’s more than a small bit of cigarette and cigar smoking that goes on in our home, especially when we have dinner quests. Over time all of that abuse can take its toll on the upholstery especially in the form of odors and stains from perspiration and smoke.

A few months ago my mate and I both noticed how much wear the couch (and love seat) were showing. There were obvious stains and a lingering stale odor. The living room furniture is over 6 years old and suffered through being closed up in our home in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina then loaded into a moving truck and put into storage for a few days. So as you can guess the upholstery needed a good cleaning.

Like your sheets your skin is in contact with the furniture upholstery. We don’t want chemicals in our bed, on our clothes and skin, nor do we want them on the couch and love seat. It’s all part of our chemical free cleaning approach.

I had washed the pillows from the couch and love seat in the washer using soap nuts many times and am always thrilled at how soft and fresh they come out. But the cushions posed a problem because they are too big to put into the washer so I got brave right before the holidays and peeled the covers off them and tossed them into the washer with soap nuts. It’s icky, but the once soft fabric actually felt stiff from all the dirt and perspiration that had built up on the cushions over the years.

I let them soak in the cold water with the soap nuts for about fifteen minutes and swirled it all around with my hand a couple of times to be sure the water tension had broken and the stains were being presoaked. You really don’t realize how much dirt has built up in something over the years, until you see clear water turn brown from the dirt imbedded in the fabric

I then ran the washer as usual using cold water wash and rinse, and when I pulled the cushion covers out of the washer I was dumbstruck by how much lighter in color the tan areas were and how much brighter the black parts were. The fabric has big squares of black and tan with areas that are kind of tweed. The results of cleaning the upholstery with soap nuts was overhwhelming, and that was before they got dry.

Once dried, I took them out and replaced them onto the foam inserts and I could not believe how soft they were to the touch.

I am sure you could use soap nuts liquid in a carpet cleaner with an upholstery attachment, but since our foam cushions are so think I opted to remove the covers and wash them in the washing machine like regular laundry.

Soap nuts once again a perfect chemical free solution to an everyday cleaning task, and one less product I need to buy or package to recycle.

Soap nuts – chemical free upholstery cleaning made easy!

Yesterday I started my gift list. Most of you are probably already doing that too.

So why are soap nuts the gift almost everyone I know will appreciate?

Soap nuts can be used for so many uses, from the most traditional use as a natural laundry detergent to the more obscure uses like chemical free car washing. I can’t think of a more thoughtful or useful gift than a natural product with multiple uses that protects the environment and the people who use it from harmful chemicals, while preserving and extending the life of your clothes.

So who can benefit from the gift of soap nuts? Well if you and I were sitting having coffee right now and you asked me that, here’s what I would tell you.

Soap nuts are the perfect gift for:

• College students
• Families
• Single people
• People with sensitive skin
• Treehuggers
• Families expecting a new baby
• Families with an infant or toddler
• People caring for the elderly or infirm
• People in the health care professions
• Auto mechanics
• Hair stylists
• Barbers
• Swimmers
• Gymnasts
• Runners
• Hikers
• Campers
• Hunters
• Fishing enthusiasts
• Asthma and allergy sufferers

And the list goes on, but for the moment let’s talk about athletes and outdoorsy types.

If you have a hunter, fishing enthusiast, swimmer, gymnast, runner, hiker, or camper in your life you know that their laundry needs are challenging.

Let’s start with hunting. Anyone who hunts or knows someone who does is well aware of the lengths they go to in order to be sure their presence is not obvious to the game. They go unwashed sometimes for days to be sure they don’t carry any “unnatural” scents with them into the outdoors. Soap nuts are fragrance free naturally, but besides that the clothing hunters wear is expensive and the camouflage colors help to make them invisible. So when these clothes get washed with traditional laundry detergents there is the chance of fragrance attaching itself to the clothing, not to mention the fading of colors.

More importantly the clothes worn directly against the body are designed to absorb and wick perspiration away from the skin to protect the hunter and retain their body heat. Traditional laudry detergents clog the fabric with residue and reduce the absorption of the material causing it to actually hold the moisture.

