Soap Nuts
Imagine if you could use the same cleaner for nearly all of the surfaces in your home including glass, counters, bathrooms, clothing, and blankets. Picture that this miracle cleaner is all-natural, grows on trees, saves you money, and gives you more shelf space. I know what you’re thinking- this sounds too good to be true. Not so! Soap nuts (actually berries called nuts) meet all of the above characteristics and make a gentle and effective household cleaner.
Soap nuts can be used either as whole nuts or as a liquid. When used as whole nuts, they are put into a small cotton bag and placed directly into the washing machine. To use them as a liquid, they can be boiled in a pot of water and made into a tea. Once cooled, the tea can be poured into a spray bottle and used as an everyday household surface cleaner.
For large loads of laundry to be washed in warm water, I normally add 3-4 soap nuts to a cotton bag and place it in my washing machine as the water is flowing in. These same 3-4 soap nuts can be used for two large loads if used with warm water. For washing laundry in cold water, I make the tea (instructions below) and pour about a 1/2 cup into the machine. In either case, I do not use any other detergent or fabric softener.
For convenience, I recommend making the tea before doing laundry and storing it near the washing machine so that it is always handy. To make the tea, I add about 8 soap nuts to a large pot of boiling water for five or six minutes. After it cools down slightly, I use a large spoon to remove the remaining nut pieces. Once fully cooled, I simply transfer the tea to a clean, empty milk jug and place it in the laundry room.
I find that outside of laundry, the tea works best to clean glass tables, windows, and mirrors, and counters. It also works well for bathrooms, although the sinks tend to be slightly harder to clean than other surfaces. Even so, I have made the decision to use a bit more elbow grease and avoid the chemical-ridden cleaners I’ve used in the past.
Overall, soap nuts are a great money-saver as well as a safe, natural cleaner. They are available at this website and cost $29.95 for a 2.2lb bag. My bag of soap nuts has been used for a number of months (for both household cleaning and weekly laundry) and it is only about a quarter gone at the most. I hope that you might be willing to give this product a chance and enjoy the great results it offers!
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
That’s nuts!
When you say..”tea”…Does that mean you can drink it?
No, you don’t want to drink it. It is tea like- the water changes color and has an aroma, but it should be used as a cleaner.
A low cost, green eco friendly, healthy natural way to clean, bathe or do laundry is to make a homemade liquid from soapberry which grows on the Chinaberry tree and has been used for thousands of years. It works very effectively.
Isn’t that exactly what this article says Ira?
If you visit Ira’s link the site is actually quite useful