This experiment began Sunday, as commented at Besame's diary,"Silence Won't Stop an Epidemic" on neuro-immune-endocrine disorders awareness, for KosAbility.
i switched from 7th Generation (which added enzymes to their laundry products sometime in the past year or 2 — often better to avoid enzymes for anyone with irritable skin or asthma/rhinosinus/irritable-respiratory-tract, according to the allergists who've tried to treat me over the past 3 decades...painfully) to Eco-Nuts soapberries. I bought a bottle of the stuff too but that's for later, today it's just 4 of the 'berries' in the little cotton drawstring bag thrown in with the clothes & linens.
i've been graywatering my backyard since moving here 12 or so years ago (and using "earth-friendly" and "allergy/irritable-friendly" cleaning products for years before that). it conserves water, and the trees, shrubs, grass & veg patch seemed to love it. the grass is all just crunchy beige underfoot now, of course, since this is california, but shade trees and sun-barrier hedges have to get enough water to stay healthy so they decrease electricity usage for a.c. indoors and conserve moisture in the soil under and around them.
will they like the soapberry water? and i really hope my skin & respiratory tract will!
Here's the conversation thread of
ingredients some of us are concerned about in laundry products for what reasons, for anyone interested in that. Here's
the EcoNuts company video, text & photos explaining these soapberries/soapnuts.
At this point there are 3 preliminary pieces of data. ;-)
First, the laundry simply smells like nice clean cotton at the end of the dryer cycle (which is reassuring, since 95% of it is cotton), which answers the question asked about that. Second, the fabrics feel equally as soft as when I put a quarter-cup white vinegar into the rinse-cycle. So far so good.
Third, though, the soapnuts apparently are so very eco-friendly that the half-inch of water remaining in the laundry-sink after my little sump-pump has greywatered out all it can (washer hose empties into sink, sump-pump garden hose empties outa sink) has quite a pong, like horizontal-axis water-saving washers get occasionally. So I scrubbed the sink with just the sink-brush, not adding anything, to disrupt whatever is the micro-organism that creates that odor, and to discourage mosquitoes. My washer has no pong, I spoze because I routinely leave the lid open so it'll air-dry. My guess is I'll have to run an occasional load of laundry with 7thGeneration or other conventional healthfoody/biodegrady deterg or else have a growing sink pong to deal with. But I think I'd be okay with that kind of mixed method.
Further experimental results will be published at KTK if you folks don't give remembrance enuf diaries to prevent it!
So, what else is on our bluish-greenish minds today, hmmm? Sing out!