Soap Nuts

Ever heard of soap nuts? You can see what they look like there, in the picture. I just got some in the mail today, from my favorite website ever, YumUniverse. Soap nuts are actually a fruit with a shell that contains saponins. Saponins are plant glucosides that create a soapy substance when mixed with water. They make suds! All you have to do is put 5 or 6 soap nuts inside one of those little muslin bags shown in the photo and toss it in with your laundry  - that's it! They'll last for 5 or 6 loads, then you can compost them! No packaging, no chemicals, no mystery ingredients, no waste. Just soap nuts. (You can read more about them here.) I purchased a large kit, which contains enough soap nuts for 185 loads of laundry, and it cost about $30 with shipping and everything. Now that's my kind of cleaning product. I'll be adding a couple drops of lavender and lemon essential oils to the muslin bags to give my laundry a fresh scent, but you can use any combination you like or leave it scent-free. I ordered these back in November or something, but Heather (founder of YU) was out of stock, so as a thank you for my patience she threw in two dryer pillows for free! Just another reason I absolutely adore YumUniverse. It smells like there's lavender and calendula in there - two of my favorite herbs! Now off to a test load of laundry . . .