Soap Nuts - Allergic To Them?? - Trial

For the past several months, I have been reacting to something on the first floor of my home. I sneeze a lot!! I occasionally get a scratchy throat. I feel sinusy. I fear it may be the soap nuts. Everything you find on soap nuts says that using them will eliminate allergy symptoms. I may be the 1 in a million who has allergy symptoms because of them. Yay me. I will be testing my theory over the next week or two.

Step 1: Obtain an alternate all natural laundry detergent.

Done. Trying Planet 100% biodegradable hypo-allergenic detergent for HE and standard washers.










Step 2: Eliminate soap nuts from the house.

Done! I put all of the stuff in the garage.

Step 3: Use the replacement detergent for one week. Keep track of sneezing, sinus pressure, throat.

DAY 1: I sneezed in the living room this morning, and in the kitchen while typing this. Why? Who knows. I have post-nasal drip, which effects my throat. My son complained, for the second day in a row, that his throat feels funny. Hm. Bug? Or allergy? I am now doing laundry with the new detergent, but have quite a bit of laundry to be folded that was done with soap nuts. DS sneezed in the kitchen while having a snack. I sneezed late this morning while cleaning the stove with castile soap and baking soda....... If the soap nuts trial doesn't prove that soap nuts is the problem, castile soap will be the next item to test. The problem definitely seems to be focused in the kitchen/living room area. One random sneeze upstairs this afternoon. No other sneezing since this morning, and I've been home for a while.... could it be that simple? I've been doing laundry today, too. With the new stuff, of course. Hm.

DAY 2: Sneezed this morning while folding laundry. The clean at this point is a mix of that done with soap nuts, and that done with Planet detergent. I sneezed out in the garage while playing with DS. The soaps are being stored in the garage. I also felt my throat getting scratchy and my nose got itchy and runny. It's evening now and it's been sneezy throat scratchy day. ??

DAY 3: I have been sneezing all morning. It's still early, but I am definitely reacting to something. What the....

DAY 4: Sneezing and feeling like crap when I'm in the house, which has been all day today. Kinda looking like soap nuts are not the problem. I guess I'm glad about that... But I'll continue the test for a day or two more to be certain. I've been doing tons of laundry, so the majority of the stuff has been done in Planet I think...

DAY 5/6: Not sure I'm feeling any better while at home. I guess I'll continue to do laundry with Planet for a couple more days, then bring the soap nuts back in and see if I have any reaction to it. I'll follow up in a week or so.

UPDATE: Ok, this post seems to get a lot of attention, so I will update. It is now August (oops!) and I have been using soap nuts again for some time. I am convinced that it was NOT the soap nuts that were causing me to sneeze. Probably essential oils, and definitely our new kittens. And dust, and who knows what else. But I'm confident that soap nuts are not the problem, and are likely a GOOD thing to have, considering how sensitive I have become to environmental stuff.

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Soap nuts trial 2 - Liquid Form - Update

The first time I made soap nuts liquid, I used a lot of water, a hand full of soap nuts, and the crock pot. The result was some light tea colored liquid, which I froze. They are, as I suspected, on the weak side. Quite weak, as I came to find out. Yesterday I decided to try making the liquid on the stove top. I put much less water, maybe a cup or two, in the pot, and threw in any soap nuts that had been used before in the laundry but still looked shiny. It was maybe 8 or 10 broken up soap nuts. (at the most) I brought the water to a boil and turned it down to simmer. The water quickly boiled down to a much richer, darker liquid. I poured this into an ice cube tray, then added more water to the pot. The water suds up a lot. I boiled the water down again, poured it into the ice cube tray, and added even more water. I could see at this point that the saponin in the soap nuts was finally running low. I boiled them down and threw the resulting liquid, along with the nuts, into the dishwasher. As we've had questionable results so far, (and hubby's patience with having dishes that aren't Cascade shiny is starting to run low to run low) I figure this is my last chance to make this work. I wanted to give this wash the best possible chance to come clean. I filled the soap dispenser and the pre-wash thingies. =) It's runnung now----we'll see. I also plan to do a load of cloth diapers and cloth wipes today using one of my super concentrated soap nut cubes. The cubes are shaped like stars. Let's hope they are!

Soap nuts trial 2 - Liquid Form - Update

I ran the dishwasher overnight using the soap nut liquid I created in the crock pot the other day. The dishes were clean. They were fine! There was one bowl I had to hand wash. But that happens with Cascade, too. There are foods that have to be washed off before a dish can be machine washed. The vinegar added a shine. Which is weird. But true. Sooo.... I guess I'll keep using the soap nut liquid in the dishwasher for a longer term study. But I'd say for the most part, it's pretty successful, which is cool. I'm happy because the dishwasher is a tough place to go green. Detergents claiming to have less impact on the environment that I have tried in the past have just not worked well enough for continued use. Either the dishes weren't clean, or the dishes came out with a film on them.... I'm still a little skeptical on this one, and hubby is very skeptical, but I am hopeful.

Soap nuts trial 2 - Liquid Form - Update

Here is the soap nut liquid I created after 5 hours of boiling in the crock pot. Not as dark as I might have thought, but it was tea colored. From that I made some ice cubes...

