I finally picked up some soap berries from the bulk store after being curious about them for a while. For anyone who doesn’t know what soap berries are they are little nut like balls that can be used in place of laundry detergent. You throw about 4-6 of these bad boys in a cloth or mesh bag and throw them in with your laundry, you use the same nuts over agin until they turn white (between 6-10 uses) and then they can be composted. I also picked up a solid stain remover bar (visually looks like a bar of soap) which a shaved some off to add in with my laundry to give it an extra boost. I was impressed with the berries they seemed to do the job just fine! The only thing I miss is the ‘fresh’ sent that comes with traditional detergent as the berries are scentless (which makes them great for anyone with sensitive skin). I looked up a DIY scent booster for laundry which look very simple (just epsom salt and essential oils) which I will be trying next!
I think laundry has been marketed as something that needs to be as simple as possible. This can be seen with rise of laundry pods that you just throw in with the laundry rather then measuring liquid or powder. Laundry detergent is also often advertised as being environmentally friendly because it is more concentrated then it used to be. However, the measuring lines in detergent is often way higher than it needs to be plus people are often inclined to use more detergent then is recommended. I think soap berries are a reasonable switch to detergents which come in plastic containers and are full of questionable chemicals for laundry detergent as soap berries can be bought in bulk or in cloth bags while being completely natural. Additionally aside from replacing the berries after the 6th wash they are not that different from the ease of laundry pods. Another benefit of soap berries are the cost. They are on average $0.05 per wash were as laundry pods are on average $0.30 per wash, added up that makes a large difference over all. The only barrier to these soap berries is the fact that they can be hard to find where as laundry pods are sold at every grocery store. Hopefully with more demand for sustainable products soap berries or similar products will be available more universally.
