Soap Nuts

Soap nuts are completely additive free, unlike so many other so-called natural detergents on the market today.

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.

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Soap nuts are the mildest additive free laundry detergent I have ever found, especially for washing delicates, lingerie, silks, cashmere, sweaters, and wool.

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.

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Soap nuts users often ask if their white clothes will be white enough without adding bleach.

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.

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Soap nuts powder  was the subject of a previous post about the wonders of it as a chemical free scouring powder. Today I need to revisit the topic to add a bit of clarity.

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.

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Soap nuts wash bag hunting may be the only bad thing about using soap nuts.

If you’ve used soap nuts in a larger load or laundry, or with linens you may have had to hunt through your wet laundry to find the wash bag. Heck it may have even ended up in the dryer by accident and not been found until you folded the clothes.

Well we have a tip for you that will end your hunt for your soap nuts wash bag once and for all.

This tip comes to you from my sister, another devoted soap nuts user.

Ready?

Find yourself one of those plastic balls or eggs, the kind that come from gumball machines or you put into an Easter basket. Place the closed plastic egg (or plastic ball) into the wash bag with the soap nuts.

The empty plastic ball will cause the wash bag to rise to the top of the machine at the end of the wash cycke when the water is all drained. If you drop it into the washer in the center near the agitator when you start the load of laundry It will also keep the wash bag closer to the agitator, causing the soap nuts to get some extra bouncing around which will help release the saponin too.

Life with soap nuts is so green, so healthy, and now just a little bit easier.

GET SOAP NUTS! You will be amazed, thrilled, and delighted at how soft and clean your laundry is and all with no chemicals to hurt you, your clothes, or the environment.

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Soap nuts once again come to the rescue in my home. This time soap nuts got pressed into service as a chemical free upholstery cleaning solution.

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!

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Friday night I had a houseful of dinner guests. Earlier in the week when we were formalizing the time for the dinner, I had shared my discovery and successes using soap nuts with a friend.

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.

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