Zero waste laundry with soap berries
Have you tried doing your laundry with soap berries yet?
Also called soap nuts, these wonderful dried fruit shells suds up when agitated with water (a la your washing machine!) and can replace traditional laundry powder or liquid. They are natural, non-toxic and go straight into the compost when they’re worn out.
Per load you need a handful of split shells (around 5 whole berries) and a little drawstring bag (or a sock or handkerchief with a knot in the top) to keep them secure in the washing machine. These babies will keep cleaning your clothes for at least 5 loads, just hang the bag to dry with your washing.
My soap berries review:
My clothes always come out clean and fresh. No artificial smells, no perfumes, no streaks or leftover detergent on the fabric. Hooray!
They are sure to save you money too - one 250gram soap berries bag is designed to give you 90+ loads of washing.
Don’t believe me yet? Check out this little video of the soap berries soaping up in a jar of water! I took this little vid when visiting Biome.
A few soap berry tips and tricks:
Soap berries are great for laundry and as an all-purpose cleaner.
If you’re washing in cold water (which I’m sure you’ve heard before we’re all encouraged to do as much as possible!) it helps to shake up your soap berries in warm water before adding to the machine. This just gets the suds frothing and ready to clean your clothes. I put the whole bag with the berries inside into a jar with warm water, close the lid and shake for a few seconds, then add to the machine.
You can add some essential oils or eucalyptus oil to the little wash bag (or sock) before putting into the machine, if you like to add a scent to your laundry. My favourite is eucalyptus for its antibacterial properties (and fresssssh smell!) and lemongrass.
So far I still like the convenience of having my laundry liquid handy (which I buy in bulk from The Source into my own container) mostly for when I’m doing hand-washing. Soap berries can be used for this too, but again just suds up the water first.
Just like castille soap, soap berries can be used as an all purpose cleaner too! You simply boil them with water on the stove for around 15 minutes to release the berries’ natural saponin (the cleaning, frothy bit!) and then add to a spray bottle for cleaning, or even try as shampoo. I am yet to try this but it may be another great way to cut down the number of products needed around the home (how GREAT are versatile things!).
Let us know when you’ve given them a go! Have you tried using them for cleaning around the home or as a shampoo? And while we’re talking laundry, when your pegs wear out I highly recommend replacing them with stainless steel pegs. They are super sturdy, won’t snap and are made from one continuous piece of metal - I reckon that’s a lifetime investment right there.
You can buy soap berries online from Biome here and stainless steel pegs here.
This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase via these links Shift may receive a small commission to help keep the website going. We only work with brands and link to products that we fully endorse and love! Find out more about how Shift works with brands in our Media Kit.