I just got my first box of soap nuts, also known as soap berries, in the mail. I wrote a blog on them several months ago and had 
been meaning to buy some. I couldn’t find any locally but truth be told, I didn’t look very hard. I ended up ordering some online…my favorite kind of shopping– in my jammies with out pushing a shopping cart with children clinging to the sides or begging for junk. I ordered a box of Eco Nuts.
When the package finally arrived a few days later, I marveled at how light it was. The box of Eco Nuts was small, about the size of a large grapefruit except square. It said it contained enough soap nuts for 100 loads of laundry. It had cost about the same as the liquid detergent I usually buy, $11.50 plus tax. The detergent I buy will also do about 100 loads, or so it claims, but the bottle is extremely large and heavy. Anything that saves space is a winner with me as our house is small and storage is limited.
Since I had a pile of laundry ready and waiting (surprise!) I tried them immediately. I put the suggested 4 to 5 nuts in one of the two muslin bags that came with them, set the wash to warm with a cold rinse and let the saponins in the soap nuts do their thing. When the cycle was complete, I grabbed a handful of laundry and suspiciously sniffed at it. I couldn’t really smell…anything. It was strange. I stuffed the clothes into the dryer before I realized that I must have stuffed the little muslin bag in with them. I had to sort through the clothes to find it which was an extra step. When I found it I took one of the nuts out and gave it a squeeze. Some small frothy bubbles squished out. They were still intact and according to the box, good for another nine loads.
When I finally pulled the clothes from the drier I smelled them again. They smelled clean and that was it. There was no other scent whatsoever. They also felt extremely soft. I was impressed and since my mother was visiting, I had her sniff the clothes. Anything artificially scented gives her a headache so I knew she could sniff out the slightest odor. Even she was impressed. I sent her home with the extra little muslin bag and her own five soap berries to try.
I’ve done about three loads of laundry with my first bag of soap nuts so far. My laundry is softer (I never use fabric softener) and doesn’t smell like much of anything, which is fine with me. The soap nuts are fairly priced, the box is small and light and when I’m done I’ll toss them on the compost pile. There is really wasn’t anything I disliked about them. Now I just need to try them out on my cloth diapers though I’ll have to get some advice first so if you can give me any, please do! If you wash your cloth diapers with soap nuts, do you do a prewash or rinse or any sort first? Do you add anything else? If you’ve tried them, what do you think?
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I would love to hear how the diapers load worked out… Keep us posted!
I’ve been using soap nuts on my diapers for about 3 years now. I actually make a liquid out of them by boiling them on the stove for an hour or 2. I use 5 nuts and about 10 or 12 cups of water. I make enough for a week and then I store it in the fridge. I use about a cup of the liquid. Then I put the liquid in the fridge. I do a prewash with a cup of the soap nut liquid and then a regular hot wash with the same amount of liquid. (My HE washer can be set so this is only one step.) I have very hard water so I add a scoop of calgon to both the prewash and the regular hot wash. No need to do an extra rinse at the end because soap nuts rinse clean.
I’ve found that with my water, my diapers seem the cleanest if about once a week or week and a half, I do a wash with Rockin’ Green Hard Rock. I also have to add calgon to this because my water is so hard. I do have to do 2 extra rinses when I use Rockin’ Green, or my baby’s bottom gets red.
I also use soap nuts for my regular wash, but I just use the bags with the nuts in them. I love the lack of artificial scent and the savings financially. I have found that I can do all of my family’s laundry for a YEAR for about $45 worth of soap nuts, plus 2 bags of rockin green. I buy a big 4 lb bag of soap nuts from NaturOli on Amazon.
I was just reading something yesterday about washing laundry with soap nut and now here again today. I’m in the process of converting to more natural cleaning products…. this may have to be my next change. Thank you for sharing. Would love to hear Howe out went with your cloth diapers.
Soap nuts did not work well for us when washing cloth diapers. We have hard water, so that may affect the cleaning power. You just have to try something to see if it will work for you. There are many things that can affect the outcome such as water hardness, type of washer, how much water is used, how often the diapers are washed, etc…
I am considering them for diapers. I would love to know how they work.
