When many of my customers asked me for cheaper eco laundry products, I had a really hard time offering any solutions. I couldn't find anything that's cheaper than the eco brands that supermarkets are already offering (the cheapest brand is about $0.27 per wash), not to mention other brands that I often see in my local health food stores, they are even more expensive and to be honest, out of my family budget...until I tumbled across soapnuts natural cleaning berry!
First of all, it's 100% natural. Soapnuts are dried fruit shells - and that's it, nothing more!
You can use soapnuts to replace your laundry powder and it works out to be $0.06 per wash (instead of $0.27 per wash). You can also put it in your dishwasher to replace those expensive eco dishwashing tablets ($0.52 per wash). You can even cook soaptnuts and make them into hand-washing liquid, cleaning spray, and shampoo. Here is a short demo of Soapnuts. More detailed info on Soapnuts can be found underneath the video:
What is soapnut? Soapnut even though it's named 'nut', is actually berry growing on trees. Think of them as lychee. It contains saponin, which is a natural cleaning detergent which has been used to wash clothes in some countries such as India for centuries.
How is soapnut used to clean? Once soapnuts are taken from the trees, their shells are then dried in the sun. Once dried, those shells are then put in air tight bags ready to be sold to consumers. As long as you keep them in sealed bags or containers in a cool dry place, you can keep those shells for as long as you want.
You can use them in several different ways:
Soapnuts as Laundry Powder Simply place 4-6 soapnuts (depending on how dirty your laundry is) in the cotton wash bag provided, tie off tight (so the soapnuts don't fall out) and drop them into your washing machine (both top loader and front loader are fine). You can wash at your preferred temperature and cycle. The natural saponins will free dirt and grime from clothing. No chemicals, no agents, no toxins.
Just a quick tip for the water-efficient front loader. You may need to make a
liquid concentrate because if the wash bag isn't sitting in water then the
clean won't be as effective.
Soapnuts can be reused for 4-6 washes. The higher you set the temperature for your washing machine, the quicker the saponins will come off.
I've been using soapnuts to wash dirty nappies and it works! I soak the solid ones in hot water with soapnuts for several hours, then put all the nappies in cold wash with 6 soapnuts. I wasn't too confident the first time that nappies would come out clean, but they did!! So since then, I've been using soapnuts to do all my laundy. I really can't believe I can actually wash my clothes without any chemicals - and do it so cheaply!!
Another tip for getting rid of ordours in clothes - add a few drops of essential oils for example Eucalyptus or anything else you prefer.
Lastly, when Soapnuts are placed in a jar of water and shaken, you can see the
bubbles. But when the volume of water is increased (as in the washing
machine) then the bubble visibility is much less obvious. That is a
marketing myth that needs to be let go of....bubbles and froth don't do
the cleaning!
Soapnuts as Dishwashing Detergent Simply place 5 soapnuts into the cutlery tray and add vinegar in your dishwasher rinse hole. Wash as normal for a natural clean set of dishes. No chemicals on the things you eat from.
I've been using soapnuts in my dishwasher for the last week. I found they do clean well for lightly dirty dishes. But for tough dirt, they don't clean as well. So I now make sure I rinse out those dirty dishes well before I put them in the dishwasher (still using supermarket's eco dishwashing detergent). This works out about $0.10 per wash compare to $0.52 per wash if I use the supermarket eco brand dishwashing tablets.
Soaptnuts as Handwash Liquid Simply add 10-15 soapnuts to 1 litre of water, bring to boil, then simmer for 20 minutes. Allow to cool and strain the liquid. It's now ready to use. Keep stored in a cool place for up to 10 days.
If you have doubts that soapnuts really can clean, try this! After you wash your hands with soapnuts, you get the same feeling on your hands like you've been washing with soap. To be honest, it's not until I felt the cleaniness in my hands that I was really convinced that soapnuts can clean!
Soapnuts as Cleaning Spray I haven't tried this yet because I've been using vinegar to clean and it works fine (and very cheap!). But you can cook your soapnuts as if you're making handwash liquid, then just add lemon as natural preservative and transfer to a spray bottle. You can also add essential oils to make your liquid smell nice.
Soapnuts as Shampoo People have been using soapnuts to shampoo their pets. You can make the shampoo by the same method as making handwash liquid, then add lemond juice or lavender oil. Apparently it helps to keep fleas and ticks away. I don't have pets so I can't try this. But what I have tried is washing my own hair and something surprised me...
The first time I used soapnuts liquid as shampoo, I thought my hair came out too dry. I remembered what my chemist teacher told our class when I was in high school "Something that's cleaned should be dry. So why does the shampoo advertisers tell us our hair will come out soft and shiny after using their brand of shampoo? This is because their shampoo has added something in our hair to make our hair smooth and shiny." But even so, I do want shiny hair! So the next time I washed my hair, I switched back to my own shampoo bought from my local health food shop, and guess what, my hair came out EXTRA smooth!! I have no idea why but it just does! So now I wash my hair with soapnuts liquid once a week. It does leave my hair dry for the next day but when I use normal shampoo to wash my hair the next time, it always comes out extra smooth and I can't stop myself touching my own hair!
How do I know if my Soapnuts are still working? Soapnuts can be re-used until they lose their 'shine'. See the image below for a unusable Soapnut and a Soapnut that can still be re-used. After you've been using Soapnuts a couple of times, you will soon learn to tell the difference.
