Soap nuts

The first time I ever used soap nuts for laundry detergent I was blown away.  Then I learned you can also powder soap nuts to use as a homemade laundry detergent and my mind was blown again!

There is a small inconvenience to using soap nuts, a trade off I’m totally fine with.  The inconvenience is that you have a little bag you need to keep track of between loads, mushy husks to throw out or compost, and you have to make sure the bag is going to dry out or it will mold between loads.

Powdering soap nuts should have all the benefits of using whole soap nuts without those few drawbacks.  So without further ado here’s how to use soap nuts for laundry detergent by powdering them.

If you are interested in soap nuts, also check out How To Use Soap Nut for Laundry Detergent for my post on using whole soap nuts to wash laundry.

A few months ago my wife and I went to France.  We booked a nice apartment in Vannes on AirBnB (that link will get you $25 off when you sign up for AirBnB) complete with a washing machine.   The owner was kind enough to let us know that the laundry detergent was in the closet.

When I opened the closet to find the laundry detergent all I found was a more or less empty closet with a bag of nuts inside.  After Kelsey and I both dismissed the bag of nuts as definitely not being laundry detergent we decided there had been a misunderstanding, and reached out to the owner of the apartment.

The owner of the apartment kindly explained to the stupid American (my words, not hers) that they were soap nuts, and to just chuck a few in with our clothes and they’d magically be cleaned.  To our disbelief the soap nuts worked amazingly well, and that is how I was introduced to the wonderful hippy magic of soap nuts!

No more story telling from me, here is how to use soap nuts for laundry.