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i think i have enough money to get soapnuts next month but am debating on weather or not to use them. it seems as if 1/4 cup of arm and hammer laundry detergent is a sufficient amount to get the dipes clean. i dont want to sink money into something that i don't have to, but at the same time, i am sick of stripping every month, sometimes twice. willl my current 1/4 cup be so little as not to cause build up? also i measured the detergent into a kitchen measuring cup and my husband got upset at that, telling me that he did not want me measuring the detergent that way. but the current bottle of detergent that we have does not have raised measuring lines inside the cap like most other lids do. with the soap nuts, i understand that you put 3 or 4 in the little bag, then wash as usual. can someone please clarify how to use them? also, do they leave a sticky residue since i think sap comes out of them? also, without sight, how can you tell when the nuts are spent enough so as not to use on diapers anymore?
ETA
i just looked up soap nuts instructions on google and came across different brands of soapnuts. is one brand better than the other? i am so confused on which brand to buy. please help!
also, my husband wants cleaners that will disinfect the counters and floors when i clean the floors once a week. we have the usual chemical cleaners that i use on the counters and floors as well on the tile in our shower. regular pinesaw used on the floors once a week along with using bleach every day would irritate my asthma, but he got the mr. clean stuff that has a scent other then lemon and it does not irritate it. my question is, should i go ahead and use these chems for cleaning and disinfection once a week? or throw them out in favor of soap nuts? we have some all purpose spray cleaner w bleach as well and when i spray enough of it, i start coughing. |
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I just started using soapnuts for about a week so I don't have a wealth of information, but maybe I can help.
First of all I am already thrilled with them. The morning diapers used to stink. I assumed it was just because he was in them so long and because of the volume of pee in them. But this week there is no smell in the morning, it is just like any other daytime diaper. I had been happy with my old detergent, but the soapnuts seem better.
The soap nuts should be very easy for you to use because you can count out three in the bag and then toss it in. We have three magnets on our washer and we move one to the front everytime we doa a load. When all three magnets are on the fron t of the washer then we assume the soapnuts are finished.
I'm not sure exactly how they work, but there is definitly no sticky residue on the diapers.
I can't offer any advice on using them around the house as I have not got that far yet.
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thanks so much for your reply. i actually read somewhere that when you use soap nuts, a rince after the wash is not required. do u have any experience with those claims? which brand of soap nut do you use? you can email me if you like. if u click on my name, my email is in my profile. also, may i ask you, and i hope you do not get offended by this, but do you have sight? because the magnant comment kind of leads me to believe that you do not because sighted people can easily see when the soap nuts are used up because they supposedly change a tan color.
i can relate to the morning diaper funk. even though i stripped the dipes and am using less detergent, the dipes still have a smell, although it is not as bad as it was before the strip and switching detergents. it is now like how an adult's pee smells in the morning, rather than a knock you on your butt amonia stink. i thought it was because he sat in them all night and the volume of pee as well. i have noticed that the bamboo dipes stink worse in the mornings than the cotton ones do. but daytime diapers do not stink at all. hopefully the soapnuts solve this problem. |
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I have not done anything special as far as rinsing. Just turn on the washer and walk away. So, the soapnuts are in the rinse cycle as well. I guess that means they are not truely being rinsed.
The soapnuts I bought are Kaley's... I didn't know there was more than one kind, this is what they had at a local store.
I do have sight, but I came up with the magnet idea because I know my husband would not look at the nuts before throwing the bag in the wash. This way they do three loads and then whatever goodness is left in them we can use for other cleaning around the house.
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I think the magnets idea is wonderful, sighted or not. Although it's not that difficult to tell when the soap nuts are spent (they not only change color but texture as well, start falling apart and feel squishy) it's not always super obvious exactly how many washes it's been. It's a gradual change so it's sometimes hard to say if they could go for one more wash or if that would be pushing it too much.
As for which soap nut, that's hard to say. In theory they're all the same just because they're all fruit from a tree. But I've heard that some can theoretically be better depending on the age of the tree, ripeness of the nut etc... Some are also whole nuts while others tend to be more pieces (no difference in how they work, perhaps just a little easier to just grab 3-4 whole nuts as opposed to figuring out how many pieces equals 3-4 nuts). I think those are rather theoretical differences though, no brand is drastically better or worse than others.
If your detergent is working fine and is less expensive or complicated then you could just stick with that for now. If there's still a bit of a smell you could always reduce the amount just a tiny bit more and see what happens. For measuring if hubby doesn't want you using the kitchen measuring cups then get a cheap one and dedicate it exclusively to the laundry room. More convenient that way too cause you won't have to go to the kitchen each time and won't have to worry about forgetting the measuring cup in the laundry room and then searching for it when cooking.
As for the household cleaners, if you do get the soap nuts then there's no harm in trying. Just keep the used nuts and make a liquid from them. They won't disinfect so if hubby truly insists on that then he probably won't be happy with the nuts. But honestly though, unless someone in the house is very sick and/or immune compromised, there's really no need to disinfect on a regular basis.
Karen. |
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| I agree with Karen about getting a dedicated measurer for your detergent. I think that my first set of measuring scoops came from the dollar store. You could just keep the appropriate one by the laundry that way and not have to worry about it. |
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| thanks everyone so much for all of your suggestions. if i did get the soap nuts, we would be saving money on the electric bill since it is a waste to rince the clothes with the nuts as i guess u do not need to rince with them anyway. so only a wash drain spin cycle, vs a wash, drain, spin, rince, drain, spin would be so much cheaper. |
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Well, the theory is that you wouldn't need to rinse. I don't know anyone that has actually done this and certainly not on diapers. I suppose if you do a pre-rinse it might not be so bad (because the bulk of the 'nasties' would be rinsed out then) but if all you do is put the diapers through one wash with no pre or post rinses I don't know if that would be enouh. Although the nuts may not need a lot of rinsing, there's still a lot of 'matter' in diapers that needs to be washed/rinsed away (that wouldn't really be an issue in clothing, so maybe not rinsing with clothing is easier). I don't know that just one filling/emptying of the machine would be enough.
Don't think you'd be saving that much money either really. The only least bit 'expensive' part of a wash cycle is the heating of the water and that wouldn't change. Cold water is cheap or free, and the spinning of the machine is hardly anything at all. Not to mention that I don't know how you'd go about doing just a hot wash and no rinse with your machine. Most machines don't have a hot rinse option so the only way I can think of is to be sure you're standing by the machine and stop it as soon as it reaches the rinse part of the cycle. Just my opinion but I don't think it's worth it to save maybe a few pennies a week.
All that said, if the soap nuts enable you to end the stripping then that would definetly be worth it. Just the peace of mind would be worth it, and then the savings on hot water would be a great bonus.
Karen. |
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I agree with the savings factor, I find the most expensive part is the water use (my water bill is HUGE!) I use soap nuts in hot water (no change in my gas bill) and I use 3 nuts for 2 loads for every three nuts. I don't have a fancy washer, so my washer only does the 'fill wash spin fill rinse spin'. I do do an extra rinse at the beginning (I have that functionality), but I found the savings was from not having to run two hot washes (because that's two full hot washes including rinses). I hope that makes sense. It saved me the extra washes to get the soap out. It took about 3 weeks to get rid of the last of the funk when I switched from Ivory snow to soap nuts (my mother in law said ivory snow would be better than cheer - bad suggestion). But it did get rid of the smell, and stopped the double washes.
Sorry that's so long, hope it helps. |
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