Soap nuts query

BabyStepper

Hi everyone

I have just started using soap nuts and have done a couple of washes. I followed the instructions for hard water but find that they don't froth up hardly at all. Are they supposed to? Should I put more nuts in the wash?

Thanks for any help you can offer.

Nonnadiluca

I don't think that they do froth up: as long as the washing comes out clean I'm happy!

BabyStepper

Ok, great, I think I read somewhere that they were supposed to froth up but never mind. Laundry is clean and smells strangely of nothing, just fresh, not all perfumed. So far so good.

Thanks Nonnadiluca.

rach_k

No, they don't really foam in the washing machine. If you put them in your palm, wet them with hot water from the tap and then give them a squeeze there will usually be a few little bubbles if they're still good to use, but only a few.

BabyStepper

Thanks rach_k.

Can I also ask, do you really get 4 washes out of them? So far I've done 2. Just wanting to be sure before I try another 2, don't want to waste time/electricity etc.

Also, I couldn't decide whether to buy a large bag (more economical) or a small one to test them out. Mistakenly got one of each (!) so I now appear to have enough soap nuts to last until 2020. Do they keep that long or do they go 'off'? And can I compost them once they're done or do they go in the bin?

Me and OH both have skin conditions that are aggravated by highly perfumed washing powders so I'm looking forward to seeing the benefits of something more natural. Just wondering if anyone else had found them helpful in this way?

comeandgo

I have a large bag of soap nuts and lasts over a year and nuts never gone off. I keep them in a cool area of the utility room. They can go on the compost after use. If I'm washing really mucky clothes I will use new soap nuts and wash lightly soiled items on washes 3 and 4.

suki1964

Soap nuts need HOT water to turn soapy and won't soap up in a warm wash

Honey_Bear

BabyStepper wrote: »

Can I also ask, do you really get 4 washes out of them? So far I've done 2. Just wanting to be sure before I try another 2, don't want to waste time/electricity etc.

Also, I couldn't decide whether to buy a large bag (more economical) or a small one to test them out. Mistakenly got one of each (!) so I now appear to have enough soap nuts to last until 2020. Do they keep that long or do they go 'off'? And can I compost them once they're done or do they go in the bin?

Me and OH both have skin conditions that are aggravated by highly perfumed washing powders so I'm looking forward to seeing the benefits of something more natural. Just wondering if anyone else had found them helpful in this way?

You know when they're finished with when the inside isn't glossy any more; it goes sort of cloudy, dull, creamy, whitish inside and the edges get very brittle and break off. You might find you can get more than four washes out of them.

The only thing that needed replacing was the little muslin bags, so I got some of the pickling spice bags from our local ironmonger-type shop and they do the job just as well.

The used nuts can go on the compost heap, or straight on to garden soil, or on to bark chips if you've got any in your garden as soon as they're finished with. It's a nut hull, so it's just organic matter.

I bought 1 kg of them on Ebay a few years ago and use them for everything except whites and lights, so:
- all the dog bedding,
- all dark washes,
- towels (far, far softer than using soap powder) and the bathmat;
- gardening gloves and muddy clothes.

The washing machine drawer hasn't needed scrubbing out for a long time!


They're still fine, years later and I've still got masses left. It's saved me a fortune, it's saved the water company from having to process chemicals from washing powders, and as I line dry everything I can our laundry is about as green as I can get it.

rach_k

If they still produce some bubbles when squeezed after running under the hot tap, they're good to use again. I wouldn't put them on the compost heap before they stop bubbling as they are supposedly insecticidal but I'm sure I read that the effect stops once they're 'used up'.

I've had the same huge bag on the go for years.

BabyStepper

Thanks for the tips, everyone. I seem to be getting along fine with them, laundry is all clean and smells fresh, also line dried. I'll see if I can figure out when they are used up or not by looking at them and/or running them under water.

Honey Bear - what do you use for whites and why are soapnuts not suitable? Do they make things grey?

Honey_Bear

BabyStepper wrote: »

Honey Bear - what do you use for whites and why are soapnuts not suitable? Do they make things grey?

They leave rusty streaky marks on whites, sadly. They'll be perfectly clean, but I read widely around the subject when I first bought them and the consensus was not to use them on whites. I've also got a plain yellow 100% cotton superking duvet cover and I can't risk the rusty streak marks on that either. Those things cost a fortune to replace because when you need them you can never find them in the sales!

We let rooms and I use 100% cotton bedding. Most of the fitted sheets are white, so I use biological for white bedding and then bung my white knickers etc in to make up a full load. It's the only load (and it is only ever one load a week max) when I use biological powder.

As to the insecticide issue, I suspect that's true about putting them on the garden but as mine are genuinely finished by the time I chuck them out I'm not worried about the insect life in our shubbery. I get more than four washes from each set of four or five nuts that I use and everything's clean. As soon as you see the brittle, whitened edges on the first nut you've used enough/up, you'll recognise it and you'll realise you can snap those bits off, leaving what's left of the glossy interior to do its work. When that's all dull too, I should think the insecticide quality is pretty dead too.

I have been known to save up a small pile of almost dead soapnuts, but not quite, and then use them to wash the dog fleeces. The dog I've currently got is a new adoptee and pretty smelly so her blankets need fairly frequently laundering until she goes to the groomer, and almost dead soapnuts are perfect to keep everything niff free.

Until I'm sure the dog won't find being groomed traumatic it's better someone else takes care of her grooming needs; she froze with terror when I toweled her dry a couple of days after I adopted her, so I can't put her through the trauma of being terrified in her new home by the one person she trusts while it's all so new. And I've never heard about anyone having a skin reaction to soapnuts, but I've heard about plenty of people reacting to biological washing powders, so the dog's skin needs to be considered here too.

Long life MSE - I came across the Soap Nut thread when I was trawling through the forums early on when I first started getting Martin's newsletter in about 2007, although I didn't join the site for years. I'd never heard of them and, honestly, I think they're brilliant; green and moneysaving - what more could we ask?