Maggie's Soap Nuts

I am always looking for eco-friendly ways to clean my house and do laundry. I really like Dr. Bronner's soap.  I use that for everything from cleaning the floor to cleaning ME.  Larry saw an ad for these soap nuts in Ode Magazine and suggested that we buy some.  I ordered them last week and they came today.  I was SO excited when I saw them in the mailbox.  I could not wait to wash a load of towels.  :)

I always wash my laundry in cold water so I followed the cold-water instructions on the box. You're supposed to pre-soak two of them in the cotton sack provided in hot water for a few minutes, then toss the soap nuts and the "tea" into your wash load.

These soap nuts are the dried fruit of the Chinese Soapberry tree and inside them is saponin, a natural soap.  You use just these.  No detergent, no fabric softener.  I've been using dryer balls instead of fabric softener for four years now and I love them.  I used to be a dryer sheet girl but not anymore.  I used to love the way the detergent aisle smelled at the store.  It smelled clean to me.  Not anymore.  I can't stand to walk down that aisle now.  All I can smell now are chemicals and they make me sneeze.

Once my load of towels was done, I took them out of the washer and I was amazed at how clean they looked and felt.  Once they were dry, they were soft, the colors even seemed brighter and they smelled clean and fresh, not perfumed.  I think I'm IN LOVE.

You can use these soap nuts for any soap need you have.  You can even shampoo your hair with them (which I will do and I'll let y'all know how it works!).  They look a little weird, kinda like a date, and they have a mushy, almost gummy texture.  You can reuse the same soap nuts for several loads so they're cost-effective, too.  The box I got does 16-20 loads of laundry and it was $8.  And the best thing??  They are completely biodegradable and you can just toss them in your compost when you're done with them.

Well, maybe the BEST thing is they're good for the earth and you don't have to worry about what's going in your laundry or what came out of it.

***********Update***********

They work great as shampoo!!  I soaked one in some warm water for about thirty minutes first and used the soapy tea that it made as shampoo.  It made my hair super soft and shiny.  But y'all, whatever you do, though, don't get that mess in your eyes!!!  Good Lord.  I'll be blind 'til Thursday.