If you’ve ever gone hiking in cold weather you know what happens when your feet perspire and the moisture stays in the socks. Ouch! Aching feet that burn, wrinkle and sometimes crack, as well as the possibility of fungal growth in the boots and socks.

Soap nuts are a perfect gift for the hunter in your life for so many reasons. I won’t even get into the benefits they offer to the person who has the joy of washing the clothes when they come home from a hunting trip. Talk about smelly dirty laundry, no let’s not!

Let’s move on to athletes now. As athletic wear has become more technologically advanced and often designed with materials to reduce wind/water resistance to increase speed, athletic clothing fitting properly and hugging the body has become even more important. Lycra or spandex is the key to this body hugging aspect of athletic wear.

So what happens when you wash a swimmer or runner’s clothing in traditional laundry detergents? It breaks down the fabric just like it does with regular clothing. The result, sagging of the fabric. The swim wear and running wear is expensive even for the weekend athlete, so imagine the expense of buying new trunks every few weeks. Don’t forget that most competitive swimmers spend upwards of 4 hours a day in pools with toxic levels of chlorine which will also break down the fabric and fade the colors. If you watched the Olympics you noticed that the swimmers and divers wet themselves before entering the pool. They do that to reduce drag in the water. So if their swimwear repels the water as it does when the fabric is clogged with residue from traditional laundry detergent they lose time. No need to buy special laundry products just for these needs, soap nuts answer all these problems and are completely chemical free!

Go ahead think creatively and give those you love and the planet a gift that shows how much you care about them and the planet

Give environmentally safe, non-toxic, chemical free, natural NaturOli Soap Nuts gift baskets this holiday season, the planet and the recipient will thank you for many years to come.

As a child I was often pressed into service to do laundry and clean the house when visiting my paternal grandmother. This woman was one of those “cleanliness is next to godliness” people. While I have no issues with that mentality my developing immune and respiratory system did have real issues with all the toxic chemicals she used to clean the house.

I never went home from visiting my father’s parents without a rash, a cough, or some kind of skin irritation.

That house was like a museum with plush white carpets and rooms that were barracaded except on the most special of occasions. Despite the house being a museum, rooms no one ever entered had to be scrubbed and polished from ceiling to floor.

An average weekend with her was a chemical manufacturer’s dream event. The crystal chandelier required that each of the 200 plus drop crystals be removed by hand, then soaked and scrubbed in ammonia and hand dried before being replaced. The black and white linoleum floor had to be first stripped, on one’s hands and knees, and then rewaxed with extreme care.

The museum of a living room had a round smoked glass table about 4 feet in diameter with little display areas for her porcelain figures each of which had to be scrubbed with some packaged cleaner, and then the table had to be cleaned with more ammonia based glass cleaner before everything was replaced.

Laundry was a nightmare for this grandchild, partly because my involvement began at about the age of six. She had one of those double tub washers with a ringer from one tub to the other. My grandfather wore white t-shirts and, of course, undershorts which meant the cloud of chlorine bleach that hung in the basement was so dense that I spent the better part of laundry day hacking with my eyes tearing. Scalding water was required to get things clean of course and one had to stick one’s hands down in the agitating tub just to be sure everything got a good dip in the toxic water.

Let’s not even discuss the scalding baths and being scrubbed with Ivory soap which dried my fragile skin out so much I went home with rashes and looking like a scalded lobster after every visit. I still can’t stand the smell of Ivory soap (99% pure what I always ask myself).

So, over the years every time I smelled bleach, ammonia, cleanser or any other cleaning product I would be transported back to standing on a milk carton at six years old ironing handkerchiefs, t-shirts, and even undershorts as the bleach stung my nose and lungs and my hands throbbed from the scalding bleach water they’d been immersed in tens of times each laundry day.

You can imagine that experiencing that kind of discomfort as a child and having allergies to almost everything the day I came into the world, could make a person HATE to clean anything for the rest of their life. Somehow, despite my oh so self-aware approach to life, I never GOT why I hated housework so much.

