Going Nuts: SOAPNUTS!

Recently, I've discovered a more natural and green way to do my laundry, especially my CD laundry- by using soapnuts. I've started using soapnuts about 2 weeks ago and I'm very pleased with its performance. My CDs come out of the washing machine smelling fresh and very clean.

Soapnuts (the shell),  Indian soapberries or its scientific name- Sapindus Mukorossi- has been used for washing clothes for thousands of years by native people. Nowadays, they are used as an alternative to detergent for household cleaning, cosmetics and also as medicine. Soapnuts are well known for its hypoallergenic, anti allergic and anti bacterial properties.


Here, I want to share with you my experience with Soapnuts for laundering my CDs.

When I first received them, I wasn't too sure if they'd do the job right.. They looked kinda dirty and sticky and they smelt sour (like asam jawa.. haha). So, i looked through the 'literature' and it seems that that is the way it's supposed to be. So I had to have faith (since I've already bought 2 kgs of them)...

The first method I used was with the shell and a CD sock. I placed about 5-6 shells in the sock and tied the sock so it doesn't get untangled in the wash, dumped it in the load and waited for the whole cycle to finish. Once it has, I'll take the sock out and run another rinse cycle until there were no more bubbles seen. That indicates that the CDs are clean from any soaps. Then run the spin cycle and I'm done.

I would normally reuse the same sock containing the same shells till I don't see much bubbles in the wash anymore.. that's about 4 laundry cycles/ days. In between wash cycles, I would leave the shells in the sock, but I'd hang them out in the sun with the laundry. Once I'm not using them anymore, I just dump the shells in the flower pot to decompose.

After a week of using this method, I thought I'd try using soapnuts liquid as detergent. So, I boiled about 20 shells in 4 cups of water for about 30 minutes, let it simmer and once it is cool, I use the CD sock to sieve out the shells and 'dirt'. I also squeezed the sock to let all the liquid soapy water come out. As a result, I got some browny liquid soapnuts (this really look like air asam jawa..) for use.The advantage of this method is that you wouldn't need to stop and remove the soapnuts from the load before the rinse cycle.

I keep my liquid soapnuts in a jar and in the fridge, and each time I run the laundry (about 15 sets of CDs+ inserts/ day) I would use around a capful of the liquid. This will get me through about a week of CD laundry cycles.

There are many other ways of using soapnuts for washing up, but I am yet to try these. Once I discover a new way, I would certainly share it with you here. As for now, this is my Soapnut experience and I'm absolutely loving it!

Goin' nuts over soapnuts!

To learn more about soapnuts, you can read this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapindus

If you would like to try Soapnuts, please email me at babyultracdshop@yahoo.com or send me a Private Message via Facebook (Izam Suziani).