Tuesday, July 21, 2009

I'm going nuts over my natural detergent

I love how cleaning products keep getting greener by the second. I've been recently acquainted with Eco Nuts, an affordable, sustainable, antimicrobial, hypoallergenic, natural, fragrance-free, reusable product which is packaged in the USA. It's mild enough for delicate fabrics and its packaging is 100% compostable.

Eco Nuts is made from the sun dried fruit of the Sapindus Mukorossi tree in Nepal via Fair Trade. The shells of these nuts contain saponin, a natural detergent, which gets sudsy in water. Since Eco Nuts doesn't leave any residue, you can actually skip the rinse cycle and save gallons of water, energy and money.

I'm sure you're skeptical - believe me, I was too. How can a satchel of dried nuts get my stinky clothes clean? Quite brilliantly.
These nuts look freaky deaky, I won't lie, but they totally work. When I washed a load using Eco Nuts, my clothes came out just as clean as with any other wash (sans the nasty chemicals, perfumes and toxins). These nuts are odorless so don't expect any fresh laundry scent. If that's something you'll be missing, I can suggest some amazing all-natural scented sprays (feel free to e-mail me).

So basically this is how it works:
You place 4-5 Eco Nuts in the reusable wash bag which is provided, Next, you put it in with your laundry and then wash your clothes as you normally would. At the end of the wash, remove the bag and set it aside to dry so that you can re-use it for your next load. You can re-use them 4-6 times until they become mushy and discolored at which point you can toss them in your compost heap.

A heads up: These nuts do a great job of preserving colors in fabrics but you might want to use some natural whitener (i.e. eco-friendly oxygen bleach) for keeping your whitey whites white.

Eco Nuts Trial size (reusable 5-7 loads) $4.50
Eco Nuts Family size (50 loads) $12 - order 3 or more and shipping is free.
For more info: Eco Nuts Organic Laundry Soap