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They work fine for clothes that are not very soiled or stinky. Clothes come out nice and very natural smelling.I find that for the dirtier wash loads, soap nuts don’t cut it, and I tried adding borax and baking soda, too.
I’ve just ordered some. I’m really curious about how they’ll work. The idea of getting away from laundry detergent is really appealing. I’ve recently read that 60% of what we put onto our skin is absorbed into our blood stream. Do you think that the detergent absorbed into clothes, when next to our skin all day gets absorbed into our skin? Just the thought of it makes me happy to learn about soap nuts, whether it’s true or not.
Thanks for the info!
SbutterAMfly: Please let us know your experience when you get your soap nuts. I was thinking about ordering them after I learned abougt them a few weeks ago. I am sorry to hear they don’t work well on stinkier clothes. Now that my child is grown and gone that may not be a problem for me. I don’t think I have any really grimy clothes any more, but I want to use something as close to natural as possible.
it says on various websites that you can add a few drops of essential oils into the gabric conditioner compartment to make the clothes smell nice when you use soap nuts because they are odourless.
I was curious as to how good they were…my husband’s been useing a couple of lemons and nothing else at the moment which cleans pretty well.
Work For a College Student???
Zoe, how does your husband wash clothes with lemons?
He puts two halved lemons into the drum of the washing machine, with a squirt of dish soap (which is eco stuff) only if the clothes are particularily dirty. Then just does a hot wash as normal. It works perfectly well. You don’t get ultra violet bright whites, you get that with soaps with “whiteners” which are really a Phosphorescent Powder
Zoe, I have soap nuts and I’m “nuts” about them! I think they work really well, but they work best with hot water. I wash primarily in cold water, but you can put them in a bucket of hot water and then add them to the wash (with the hot water). Maybe it’s my imagination, but I think my clothes are softer. You can use the same “nuts” for 4-5 wash loads. Also, you can boil 4 or 5 nuts in water, put in a spray bottle and it makes a wonderful all purpose cleaner. (they aren’t really nuts, they are the shells)
Lilsprout – that is great to hear, sounds like they’re good value. I wonder ifI could use them a couple of times in the washing machine, and then boil them into liquid soap…how many times can you re-use them?. Have you ever used them for shampoo?
Zoe, what about the pulp and seeds? Do they all get washed out of the machine?
The lemon skins and seeds are in the drum after the wash normally, and he shakes his clothes once they are dry in case any seeds are hiding out in them.
Zoe, I did 4 loads of wash with them and then boiled them for my all purpose cleaner. My next batch of cleaner will be super potent because I won’t wash with them first. It says you can wash your dog with them, cleans and keeps fleas away. You get a little drawstring bag to keep the nuts in while you wash so they aren’t all over the place. Couldn’t you do the same with the lemons?