I am now doing a load of laundry using three of these cubes. I have read that one will do in a normal sized load of laundry, but I am skeptical. Mine aren't very dark so I figure they're not very concentrated....what do I know. So far I don't see any sudsing in my laundry, but that's ok too.... Anyhow, I'll let you know how/if it works. I also plan to try the liquid (there was a lot, so some became cubes and some stayed in liquid form) in the dishwasher. The results of using the soap nuts in the dishwasher has been so-so. Most of the dishes are cleaned, but some are not, which isn't good enough, is it? So I will try the liquid in the soap holder thingy, with vinegar in the rinse aid thingy, and see how that works. Failing that, it's no more soap nuts in the dishwasher. =)

I'll test the liquid and cubes in other areas of the house and report back.

Soap nuts trial 2 - Liquid Form

Today I am boiling some partly used soap nuts to see what the liquid is like. I am using the crock pot. I didn't follow any recommended water and soap nuts amounts, I just filled the crock pot with water, and tossed in any soap nuts that I had used in either the laundry or in the dishwasher. I plan to reserve some of the liquid to try out today, and freeze the rest in ice cube trays for future use. Stay tuned...

Soap nuts in the dishwasher

Tonight I tried using soap nuts and vinegar in the dishwasher. You toss the equivalent of about 4 soap nuts in the silverware holder, and fill the rinse aid compartment with vinegar. The dishes came out surprisingly clean and even shiny. There were three or four things that were heavily soiled and had not been rinsed. They will need to be re-washed. But the reviews I have read about using soap nuts in the dishwasher reported just that. Dishes need to be rinsed or soaked before being put in the dishwasher with soap nuts. This is true with regular detergent, no? So I would say the results of this trial were surprisingly positive. =)

It sudsed!

Ok, when my soap nuts didn't suds at all in the washing machine, I wondered if they really did. I mean, really. A plant? Sudsing? So I did what is recommended to test if soap nuts still have the saponin needed to clean with.... I put a piece of one in a container with a lid, and shook. This photo shows the result. I add that I didn't have to shake for long.

Soap nuts - interesting information

I am really into this soap nut thing. I have been reading and reading about how to care for them, how to use them, how to tell when they are used up....very, very interesting. Here are some things I have learned:

>>>Many people who love using soap nuts will boil them in water and use the resulting liquid for cleaning. 

>>>Because it is organic, soap nut liquid has a relatively short shelf-life, so it is a good idea to make what you will use in a week or less, and use it.

>>>The liquid can be frozen into ice cubes, and used as needed. The liquid lasts much longer this way.

>>>The liquid can be used in the laundry, for household cleaning, for windows (with vinegar added), for washing dishes, and even in the dishwasher (with other items added, which I'll write up if there's interest)

>>>Soap nuts DON'T suds much, according to what I've read. Some places claim they do, but many claim they don't. Mine have NOT been sudsy, which is why I read more about that very thing. Suds, according to one source, are extended chemically in store-bought detergents because people think that means the detergent is working better. (Not true)

>>>When soap nuts have done as much as they can do in the laundry, they can still be boiled down to make a good cleaning liquid. 

>>>LOVE this one! Soap nuts can be used as compost when they're used up!

>>>The soap nut liquid can be made in the crock pot. =)

>>>To test if the saponin (cleaning agent) in the soap nuts is used up or not, put the soap nuts in a sealable jar with some water. Shake it up, and if you gets any "suds," they are still good to go. 

>>>Although heat helps to release saponin from the soap nuts, they can be used in any water temperature. The saponin is simply released more slowly.

>>>The saponin released during the rinse cycle is not a worry. It's gentle and non-irritating (according to what I've read) and shouldn't be a concern. It beats soap residue on clothing!

I am very anxious to try the soap nut liquid around the house. I will post as I experiment.

Soap nuts, trial 1, continued

I just finished folding the first load of laundry washed with my new soap nuts. They looked, well, NORMAL. Did I expect them to jump out of the drier and hug me and dance around with joy? Sorta. They didn't. But, other than being a little static-y (I haven't used drier sheets in years, but didn't really have a static-producing item in the bunch...) the clothes were clean. Very clean. I had one jacket out of the bunch that had a stain remaining. My daughter had gotten a big, dark pink chalk stain on the sleeve of a white sweat jacket. I figured chalk would come right out, but this was a really dark pink stain, so I'm not quite ready to blame the soap nuts yet. Everything else looked great! Does that sell me on them? Not q.u.i.t.e yet. Now I need to do a "dirty" load. I mean, a more than average dirty load. Oh oh I know! Cloth diapers!! I'll report back. =)

Information and instructions for use of soap nuts from GreenVirginProcducts.com

Ok, since the photos can be enlarged quite a bit, I'm adding this photo of the instructions and information that came with the soap nuts. Let me know if anything is hard to make out.

The soap nuts are here! Trial 1...

The soap nuts I bought arrived today. I couldn't wait to try them, and threw a load of laundry right in, which is now drying. In the meantime, this is what they look like. The little cloth bag is what you put them in when doing a load of laundry. The nuts came with instructions. It says to break the soap nuts, but many of them were already broken up, and I had to kind of guess at how many to use. They didn't suds up right away, but at the end of the cycle I could see that they had suds at least a bit. (I was out during the cycle) I will post again in a bit with results of the first wash. If anyone has used them before, I'd love to hear your thoughts.