Then about four months ago I discovered soap nuts. Suddenly I looked forward to cleaning my house and doing my laundry. I looked so forward to it in fact that I started concocting new cleaning products using soap nuts liquid as the base. I even started to soak in the tub with soap nuts liquid and scrub my feet and toenails with soap nuts powder made into a paste to whiten and exfoliate them.

Soap nuts have not only made me love cleaning, they’ve also made my partner a happy soul because our ongoing “discussions” about when I planned to clean the house no longer are a part of our lives.

Clean house, happy cleaner, happy mate, and HAPPY ENVIRONMENT!

If you haven’t tried soap nuts as a natural laundry detergent or chemical free cleaner you simply MUST.

There’s only one place I recommend you buy soap nuts though. NaturOli understands that not only are they selling an environmentally friendly detergent, but that there are people like me who really don’t want to leave behind a wake of toxic chemicals for future generations to deal with. They package everything in recycled, recyclable, or biodegradable packaging.

As you probably already know, soapnuts have been used for centuries in places like India and Nepal as a chemical free laundry detergent. Levente Szabó from Moholy-Nagy University of Art & Design, Hungary has designed a washing machine which won Electrolux Design Lab 2007 competition. The 2007 Electrolux Design Lab challenged students to come up with environmentally-sound, commercially-viable products and solutions that would enable consumers to live in greater harmony with the environment.

So if you are looking for more ways to live in greater harmony with the environment and aren’t ready to revert to washing your clothes by the stream and pounding them on a rock to get them clean while protecting the environment you should seriously consider looking for Electrolux E-Wash.

Of course, soapnuts can be used in a standard washing machine and are ideal for front loading machines because of the low sudsing the soapnuts generate.

I use soapnuts in place of dishwashing detergent also and have never been so happy to do dishes or laundry. There is an especially heart-warming feeling to knowing I am protecting the environment and my family from toxic chemicals, reducing the amount of pollution and waste our household generates and reducing the cost of my housekeeping expenses.

Imagine all that from something that grows on a tree, is about the size of a large grape, reduces the need for fabric softeners and dryer sheets, improves the economic situation for the people who harvest them, costs the consumer less than twenty cents per load of laundry, is harvested without the expenditure of fossil fuels or machinery, and does exactly what it promises to do.

Who wouldn’t want to use soapnuts?

I’ve replaced about 80 percent of the toxic, chemical based cleaners in my home with soap nuts in the last month. Even though I’ve found so many uses for them I am always looking for more ways to use soap nuts, which brought me to this great article on CopperWiki.

Soapnut , which has a great deal of background about what soap nuts are, but also has sections on uses for them for cleaning and for health related conditions.

Here’s an excerpt of the article to get you started with creative uses for soap nuts:

