In my last post, I told you about my experience using soap nuts to wash my laundry.
Prior to using soap nuts, I’d used a homemade liquid detergent for my laundry for several years, which I was also happy with. The homemade detergent — which uses Borax, washing soda, a grated bar of soap, and five gallons of water — is amazing: it’s crazy-frugal, hypoallergenic, all-natural, and, according to the David Suzuki Foundation, eco-friendly to boot. (I got my recipe here, though I sub out the Sunlight bar for an unscented vegetable glycerin bar, which I get from Whole Foods). I’m equally happy with either the homemade detergent or the soap nuts for my laundry, and will probably continue to use both.
As most of you know, I make most of my other household cleaners and body-care products, too, from deodorant to toothpaste to glass cleaner. (I do this because I think it’s important, as a disciple of Christ, to take care of both the home and the body he gave me. And also because it’s frugal and fun.)
I’d never found a satisfactory solution for the dishwasher, though.
I’d seen homemade granulated recipes out there, but I knew that the use of Borax on dishes was questionable. Moreover, I knew a couple of people who’d tried these recipes and found them severely lacking.
Until now, I’d just used an eco-friendly commercial detergent. I felt okay with that, but it’s kind of pricey, and I felt I could do better.
So I was delighted and surprised, when I received a second bag of soap nuts from a friend, to find that they included instructions for use in the dishwasher.
Soap nuts in the dishwasher?! I’d never heard of this before. If this worked out, I may have found my solution!
So I thought I’d give it a try and let you guys know how it went!
I’ve actually tried it twice now, and documented my second attempt. So here goes!
A Note Before I Begin:
I don’t pre-rinse my dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. In fact, I feel there is something fundamentally wrong with people who pre-rinse their dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. Why go through the trouble of loading the dang thing if you’re planning on running them through the sink anyway? I just don’t get it. (If this is you: sorry. I think you’re weird.)
So none of my dishes have been rinsed prior to this wash. (Except, perhaps, for a few heavily-coated pots and pans.)
So here you see my dishwasher full of dirty dishes. Yuck.
According to the directions on my bag of soap nuts, you put a couple of nuts into the little cotton bag (I used four), and drop the bag into your utensil rack (NOT the detergent dispenser.)
I ran a regular wash, without the heat dry. (I always turn off the heat dry. Save money and decrease your carbon footprint!)
After the cycle had run: ta-da! All sparkling clean!
I was totally thrilled with the results.
I’m told you can re-use the same soap nuts 3 or 4 times. The load you see above was this bag of nuts’ second run. After that, you can just toss them in the compost. (According to this post from Crunchy Betty, you can go a whole lot of things with the soap nut flesh after it’s been used. I haven’t tried any, yet!)
I still have some store-bought detergent to up, but after that I think I’ll be sticking with soap nuts!
Update: I tried a THIRD load with this method (using the same four nuts), and still loved it!
Shared on Your Green Resource via SortaCrunchy!
I NEED SOAP NUTS RIGHT NOW. I can’t find natural/eco-friendly dishwasher detergent here and that really bothers me, I really don’t like harsh chemicals touching my dishes or clothes. This looks amazing, I’m going to have to track some down!
http://Www.greenerlivingstore.com Good place to get soap nuts!
I’ve never rinsed either. Some people’s kids.
Now that is awesome! I don’t use my dishwasher, but I’m thinking after this little one who’s residing in my abdomen decides to make his (or her) appearance I might… and you have got me sold on soap nuts! :)
And I was under the impression that everybody rinsd before stacking the dishwasher… which is why I hated dishwashers. I refuse to waste the water on that when I could just use it to wash them anyways! I am relieved that not everybody is crazy after all! :)
Those people are totally crazy. My husband tends to rinse the dishes. I don’t, though I do scrape the worst junk into the trash (it bothers me that he rinses big chunks of food into the sink for me to clean up later, ick). But I can do you one better: my mother-in-law doesn’t just rinse the dishes before loading them into the dishwasher, she /washes/ them. With /soap/. And a /sponge/. And after she has completely washed each dish, SHE RUNS THEM THROUGH THE DISHWASHER. Insane. I tried to be helpful and unload the dishwasher one time when apparently they were still “dirty,” and she freaked out and re-washed every dish in the kitchen. So maybe she has issues….
Anyway, I had no idea you could use soap nuts in the dishwasher! That’s one place I still use conventional product, because the DDH has a very low tolerance for cloudy glasses and vaguely dirty-looking dishes (that’s his mother I’m talking about above, after all). Homemade recipes failed miserably, and no natural brands seem to work well enough to justify the cost. I suspect soap nuts would also be more expensive than regular dishwasher detergent, but I may try them and see how they work. Thanks, Jalen!
Sigh. Kathleen, not Jalen. Where the heck does my phone get some of these autocorrect words?
I’ve been wondering if you could use soap nuts in the dishwasher. How does it work for hard water?
Lisa @Retro Housewife Goes Green recently posted..Green Deals
I don’t think our water could be considered “hard,” but it is somewhat on the harder side and the soapnuts seem to be doing a good job!
This is great. I recently bought some soap nuts so will definitely be giving this a go! I have hard water in my area, but I think that just means you need to use more of them than you do in soft water areas…
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How come the soapnuts work for your dishwasher and not mine :( ? I have a lot of the gunk and grease sitill on my plates and utensils.. Any thoughts as to why?
You know what, Faith? I’ve had that happen to me now, too. For the first little while, it worked beautifully. Then all of a sudden I started getting grease and gunk, too. I’m still searching for a solution; I should update my post to reflect this.