Showing posts with label Laundry Tree. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Laundry Tree. Show all posts

Friday, October 15, 2010

Soapnuts Review and Giveaway

A few months ago I replied to a posting online from a recycling group, similar to Freecycling. The post was from a local member in need of bubble wrap for reuse and packaging of products from her green business. Her name is Lisa and her business’s name is Laundry Tree.

What is Laundry Tree? It is a distributor of soapnuts. I’ve heard of soapnuts in the past and have always wanted to try them, but had not until I found Lisa. Lisa gave me a Soapnut starter kit as gift for giving and delivering months worth of bubble wrap to her house. There was no need for a gift, I was happy to give the bubble wrap away (hated for it to end up in the landfill), but I wasn’t about to turn down a chance to try soapnuts. I’m glad I didn’t.

What are soap nuts? They are a dried fruit from the tree Sapindus Mukorossi. Soapnuts have a natural cleaning property. The outer shell of the soapnut contains saponin, a natural substance known for its ability to cleanse and wash. To use, the soapnuts are harvested, de-seeded, and then they are dried in the sun (Laundry Tree).

Since receiving the kit, I have washed many loads of laundry with the soapnuts. It was easy. To use I place 3-4 soap nuts in a bag, add a drop or two of lavender oil in the bag Though, I didn’t always add the oil though. I thought the soapnuts had a pleasant natural smell all on their own. Then I would tie the bag and toss it into the load. I set the load to wash and voila! My laundry always came out smelling fresh with or without the oil. The lavender gave a nice lavender scent to it to the loads of laundry, but personally I don’t care for fragrance one way or the other. I just don’t want my clothes to smell dirty. It never did with soapnuts. My laundry also came out clean and soft. I washed a variety of clothes to prove it: casual clothes, socks, towels, blankets, work clothes, workout clothes, clothes of all colors and so on.

Was it easy to tell when the soapnuts were all soaped out? Yes! Like the directions read, I squeezed the soapnuts while they were still wet. If white or honey goo came out I used the soapnuts again. This is how I tested to see if they really could be used to wash 3-4 loads. They did.

Could I really wash 40 loads with my kit? To be honest I lost count of the loads, but I did wash many. If it helps, my starter kits had a 100g bag of soapnuts. When I took them out to count how many were inside I had about 40 soapnuts. So if, I placed 3 soap nuts in a bag and reused them 3 times I could have easily washed 36 loads. Now remember, these soapnuts can be used as long as the white or honey goo stuff comes out.

I only found two inconveniences with the use of soapnuts. Soapnuts require warm to hot water to release the saponin, the natural cleaning substance in the soapnuts. Most of the time, for the exception of a few loads (diapers and cleaning rags) I use cold water to wash my laundry. This isn’t to say I couldn’t use the soapnuts at all; I just had to take an extra step to make from the soapnuts a liquid called Soapnut Soak. This was very easy to do and worked well, but it was an extra step I often forgot to do because it does require the need to soak the soapnuts in water overnight. Instead, I ended up using warm water to wash a lot of my clothes.

The second inconvenience was loosing the soapnut bag in the loads of laundry from washer to dryer. The bag is white and small. It blends in very well with white loads and light colored clothes and it gets tangled up in loads with blankets. If my husband washed clothes he never noticed the bag and if I was busy I wouldn’t take the time to look for it.

The good news, when I lost the bag and dried in the dryer I just grab another bag filled it with soapnuts and washed another load. I would then find the lost bag while folding my clothes. I would use it again to wash more clothes. Accidentally drying the soapnuts in the dryer simply dries the soapnuts back up to the way they were before they were used. Still, I wish the bag were a little easier to find.

For more information about soapnuts and how you can get some visit Laundry Tree .

The Giveaway!
Lisa is offering a starter kit (100g soapnuts, an essential or fragrant oil, an extra wash bag and a sample bag) to one of my lucky readers. To Enter: Visit Laundry Tree and then leave me a comment letting me know why you want to try soapnuts. You can get extra entries for following us through GFC or Subscribing via email.

Deadline: This giveaway will end on October 30, 2010. I will choose the winner using Random.org. US entries only.

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