• Natural Laundry Detergent
  Hand wash or machine wash, when used with cold water tends to soften clothing. Especially used for fine wool and silk in preference to chemicals.
• Powder, Shampoo and Skin Cleaner
  Soap nut is excellent for washing and bathing both humans and pets. It acts as a natural exfoliant and leaves the skin with a soft, smooth layer which protects against infections and insects. It also prevents hair loss.
• Pesticide-Buster
  The Soap nut solution can be used as a spray to repel and prevent a wide variety of pests and blight, including aphids and blackfly. Recently in Agriculture Research Institute, Taiwan, a molluscicide and a fungicide were developed with the use of extracts from Sapindus mukorossi seeds, effectively controlling golden apple snail (Ampullarium canaliculatus) and powdery mildew on muskmelon and tomato.
• General Purpose Cleaner
  Cars, Motorbikes, Jewellery & Silverware wash: Gives a glossy finish removing dirt and grease. It is also an excellent wash for Mechanic’s hands, stained hands due to the same reason.
• Toothpaste
• Fruits & Vegetables Wash: Most of us are unaware that many of the fruits and vegetables we eat are grown using harmful chemicals and sprayed with pesticides to increase their shelf-life. Scientific tests have shown that a ten minute soak in soap nut solution will remove upto 95% of the surface pesticides and chemical residues.
• Cardamom Wash: Used for washing and bleaching cardamoms to improve the colour & flavour.
• For cleaning & washing dishes, floors, glass and metal surfaces: Acts as a disinfectant and is 100% biological and biodegradable. It is also excellent for septic tank drainage systems.
• Mordant: It acts as a fantastic mordant in the process of vegetable dyeing of the silk and cotton yarns, removing the need for both alum and caustic soda and rendering the fibres soft and yielding to colour-depth and fastness. No other mordant is required for most natural dyes as soap nut has a lovely light brown natural dye.
• Medicinal purposes: It is used commonly in the Indian Ayurvedic Healing system for
  Skin problems, eczema, chronic itching, removing pimples, psoriasis and the treatment of scabies.
  Dandruff
  Lice and and other parasites
  People with allergies, neurodermatitis and people with sensitive skin, should use soap nuts as other chemical detergents often provoke an aggravation of their ailment.
  The fruits are credited with expectorant and emetic properties and when prepared by an Ayurvedic doctor it can treat epilepsy, chlorosis and excessive salivation. It is also used as a sedative to the uterus and is used to ease childbirth. It can also be prepared as a digestive aid, an anti-venom, or to treat diarrhea, cholera and paralysis.
  The powdered seeds are said to possess insecticide properties. They are employed in the treatment of dental caries.
• Reetha fruit is so rich in iron it is considered a hemolytic and is used often to treat anemia.
• The soap nut tree when in bloom Attracts Butterflies”

Be sure to read the entire article if you have time because there is other great information about soap nuts there, including information about growing a soapnut tree.

Again the link to the entire article on CopperWiki is http://www.copperwiki.org/index.php/Soapnut

If you want to purchase soapnuts now without waiting for my reviews then visit our Order Soapnuts page for a list of suppliers.

My friend is a working mom with two teenage kids. Her son is 15 and a competitive swimmer and her daughter is 12. You can probably imagine her laundry challenges, everything from wet towels to chlorine saturated swimming trunks in addition to the multiple outift changes these teens make every day. Since she works full time in addition to her kids extra-curricular activities you might guess that her time is precious and she may not get to the laundry every day. So for her, soap nuts sounded like a gift from heaven.

I gave her a small plastic bag with about 40 soap nuts in it, figuring this would cover her for a few weeks. I explained that she should put 3-4 soap nuts in the small muslin bag and drop it into the washing machine with her laundry. I also told her that those same 3-4 soap nuts could be used for at least 5 loads of laundry in the same day, and to just drop them in the garbage disposal when they were used. She was so excited to get home and try them. But while we sat on the patio after dinner enjoying coffee I decided to do an informal bit of market reasearch on our other guests. Only one person besides my mate had heard about soap nuts from me, so there wasn’t any predisposed assumption of what they would notice during the touch test.

I took two white towels from my linen closet and brought them out to the patio. One had been washed weeks ago using standard laundry detergent and dried with dyer sheets, the other had been washed with soap nuts and no additional laundry products or dryer sheets to increase softness.

I started with my friend and handed her each towel, asking her only to “feel” them. As I put the second one in her hand she looked up at me and said “Wow this one is really soft!”. I then handed each towel to her teenage son, mixing them up as I handed them to him so he would not be prejudiced. He too noticed the difference in softness.

Since we had music on the outdoor speakers the other guests on the opposite side of the patio had no idea what I was doing or why. Each noticed a difference and immediately asked why I was handing these towels around.

Once everyone had felt the two towels I explained what the “test” was about. They were all thrilled to hear that a natural and affordable chemical free laundry detergent alternative existed, and all wanted to know where to buy them. Each one offered a thought on why soa pnuts would be a great addition to their homes.

