A Review of Soap Nuts

We're keeping it light and clean today with my discovery of an eco-friendly way to do laundry. I purchased a sample at the expo last week. The soap nuts (also called soap berries) came in a drawstring bag, which I could just toss in the washer.

The two loads I did came out clean and with no scent. A bonus is that the they are not messy. Of course cute little sacks and little round balls are intriguing to toddlers, so keep them out of sight and out of mind like you do everything else.

What are Soap Berries?

Soap Berries are the dried fruit from the Sapindus Mukorossi trees, which grow in Indian and Indonesian jungles. The nuts, which eventually fall to the ground, contain saponins, a natural surfactant. For thousands of years, people have gathered them for cleaning and medicinal purposes.

Benefits

• You can use the nuts for more than one load. The recommendations vary: with hot water you can use them two or three times, with cold water four to six times.
• They are natural, gentle and unscented so they should work for the entire family's laundry.
• The soap berries don't make sudsy bubbles so you could actually do shorter loads and use less water.
• The shells are biodegradable and can be added to your compost.

Some Setbacks

• I accidentally tossed my sack in the dryer with my load, shortening the life of the soap berries :( After using it a few times, I guess fishing the sack out would become second nature.

Unfortunately I could only wash a couple of loads with the sample but so far so good. They seem like a natural, mess-free, non-toxic, environmentally-sound and economical solution for getting the laundry done. I'm planning to try a larger sack.

Editor's Update: I was actually able to use them again for a few loads after the dryer incident.

Resources

• My affiliate partner Amazon.com carries certified organic soap nuts by NaturOil.
  
  
• Sapindus Mukorossi - The Complete Soap Nuts Guide has more facts and uses pertaining to soap berries.

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