What are Soap Nuts?

Do you ever get excited to do laundry?  Hmm.  For some reason, I’m having trouble hearing your kazoos and drum rolls.  Come on, people.  It’s LAUNDRY!  yeah!

Okay.  I confess I have only been excited about laundry once – the day I didn’t have to go to a laundromat because we finally saved up to get our own washer.  I really didn’t think I could get excited about dirty laundry ever again.  Seriously – laundry?  Yawn.  Gag.  Ehh.  And now… well now I might pull out a few kazoos for all of us.

Hilde filled me in on the greatness that is soap nuts.  Have you heard of them?  They’re often mentioned in the comments here on Making This Home, especially when I start talking about eco-savvy cleaning tricks (like chemical-free dusting, cleaning with vinegar, and all-around eco-cleaning tips).  I just didn’t know if I should take the plunge and try soapnuts.  I mean – cleaning my clothes with a pile of nut shells?  That really is nuts.

Or so I thought.

So here’s Hilde from right here in Germany, ready to give us the nitty gritty of all that is great about soap nuts because I imagine many of you are probably wondering about the little things as much as me.  She’s been using them for the last ten years!  So take it away, Hilde.  Tell us what you know:

I am a housewife in my mid-fifties  living in a village near Koblenz [in Germany] with my husband and sometimes one of my two grown-up sons. Since about twenty years, I have tried to live as eco-friendly as possible, which often means simply going back to the way we lived when I was a child (no car, cooking from scratch, having fewer clothes etc.).

Ten years ago, I started volunteering in a Fair Trade shop. Of course I had to be able to tell the customers about the things we sold, which was no problem with things like chocolate. But when we gor the soap nuts, my inner German housewife revolted. No way would I put some sticky brown lumps into my washing machine! But as I was the youngest of the volunteering ladies, I was chosen to try those lumps – and I never bought washing powder again.

Instead of a heavy container with a list of unpronounceable ingredients and some warning hints you get a drawstring bag made of unbleached cotton, containing three or four small cotton bags, a piece of paper and the soap nuts, or more accurately the empty shells. The piece of paper tells you what to do:

  1. put between 3 and 5 half shells in one of the small bags
  2. tie the bag tightly shut with the strings
  3. put it into your washing mashine and wash as usual.
  4. when the washing cycle is finished, take the nutshells out of the bag and put in in the compost

I have a front loader and usually chose the short cycle with 30 or 40°C (86 or 104°F), but I also have used the soap nuts at higher temperatures. The laundry was always clean, and very soft without using a fabric softener. If I have a load of whites only, I sometimes add a tablespoon of baking soda, but it isn´t really necessary. And since the laundry is without any fragrance, I sometimes add two drops of lavender oil directly on the bag for just the faintest hint of lavender.

And the costs? The price tag for my 1 kg bag says 12, 50 €.  One nut weighs about 1 g, which gives you about 300 loads from one bag of soap nuts, or one load for 4-5€ cents. And when the nuts are all used up, you get a reusable cotton bag!

Like I said.  Who knew laundry could be fun again?  I’m pretty sure you can find soap nuts at health food and organic grocery stores if you want to give ‘em a try.  Or have you tried them?  Loved ‘em?  Never heard of them?  Either way – I’d love to know your thoughts because as Hilde and I discussed between emails, really – who knew laundry could get so interesting?

Thank you a million times, Hilde.  And if you have any thoughts on laundry, now’s the time.  Please dish the dirt.  Air that dirty laundry.  We’d love to hear.

(Images both courtesy of Flickr)