Here’s the list of thoughts they offered on the benefits of using soap nuts:

• There is no packaging to recycle.
• Reduced cost because you only need one product to clean, soften, and sanitize your laundry.
• Environmentally friendly because no chemicals are going out the drain into the sewage system or water table.
• Laundry has a fresh scent after washing without having to add anything.
• Clothes and towels looking new longer because there are no harsh chemicals to break down the fabric fibers or colors.
• No added scent to irritate sensitive noses or skin, especially great for babies.
• Soap nuts are hypo-allergenic so they won’t bother people with allergies or skin irritations.
• No energy is used in the harvesting or manufacturing so there is little negative environmental impact from soap nuts

I have read on some sites that one may want to add an oxygen bleach to whiten whites, but I have not found that I need to do that. My partner is an “old-fashioned” sort who still carries and uses white cotton handkerchiefs. Since we live in the south he often wears white so he has many pairs of white underwear. All the whites I’ve washed with soap nuts exclusively have come out as white or whiter than they did when I used regular laundry soap and bleach. Big difference though for me was the stench of bleach in the house and the amount of spray starch I needed to use on the handkerchiefs when I iron them. Much less starch is necessary because the handkerchiefs are soft to start and almost wrinkle free right out the dryer.

I showed our dinner guests the Lullwater Soapnuts packaging, which is a muslin bag with the instructions printed on the bag itself. Inside is a thin plastic bag to keep the soap nuts fresher longer and to keep the saponin from drying out in shipping and also in storage. Everyone was also really impressed with the minimal packaging.

Another company I got a sample from sent a printed color tri-fold brochure which kind of bothered me because one of the reasons I switched to using soapnut berries was to cut down on recycling and on waste. If they’d at least printed their brochure on recycled paper with single color ink I would have been less displeased.

Lullwater has the best retail price I have found so far.

I did get a great deal on bulk soap nuts from a company in Canada that I found on Ebay. I am waiting on those to arrive so I can tell you how they compare in freshness to the Lullwater Soapnuts. I will also give you a  packaging comparison on those.

I made up another batch of soapnut tea on Friday in preparation for the tons of dishes, silverware, and stemware I have to wash after one of these dinner parties. I haven’t calculated cost on using soapnuts in the dishwasher yet, but one thing I did notice is that even my old dishes which have begun to look dull from the surface scratches look brighter and less worn. My flatware looks brighter, and so do my stainless steel sinks because I use soapnut liquid to wash the glasses and fragile pieces I don’t want to put in the dishwasher.  Of course those scratches on my older dishes are also places for bacteria to grow so using the soapnuts with vinegar in the rinse agent cup puts my mind at ease that my dishes are sanitized without using harsh chemicals.

Once my shipment from the Canadien company arrives I’ll be doing more experiments with homemade chemical free cleaners using soap nuts liquid as a base.

My family is coming to visit at the end of July to celebrate my sister’s 50th birthday and I can’t wait to share the soap nuts with them. I’ve told them both about how great they are, but even though they know how meticulous and critical I can be and trust my judgment this weekend I was convinced that feeling is truly believing even if the soap nuts market research I did was informal.

My next post will be about growing your own soapnut trees and the things to consider before you decide this is a good idea.

Our goal is to be a central resource for all the available information about soap nuts online. If you find a resource we overlook please post a comment and share it with others.

What we’ll be providing is information about soap nuts, where to buy them, reviews of soap nuts suppliers, and creative ways to incorporate soap nuts into your life, for all purpose a chemical free cleaning.

Rarely are we impressed with something as much as we have been impressed by the excellent cleaning results of soap nuts. Often we find claims of online merchants for some products can be overblown marketing hype. Not true in respect to soap nuts. They are everything they are cracked up to be (pardon the pun).

What is most impressive to us about soap nuts is that they are sustainable, environmentally friendly, and completely natural. In fact soap nuts actually add the opportunity for economic growth to the indigenous people who harvest them, and better yet there is no machinery is used in the harvesting. The soap nuts fall to the ground and are gathered, deseeded, and generally packaged in the most minimal way.

A win for all involved in the use of soapnuts as an alternative to manufactured detergents, soaps, dishwasher powder or liquid, shampoos, and window cleaners.

Please visit http://soap-nuts.info often to discover all the ways you can use soap nuts in your everyday life.

If you enjoy our blog, or find the information of value to someone you know please be sure to share the link with others.