No Procrastination + Soap Nuts = SUCCESS!

"So, how did 'No Procrastination Day' go, Steph?"

Thanks for asking! I feel like it was a success. I got several things accomplished yesterday that I could have let myself put off till later. I even emptied the dishwasher! This is something that I usually leave for Shawn to do. I would fill the dishwasher and he would empty it. But yesterday I didn't just fill the dishwasher. Oh, no! I emptied it, too! Of course, the extra motivation of people coming to the house today may have had a tiny influence. ;) There were a couple of incidents of procrastination yesterday, however: in the afternoon while the kids were sleeping I finally got my lunch and sat down at the computer. I needed to take my shower before church (naptime is the best time for me to accomplish this), but I did allow myself to linger at the computer about 30 minutes more than I should have. The other incident was at bedtime. Shawn was out of town last night, so after I got the kids in bed I thought I would have my usual Stay-up-late-because-Shawn-is-out-of-town-and-I-hate-sleeping-in-an-empty-bed-nights. That didn't happen. After dosing off in the chair downstairs for an hour, I finally got up and went to bed. So for the most part I did well, and the little bit of procrastinating I did allow myself was relatively inconsequential. (Except that in my grogginess last night I forgot to make sure both of the cats were out of the house. I'm hoping I won't find a cat-pee surprise waiting for me downstairs. The cat also woke me up at 5:30, so I didn't sleep as long as I could have.)

I also got my NaturOli Soap Nuts yesterday. So far I LOVE them! The sample pack I got has a bottle of the liquid as well as a muslin bag with five soap nuts. I used the liquid in the dishwasher. I did 1/2 tsp in each cup because our dishwasher is TERRIBLE! The Soap Nuts liquid performed at least as well if not better than a commercial dishwasher detergent. I only found a couple of things that did not come clean (there were a few things that I needed to rinse or wipe off, but with my dishwasher, believe me, that's clean). On average we're usually stuck with 5 or 6 items that don't come clean (and sometimes even more). Shawn has taken the dishwasher apart and cleaned the thing out. It's just cheap. I think because the house used to be a rental, the former owners put in the cheapest appliances they could find.

After I did the dishes I worked on the laundry. I ran an empty load to start with, with 1/2 tsp of Soap Nuts liquid to clean out the washer and remove any remaining residue from commercial detergents and fabric softeners. Then I washed a load of clothes on warm using the soap nuts and no fabric softener. The clothes came out clean and soft! I checked something that had been a little stained before I put it in the dryer to make sure it was clean, and all the stains had come out! I'm going to wash a load of towels later today to see how it does with the softening. Whether you're supposed to or not, I always wash towels with fabric softener. You can always tell when a towel has been washed without it, and I HATE stepping out of the shower and wiping down with a scratchy towel.

On a final note, I decided I should add one more "Life Zone" to my change structure: financial. We've implemented a budget recently, and for the time being we'll continue working on adjusting it. We're having a hard time making room for unexpected things. We also are putting Todd into preschool two days a week to encourage his speech development (if it weren't for his speech we wouldn't even consider preschool), so we need to make room for his tuition. I'm looking into an online tutoring job to get some more income, I just have to brush up the subjects so I can pass the competency tests. I need to make sure to work some study time in every day.

"Soap Nuts?!" Are You Nuts?

Well, maybe. But there's nothing nutty about Soap Nuts other than their name. But, first, a little background. In the past few weeks I've been trying to come with an alternative to grocery store laundry detergent. I detest the chemical laden products that most stores sell. I can't even go down the detergent aisle without holding my breath because of the chemical smell. I've wondered about the new "green" versions of the name-brand products, wondering if they're really any greener than their "regular" conunterparts or if they have simply been "greenwashed" to make the guilt-ridden consumer feel better about purchasing their products. Then there's the whole cost issue. Laundry detergent is very expensive, especially most "green" versions. In the past couple of weeks or so I've been researching making my own laundry detergent, but I still wasn't completely comfortable with some of the ingredients I would need to use, nor was I very excited about the inconvenience of it.

Enter Soap Nuts. I came across and article about them last week on the Passionate Homemaking blog. (She's even having a giveaway of NaturOli's Liquid Laundry Detergent Concentrate and Green Cleaner - EXTREME 18X through tomorrow. For the giveaway, click on the "Passionate Homemaking" link above.) Despite their name, Soap Nuts are not nuts. They are actually the dried fruit of the Chinese Soapberry Tree, specifically, Sapindus Mukorossi. (Google it. It's all over the internet.) These fruits contain a very high concentration of saponin, a naturally occurring detergent. From the research I've done, I've learned that they clean very well, as well as soften clothes (which means no more spending money on fabric softener), not to mention they're VERY economical, costing as little as $0.07/washer load to use. For the liquid form it is recommended that you only use 1/2 tsp per load! Plus Soap Nuts can be used for almost any cleaning job around the house, and the liquid form is gentle enough for personal hygiene use as well. The main thing to watch out for when you're purchasing them is quality because apparently there are some very low-quality brands out there. According to the research I've done, NaturOli's quality is superior to other brands.

So, I've purchased a trial pack of NaturOli Soap Nuts on ebay. Hopefully it will come tomorrow, because I've got several loads of laundry waiting in the wings, breaking my one-load-of-laundry-a-day rule. I've been holding off on purchasing more laundry detergent. I really did not want to buy any more supermarket stuff. So in the coming days I'll let you know how it goes. If all the praise out there is true, I will soon have a new, cost-effective, truly green & sustainable laundry detergent!

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