We've been living without shopping in supermarkets for six months, and using cloth nappies for over a year. During this time, I've been making my own washing powder to reduce the cost of doing laundry. But recently I discovered soap nuts and have decided to try them.
What are soap nuts?
Soap nuts are a completely natural, organic, vegan, vegetarian, no chemical, hypoallergenic and animal testing free laundry detergent.
They come from a group of trees in the lychee family called sapindus, a name derived from the Latin for soap, Saponis. They have been used to make soap for hundreds of years.
How do you use Soap nuts
The one kilo bag I ordered, contained two small Hessian drawstring bags. Depending on your water area and how dirty your washing is, you place between three and six individual soap nuts in the mini drawstring bag and place in your machine with your laundry.
When you remove the laundry from the machine, remove the nuts and allow them to dry too.
Soap nuts are biodegradable, so you simply use the same bag with soap nuts in, over and over again, until then have completely broken down. Then you replace them and start over.
I did my first load with soap nuts last night. I have a toddler who stains his clothes something rotten, and I was very pleased with the results.
I do four loads of washing a week, so my 1kg bag of soap nuts (costing only £10) should last at least a year.
Soap nuts don't reduce limescale, so you need to occasionally add bicarbonate of soda to your wash, in order to maintain your machine.
Soap nuts are biodegradable, so you simply use the same bag with soap nuts in, over and over again, until then have completely broken down. Then you replace them and start over.
I did my first load with soap nuts last night. I have a toddler who stains his clothes something rotten, and I was very pleased with the results.
I do four loads of washing a week, so my 1kg bag of soap nuts (costing only £10) should last at least a year.
Soap nuts don't reduce limescale, so you need to occasionally add bicarbonate of soda to your wash, in order to maintain your machine.