Toxin-Free Life Series: Part 2: Eco-Friendly Soap nuts for Laundry
This is a continuation of my Toxin-Free Living series where I share my experience from my attempts to live a toxins free life. Read Part 1 to know more about my motivation to do so.
I started using Soap Nut berries for Laundry and for the very first time I felt no residue in the clothes that came out of washer. The wet clothes reminded me of my Grandma’s hand wash in the 1980s in a South Indian village using a soap bar that never made soap bubbles. They were farmers, imagine how dirty their clothes got.
Would the soap nuts give me a clean wash? Even if they did not, I was ready to have a little dirt on the clothes rather than some toxic residue which the body cannot absorb. But I found out that the soap nut berries did do a clean wash. So far, I am happy with my experience using Soap Nut berries.
Some info on the soap nuts:
With Soap nuts no fabric softener is needed, as it softens the clothes. So we just need to throw 4 to 5 berries in a bag into the washer. That’s all. We can reuse the berries until it disintegrates. Organic Soap nut berries are available on Amazon for 10$ (claims 100 loads). They are also available in some other online stores.
I came across a blog that has good information on soap nuts. You can read it by clicking here. Here’s another great article by Tips Bulletin.
[Image Credits: Sastha Prakash]
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About The Author
Rajee
I am Rajee. I come from India and I have been living in USA for the past decade. I am a graduate in Electrical Engineering and I am doing Software Engineering as profession. I am married and I have a 3 year old son. I love nature and I spend more time reading everything I am interested in. I have special interests in science and child psychology/child development. In my search to understand and seek wisdom in life, I find spirituality answers better than Google, So I am in my baby steps into spirituality now :).
Very useful tip.In India not only soap nut is used as shampoo,it is used to clean golden and diamond jewellery and soap nut powder is mixed with citrus gooseberry powder(amla) ,orange peel powder rose petal powder lemon jest powder and green gram powder and fenugreek powder and needed quantity mixed as paste is used to clean the skin as body wash.
Thanks chandini amma for the extended information on soap nut usage. I don’t think I would have known about these uses of soap nuts (at least until I start to look for it) if you hadn’t shared this. I felt how little I am, after knowing that soap nut grows in my home ground in India but I had to learn about this as a discovery of west. The knowledge you shared pulls my attention to look for toxin free everyday products in Indian Ayurveda . We are very old civilization, our ancestors had probably found out answers for all this. Thanks for expanding my knowledge.
Rajakumari …great post! i am going to hunt for some organic soapnuts on my next shopping trip!
Arch, I would think all soap nuts are organic. My thinking, unless they are growing soap nuts for large scale business, soap nuts will be organic even not labeled as organic. Anyway who knows what in the current business world. You can find soap nut berries in amazon. I also found them in a farmers market here.
Rajee……
Thanks Arch ,sometimes I am really tired of getting beaten up for my assumptions with this toxic free products….
Yeah Rajee…its amazing how harsh chemicals creep in in unexpected ways. In any case, i think this is a step in the right direction – even if organic is not available.