We were using a genericic laundry detergent. Now it looks like my lo is allergic so in trying out a new gentler detergent. Wish my grocery store had more options
I won some soap nuts in an auction a couple months ago. I need to dust them off and try them. I’m scared!
What a great idea!
I’d love to know more about how these work on cloth diapers! I know of some one who makes them into liquid for this purpose, but I’d rather not put that much work in
Thanks for the great review! I haven’t tried soap nuts, but I’m willing to try them. Probably on regular laundry first and then cloth diapers.
I am so intrigued by soap nuts! They seem like such an economically and eco-friendly way to do laundry! I like that they left your laundry feeling soft!
I have been reading so many blogs about soap nuts, I think I want to try them! ANYTHING to save money and be a little more green!
I am curious if this is really cost efficient because you state you don’t have to use fabric softner. Also, I wonder if, throughout time, the clothes do not fade.
Would be willing to try these on regular clothes, but since we have super hard water, I think I will stick with my regular detergent . . . most “natural” detergents do not work well and we end up with ammonia stink.
I’m very new to cloth diapering. I found an old video blog of a mom explaining her cloth diapering system. That was the most info I’ve had on how to cloth diaper until discovering Thirsties after reading many reviews on Amazon. My soap nuts arrived with my order of extra prefolds, wrap, doublers and wipes. I got mine from NaturOli on Amazon as well. I’ve been using it for all my laundry too. Thanks for the tips with hard water and making a liquid.
I love soap nuts! I usually buy soap nuts, charlies soap or shaklee for cleaning laundry. All work beautifully! If you have hard water you have to use additives for all of these but imho that is still better than the normal detergents that leave chemicals on the clothes and don’t actually clean them. So glad you posted about soap nuts!
I have a friend who uses these. This was a great review. I have never used them before, but my friend uses them for all their laundry – including diapers – and really likes them. This makes me want to try them now.
I love soapnuts! I was so skeptical about them at first but no complaints at all about them. I like that I’m not using any chemicals on my little guy’s clothes and they always come out stainfree!
I’d love to try these, but am hesitant because I know you have to use them differently in an HE front-loader
This is such an interesting idea. I had never heard of soap nuts until I saw this blog.
Wow! very interesting. Can you post info on how to use with HE washer? Would love to try for my baby since he has super sensitive skin.
Hmm…I’ll have to try these for clothes. I don’t know if I trust them to get CDs clean, though!
I have used the soap nuts concentrate from EcoNuts. I found it worked well on my normal laundry, but over time was not effective on my CDs. My home does have hard water, though not too bad, so this was most likely part of the problem. Unfortunately I had ammonia build up and had to strip my diapers not long after beginning to use the soap nuts. But like I said, for my normal laundry it worked well. I was surprised at ow little I needed to use, only 1 tiny capful!
I’m also quite curious about these soap nuts, i’ll try it soon!
I have finally decided to cloth diaper, with baby number 3. I am scared of the laundry situation! Soap nuts seem like a great idea. I’m just that the laundry detergent is going to cost just as much as it would, over time, to by disposables and I don’t want to try anything that is going to prove to be just a waste of money! Has anyone had really good, or bad, luck with the soap nuts?
Hmmm. Softer laundry? I may be SOLD!
I’ve used soap nuts and love them!
Hmm… very interesting! The fact they came out softer, even without fabric softener is intriguing to me. I’m trying to break the fabric softener habit and have been using wool dryer balls, which help soften the clothes a little. Thanks for the review!
I have never tried soap nuts, but this sounds like a great product. I wonder if you can use them on a front loading HE machine.
I have used a ‘laundry pill’ made from soap nuts by a lady I met at a local festival. Love having the soap nuts in an easy form to use…just throw 3 ‘pills’ in for a large load, 2 for medium, 1 for small, etc. Her website is: http://shecology.com/ She does a beautiful job with presentation, packaging and carefully producing an excellent product.
I’ve seen these, but never tried them. I would love to know if they really work.
We have soap nuts on a tree in the backyard. We tried making a liquid detergent with them, and that didn’t turn out so well. But maybe I should try this method of putting them in a muslin bag. That might work better!
Are soap nuts safe for cleaning cloth diapers?
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