This article briefly describes how and why to use soap nuts in place of conventional laundry and cleaning products.

First let me declare myself. I love soap nuts. I love how they resemble sticky figs. I love how they smell slightly vinegary in the bag, but leave laundry smelling fresh and not overly-perfumed and feeling so, so soft. I love how they work so well without containing any of the ick factor of conventional cleaning supplies. I have a two pound bag of them downstairs in my laundry room right now. They are 100% natural nuts, or rather berries, that contain saponin, the cleansing component of natural soaps. They are excellent for HE washers because they don't foam. I cloth diaper my son and nothing works better for getting his prefolds white and clean smelling. They are a superior choice for cloth diapering. They will not build up on your diapers and will not irritate your baby’s sensitive skin.

You can make all kinds of cleaning products with soap nuts. I have made dishsoap for the sink, shampoo, body wash, face soap, window cleaner and dog shampoo. I credit soap nuts with clearing up my troubled forehead when stress leaves me prone to break outs. All you have to do to make any kind of shampoo/wash/soap is boil 6-10 nuts for 20 or so minutes and then grate 1/2 bar of natural castille soap into the pot and let it dissolve. Once cool, you empty your liquid into a bottle and then shake before use because the soap nut liquid will separate from the castille soap liquid. For a great window cleaner combine soap nut liquid with vinegar. It gets rid of smeary smudges really well.

It's economical to use soap nuts. They come with a little muslin bag that you can use to deposit three or four soap nuts before putting them into the wash. You can reuse the soap nuts three to four times depending on water temperature. This is more uses than the directions on the box state, but I’ve always had good results. I just use them until they are no longer moist and brown, but a whitish/grey.They work on all kinds of dirty laundry - nothing ever comes out smelly (and they work great on getting out little oil stains like salad dressing on napkins, etc.). They have so many uses. They are completely natural and gentle. They are biodegradable so once the saponin has been tapped out, you can just put the soap nuts in the compost.

I get them from Maggie’s Pureland because they are fairly traded. I started with the 36-50 load box, and loved them so much I moved up to the 200 load box with my next order.

I am sure there are other soap nut nuts out there with me - ha! Please leave comments if you've come up with a way to use soap nuts that I haven't mentioned. I'd love to hear your suggestions.