Looking at the cover photo you might be wondering where is the laundry soap the post title mentions? And what the heck are those shriveled looking things on a pretty dish 🙂
But this is it – those shriveled looking berries is the most chemical-free organic and sustainable laundry soap you can have!
These are soap nuts or soap berries. They are little berries from tree called Sapindus mukorossi which is native to India and Nepal. These little berries contain natural soap-like substance – sopanin – that is great at cleaning many things from your laundry to your hair !!! (I’ve been using it instead of shampoo for a year and love it)
How to use them?
Can’t be easier – toss 5-7 berries into a mesh bag (such as those for delicate laundry), put it together with your laundry in the machine and done deal! 🙂
The nuts are re-usable many times.
Do they actually work?
You might feel skeptical, but here is an experiment that have convinced me. At our little rental place a customer spilled some perfume all over the bedding. It smelled outrageous! I washed it with one of the detergents I used to get at Wholefoods, which generally did a good job at my laundry, but the smell wouldn’t go away. I tried washing again, and while the smell lessened when sheets were dry they still reeked as soon as they became wet. In the last attempt I decided to give a go to soap nuts which I’d been using instead of shampoo for many months by then. I was amazed that from the first use they completely eliminated the terrible perfume stench.
Since then we fully switched to soap nuts for our laundry. We haven’t noticed any lesser result than that from the more conventional detergents. They are great at removing smells and getting dirt out. And even my lovely husband who is very supportive yet somewhat more skeptical of my non-conventional experiments hasn’t noticed that his laundry been any different.
Sustainability
Lastly, if you are conscious about your footprint on our planet you’ll be very happy to also know that:
- These are just plants and work as such, no other chemicals involved
- They are available as USDA organic product, so their production isn’t harmful to the environment
- You can purchase them in a cloth bag or paper box, thus avoiding plastic all together!
- As they work their magic in your laundry machine there are no byproducts that end up in the water supply system
Where to get your batch of soap nuts?
I came across these at some natural stores, but I usually order mine in a large batch from Amazon. Eco Nuts Organic Laundry Detergent (100 Loads)
So, whether you are after most healthy lifestyle for you and your family, or working to reduce your footprint, fight plastic solution and support responsible farmers and businesses – give a go to these little miracle soap berries!
Hello, my mom is from Bolivia and she told me about these natural soap. She told me that the aborigine women would take some of these fruits and go wash their cloths to the river. My mom told me that their cloths were extremely clean.
How interesting! I wonder which fruits are those?