Guest Post, natural laundry solutions.

I am still on vacation but my good blogging friend, Raygon wanted to let you all know about her all natural laundry solutions. She was sweet enough to write up a little post for you all. Enjoy!

For the wash:

About 6 months ago, I saw a deal on line for some soap nuts, it was a generic email that came to my inbox.  I had actually never heard of them, but they looked interesting.  I read about them and after learning about them, I really wanted to try them.  The company I ordered them from answered all my questions.  I emailed with a list and a very kind lady was prompt to respond.  I asked her about things like who gathers the nuts, are the compensated appropriately, is this a sustainable practice, etc.  After I learned about them I was excited to try them!  I got in on a good deal, I spent just over $40 and bought enough soap nuts for almost 400 loads of laundry!  They clean beautifully and after using them for a while, I can say I would recommend them to others. I have 3 small kids who make lots of messes thru the day, sometimes the soap nuts don't cut all the stains.  (I got a natural coconut based stain remover from the same company I got the soap nuts from, I am trying to be generic here in my information since I know you have someone who wants you to sell her soap nuts.  I don't want to detract from her business, although I did mention the price I paid....but I got mine on sale.  Maybe your lady would offer a deal to your readers?  If she sells the stain remover, you could add something here about it....its good stuff!  If you don't go with the lady that has contacted you, let me know and I will give you the name of the place I got mine from.  They were great to work with and answered tons of my questions.  I like knowing who is selling me stuff) 

There are lots of good things about the soap nuts, in my opinion.  #1 enough nuts to clean 400 loads of laundry came to my door in a medium size priority mail box.  #2 Inside there were little muslin bags full of the nuts.  After the nuts are used, they get tossed in my compost bin and the muslin bags get used to store Hot Wheels Cars, darts for the Nerf gun, shoes, etc. #3 I am not tossing any large plastic jugs in my trash can!  The waste from enough soap nuts to clean our laundry for about a year was a few quart sized bags. 

Another great addition to loads of laundry is 1/2 cup baking soda or/and 1/2 cup vinegar.  Baking soda helps brighten whites and remove stains.  Vinegar helps to soften clothes (don't worry they don't come out smelling like vinegar) 

Now for the dryer:

Since I was trying to get rid of the chemicals in the wash, I had to do the dryer too.  I had to stop tossing a sheet of Bounce in the dryer!  I actually tried drying our clothes without anything and for the most part they are fine.  But my husband wears business clothes 6 days a week and his clothes were so full of static!  I found a very reasonable solution.  My neighbor uses some of those plastic mass produced blue balls in her dryer.  The idea intrigued me but I didn't want those blue things in my laundry!  So I looked around to see if there was something similar, made from a natural product.  I finally came upon a nice little lady that sells 100% natural felted wool dryer balls.  Made from a natural fiber all the way down to the core (beware of some wool balls that are wool wrapped)  I toss those in my dryer and they have worked great!  They actually help my laundry dry faster too!  I bought mine from a lady who sells at www.wooldryerballs.com.  She was nice and friendly and answered my questions too. (she also sells on ebay and you can get a little bit better of a deal on there.)  

I have found that drying our clothes in the sun is another great and energy efficient way to dry them. (but we are short on sun up here about 6 months out of the year!) The sun has magical powers and helps remove stains from clothing.  Its how I keep my cloth diapers looking bright and white and good as new!

The last thing:  If you like your clothes to smell like Tide or Febreeze or Downy, or any kind of "smell", this is not the system for you.  There are no added dyes, fragrances, perfumes, etc.  This is a good system for my family and I think its keeping our clothes and linens looking good and clean, but it might not work for everyone.   

Anyone interested in trying out soap nuts, I have a blogging friend here in AZ who has some to sell. Just email me and I will get you the info.

Thanks, Raygon!