One day into fall break and I’m totally loving the freedom. I haven’t left my house today, and I am more than okay with that. Since it’s a holiday weekend, Jason’s parents are coming to spend a couple days with us! We haven’t seen them in a LONG time so it will be nice to spend some time together. Lazy old me has let our house really fall to the wayside, though, so I really need to do some cleaning up before the weekend! I dedicated today to our laundry, which has backed up into quite a giant mountain little pile. Lately I’ve been trying to make a transition into more natural and environmentally friendly cleaning products, and that includes laundry.

I have a few major reasons for wanting to make that transition.

1. I don’t want to fill our house with toxic fumes that can harm our health and harm our children’s health down the road.

2. I want to do whatever I can to use cleaners that don’t have a negative impact on the environment.

3. Instead of using chemicals and mystery ingredients, I’d rather use what nature already provides to do the same thing.

Last month I saw a product called Soap Nuts on Kath’s OpenSky and since it was on sale I couldn’t resist it. I’ve never tried a natural laundry detergent before, and it seemed like a great one to try. I got a starter kit that came with a bag of soap nuts, a bottle of essential oil, and a couple tiny canvas bags.

The soap nuts are acutally a special kind of dried fruit from the Himalayas that contain a natural cleaning agent.

I was a little skeptical about them (they are fruit after all!), but on the very first try I was shocked that they WORK WONDERS! I might even say that they work better than traditional laundry detergent. Your clothes come out so clean and very fresh smelling, with just the slightest fragrance if you add the essential oil. They really do get things clean.

Conventional detergents are full of chemicals that are hazardous to us and pollute water. Why wash your clothes with toxins and hurt the planet when you can choose a 100% natural, organic, biodegradable option for the same price? I see no reason. The medium size bag of soap nuts comes out to $0.23 per load, while a container of Tide detergent comes out to $0.25 per load (and that’s when I can get Tide on sale). Plus they are easy as pie to use! Just put a few nuts in the little bag, close the bag, and toss it in the washing machine!

I’ve been using these for a few weeks now and I love them. The company has no idea who I am, I just wanted to share with you guys what I think is a really awesome product that can make a difference.

I’ve got more folding to do. Thanks for reading!

-Lauren