TTMA: soap nuts

mrshudson618

When I search about soap nuts, all fhe threads that come up are 2 years old. @Chickypoo2468‌ you were in a lot if them, do you still use soap nuts?

I am thinking about using them in/with homemade detergent, as I have never really trusted my homemade( borax, washing soda, oxyclean) as there isn't any soap, so I have always alternated with tide.

Is there any issue with using them in hard vs soft water?
Would it make sense to just toss the bag in the wash along with a scoop of my regular homemade, or is that overkill?
On amazon, the 100 load Econuts box says 6.5oz. So would the 3.5lb package from greenberry be something like 800 washes??

Rrrrrachel

I was not impressed with them when I tried them the first time around, but I always wondered if honey would work better combined with homemade detergent. They are a surfactant which is what the homemade stuff is usually missing. If you get the ones that aren't branded for laundry, like from mountain rose herbs or something, they're often much cheaper. But you'd also be buying a larger quantity so maybe that's not good for trying it out.

PipSqueak0313

I use them with my regular laundry sometimes.....I love using them for handwashing my flats. They seem to work best with hotter water and since I use boiling water to handwash that maybe why I have better results with them handwashing compared to machine washing. I have not tried making "soapnut tea" to use in the washer though.

CurlieWhirlie

I'm surprised to hear so many negative reviews of soap nuts! I love them, I think they're fab and they work better than detergent for me! They've even softened up and de-stained some mama cloth I had that was getting a bit rough. I use Four Nuts for Nature brand, or something like that. They sell it in my local market so I just grabbed a bag to try.

mrshudson618

I think I will try it with my homemade detergent. I don't trust them enough to try I there own.

PipSqueak0313

I would try them solo first. I tried them with washing soda (handwashing) and to me, it seemed like they didn't work as well as using them without the washing soda. Try them on a load of towels or something that isn't really dirty/stained first maybe to get a feel for them.