My new way to do laundry

At least a load a day.  That's how much laundry I need to do to keep up with a family of five. At least.  If someone has an incident with urine (I have an occasional night time pee-er) or a toddler decides to spill his sippy cup on my bed, I have another load of bedding to do.  My boys seem to go through a ton of clothes, too.

I used to make my own detergent. Before we moved to Maryland from Kentucky, I made my own detergent from Borax, washing soda, and Fels Naptha.  I made larges batches of it at once.  It was super cheap to make and relatively easy.  But it's cleaning ability...well, it wasn't the greatest.  I didn't notice it at first, but after awhile I could see that my clothes seemed kind of dingy and didn't appear as clean as with commercial detergent.  It really wasn't as effective as I was hoping.  I know some people, well, lots of people, make their own detergent and LOVE it!  I'm just not one of those people anymore.  :(  Which is too bad...it was the most cost effective way to wash my clothes!  (Price comparisons will be at the end)

Anyway, I buy Purex or Arm & Hammer detergent, when it's on sale and I'll occasionally have a coupon (for Arm & Hammer).  I've had a nice little stockpile of detergent going on for awhile, but when we realized we'd be leaving here sooner than originally anticipated, I realized I needed to use up my stockpile before we moved.  You can't have detergent packed by the movers.  So I'm down to my last bottle.  But....I've found something new to replace my bottles of detergent.

Soap Nuts.

(insert a head tilt and a "huh?" here)

What on earth am I talking about, right? Soap nuts are dried shells from the soapberry.  The berries are the fruit from a unique tree species.  The shells contain a substance called saponin that produces a soaping effect. These "nuts" have been used for a very LONG time by people in the Himalayan region and have been recognized throughout the world for their green way of cleaning.  Ok....that may be a lot of talk that doesn't say anything so I'll give you my take on soap nuts.

Soap nuts are little dried round "nuts" that when used in your laundry release saponin into the water and clean your clothes.  That's it.  And here's how you do it.  You order your soap nuts (unless you know of a place that sells them locally, which I don't) and wait impatiently for them to arrive.  :)  When it's time to do laundry, you place 4-6 soap nuts (I use 5) in a drawstring muslin bag (that you'll likely get with your order).  You throw the whole bag in washer and that's it.  They get wet, the release the saponin, and clean your clothes.

So I know you're skeptical and thinking...uh, no way.  But I'll tell you...they work!!! :)  Now, if you have a tough stain, you'll need to pre-treat, just like you would with regular detergent, but the soapnuts work!  They have a slight vinegar smell, but my clothes have never smelled like vinegar.  They don't smell like anything...they are just clean.  They say your soap nuts will last for 4-6 washes (more for cold water, less for hot water).  When they turn light tan, get squishy, fall apart.  Then you replace them.  I will say that I'm on load 7 of the same nuts and I wash 90% of our clothes in cold water.  I'm a soap nut convert.

Ok, the price comparison:

Homemade laundry detergent:
I calculated out what it took to make a batch.  I don't have the calculations anymore, but I know the cost was less than 2 cents per load.  Yep, that cheap.  So, by far, the cheapest detergent.  Unfortunately not the most effective.

Commercial detergent:
My price point for store bought detergent is $2.50-$3.00 for a 32 load bottle.  At $3 that averages out to 9.3 cents per load.  

SoapNuts:

I bought 1 pound of soapnuts for $19.95 (I've since found them a little cheaper, but it is what it is now. :)  I counted how many soap nuts that was for me, the count will vary each time based on the size of each individual nut, and I had 155 nuts.  I use 5 nuts per wash so that will give me 31 refills.  (155/5=31)  If each refill gets me 8 loads (I've already done 7 and I know they will go at least another load) that will give me 248 loads of laundry. That is 8 cents per load.  If I can get each refill to last just one more load, my cost goes down to 7.1 cents per load.  If I would have scored my soap nuts at a better price (but I'm happy with what I paid) then my per load cost goes down again.

So, I no longer have to buy bottles of detergent.  It saves space (not a ton, but space is space when there's five of us!), saves on the use of plastic bottles and commercial additives.  Soap nuts are green, cost effective, easy, and kinda fun! (I'm a dork, I know!!)  I hope I continue to be pleased with the results.  :)

Ok, next post on my dryer update!