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Just received the Organic Gardening Catalogue and notice there is a product called Soapods Natural Washing Detergent.
Has anyone had any experience with this. For £5.90 (minus 10% members discount), I should get upto 25 washes.

I saw these ( have my copy of cat as well) I wondered if they would be any good as I have a grubby husband and 3 yr old to keep looking presentable, I curently use Ecover products but if these are sopods are any good I would consider switching.

I've got soapods.

They're quite good actually.

You put some in the little cotton bag that comes with them, and then put them in the washing machine with your clothes. When you've done the washing, take them out (still in their bag) and put them in a jar with some water and essential oil for lovely smelling washing next time. My favourite at the moment is Lavender and Lemongrass. When they go dark, they're soapless, and you chuck them on the compost heap.

You can probably get 4-6 washes from each lot before the soap's run out.

I do use Ecover fabric conditioner as well though, to keep the clothes fresh in the drawer!

A few cautionary notes...

The shells of soapnuts can leave brown stains on your washing, especially the first couple of times you use them. So, it's best to avoid washing whites with them the first few times.

They don't always work on heavy soiling. You can do a half load with the same amount of shells of soapnuts, but then you're using twice as much electricity and water.

The shells of soapnuts are imported, so you're talking the equivalent of food miles. Some companies say they bring them in by ship, but not all do.

While some companies claim their soapnuts are picked wild and the pickers paid a fair wage, shells can also be the byproduct of pharmaceutical manufacturing (eg the nuts inside are used to make hair products and toothpastes; while the saponins are extracted and used to make spermicidal creams and pessaries).

The export trade to meet "green" consumer demand, can also mean that less for traditional users in India, who not only use it for cleaning but for healing (against intestinal worms, snakebite, dysentery, diarrhoea, cholera, hemicrania, tubercular glands, paralysis, lumbago etc). It's called reetha, ritha, aritha, kukudu and nitha vanji among other names, depending on the Indian language.

So yes, the shells of soapnuts are a more natural alternative to conventional washing detergents, but I prefer not to use them as I'm not convinced that they really are an environmentally friendly alternative.

Our washing is done with washing soda (cheap and breaks down well in the septic tank), old-fashioned soap flakes (mainly for heavy soiling), or eco balls (best on light soiling). If clothing is particularly stinky, a little lavender oil in the wash followed by drying outside works well, as does lemon juice but you need a fair bit!

Eco balls are made of plastic, but other things I've used in the past for a similar effect have damaged the clothes and/or the washing.

Squash balls used to be a firm favourite back in Oz some years back, but more recently made ones leave black stains so they must have changed the formulation of the modern squash ball. Golf balls work well but quickly wreck the drum of the washing machine!

The expanded clay and lava rock used for hydroponic gardening works but abrades clothes and scratches the drum, as well as turning into powder over time.

eeek...looks like there'll be no more soapods for me after these have all gone then!

I only really have dark clothes, so i didn't notice the brown staining problem. And, apart from my gardening/walking clothes, i d0nt tend to have anything really heavily stained, so i didn't have any reallyfilthy stuff to try them on (that gets washed in the launderette washing machine every few weeks...).

Back to Ecover it is!

Now you mention it...i didn't see any soapods when i was in India at all...

I haven't ordered soapods. Was thinking of growing soapwort instead!

I recently met with Shirl2005. She was sitting in a cafe, and was slightly flustered because she had a bad back, a small child, and it was our first ever NEEPS! meet.

When I arrived at her table, she offered me a fabric bag with what I thought was dried prunes or similar. Fortunately I wasn't feeling hungry, so I declined. She must've thought me mad, because it transpired she was showing me the soap nuts that we had been discussing on anther occasion.

Just as well I didn't try any

multiveg wrote:I haven't ordered soapods. Was thinking of growing soapwort instead!

You can get bulk sopawort seeds from Nicky's Seeds. Chiltern Seeds and Naturescape also have them.

I'm holding off growing soapwort until the Wee Un is slightly older. He's still learning which plants are safe to eat and which aren't, so I don't want to grow poisonous ones until I'm confident he will be discerning in his grazing habit!

i tried growing some soapwort once...but it was disastrous!!

Maybe i'll give it another go. i've got a recipe (or i had a recipe) for soapwort shampoo somewhere.

Stonehead wrote:

multiveg wrote:I haven't ordered soapods. Was thinking of growing soapwort instead!

You can get bulk sopawort seeds from Nicky's Seeds. Chiltern Seeds and Naturescape also have them.

I'm holding off growing soapwort until the Wee Un is slightly older. He's still learning which plants are safe to eat and which aren't, so I don't want to grow poisonous ones until I'm confident he will be discerning in his grazing habit!

I'll probably pick up some seeds from Ryton on Potato Day, already done seed orders.
How old is your Wee Un - mine is 5 on Monday.

Only trouble with Eco Balls is that they are made in China! So I am sticking with my soda/soap/essential oils mix and also Ecover for the moment.

Cream of Tartar is good for grimey teenagers white collared shirts in as a pre~soak.

shiney wrote:Only trouble with Eco Balls is that they are made in China!

And that's a whole other issue in itself. It's becoming more and more difficult to find products that are made, produced or grown in the UK (first preference as I live here) or Europe (second preference as it's less distance and less exploitative than from elsewhere in the world).

Cream of Tartar is good for grimey teenagers white collared shirts in as a pre~soak.

Thanks for the tip. I'll try it on some of the boys' grotty things. Is it for whites only or is it okay for coloureds as well?

Mix two teaspoons of cream of tartar with water to make a paste, smear it on the stain or grime and leave to dry, then wash as usual. Seems to be ok on coloureds too.

Stoney...I've got a book called Natural Stain Remover by Angela Martin. This is where I have got all these useful tips from. It's a fab book, will set you back £4.99 but it's worth every penny and it's printed on recycled paper as well!

http://www.cygnus-books.co.uk/mind_body ... emover.htm


I have nearly replaced all my household chemical cleaners and am using all the recipes for cleaning stuff from this book. The toilet cleaner is great and smells great too. I spent a bit of dosh on the essential oils, but they last for ever as you only use a few drops at a time.

shiney wrote:Stoney...I've got a book called Natural Stain Remover by Angela Martin. This is where I have got all these useful tips from. It's a fab book, will set you back £4.99 but it's worth every penny and it's printed on recycled paper as well!

http://www.cygnus-books.co.uk/mind_body ... emover.htm

Thanks. I was even more chuffed when I read Cygnus' business philosophy - it's not often I find a business that has the same philosophy as me. You've made my day on several levels!

argh...need to stop going to links...just spent £20 on books from Cygnus!!

Thanks for the linkage though, they're rather good! I only meant to get that stain book...and i forgot to order it...