I've Gone Nuts!

After years of reading and re-reading books, magazines and blogs dedicated to the subject of healthy and environmentally friendly living, noting the suggestion to stop using laundry detergent and start washing my clothes with soap nuts, thinking there was no way that could work and purchasing another expensive bottle of Seventh Generation laundry detergent (the only kind that didn't give Jordan a major eczema breakout), I've taken the plunge. Between this blog entry and this one I became convinced that this was something I had to try. So I headed to NaturOli and bought a sample pack of soap nuts. So far I've done three loads of laundry with them, and they seem to be working at least as well as the Seventh Generation detergent.

Soap nuts can be used whole, ground into a powder, or liquefied for use as laundry detergent, all purpose household cleaner, shampoo, etc. For the laundry, I'm leaving the soap nuts whole. My sample pack came with a cloth bag containing five nuts. All I have to do is toss them in the washer with the clothes (after soaking in hot water for three minutes if I'm doing a cold water wash), then take the soap nuts out with the clean laundry and hang the bag with the nuts in up to dry so they don't get moldy. The soap nuts can be reused approximately five times. When they're used up, I'll throw them in the compost pile. Soap nuts grow on trees, are healthy, economical, and kind of fun to use. I would encourage all of you to go nuts with your laundry!