Soap Nuts to the Rescue

This post is part of the Natural Living Series. Guest Cindy is sharing information about soap nuts for cleaning. For more information about Cindy, be sure to check out the bottom of this post and for more posts on natural cleaning, check out our week of natural cleaning posts.

"Uh-oh."
“Uh-oh.”

When my husband announced that he had spilled some coffee on the bedroom carpet, wow, he wasn’t kidding.

I had hoped it was just a small stain.

I was wrong.

Sixteen fresh ounces of Starbucks coffee exploded in our bedroom – the dresser, the wall, the baseboards, the disaster even leached into our bathroom. Coffee carnage so bad I had to laugh instead of scream.

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We spent a lot of time cleaning up the mess but the biggest problem was the carpet.

We tried absorbing the coffee spill with towels but the stain persisted. The fibers of the carpet became hard as the days went by and I got crabbier and crustier every time I walked by the scene of the “crime.”

Since replacing the carpet wasn’t an option, I tried one more thing before hiring a professional carpet cleaner.

With the aid of a borrowed hand-held carpet cleaner, I added water and put ONE TEASPOON of Extreme 18X, a super concentrated form of soap nut liquid detergent into the receptacle.

To my delight, the gi-normous coffee stain began to disappear.

It took several changes of water and additional Extreme 18X to get rid of the stain but it worked.

I hated the stain but I loved solving the problem without using a toxic product. No formaldehyde, no dyes or fragrances, this water-based saponin extract saved a carpet and an almost 26 year marriage! We’re still going strong, thank you Extreme 18X!

There are times when we need to use stronger products but this wasn’t one of those moments. If you had seen the mess, you would be impressed! Extreme 18X is one of the soap nut ways I naturally wash my clothes and clean my house, if it didn’t work, I’d have used something else.

And you know what else? I didn’t even use the entire bottle!

I liked just pulling a product from my shelf and giving it a fair shot to do this tough job.

Afterward, there was no residual chemical cleaning smell, no artificial perfumes creating a fake fragrance, I had a clean carpet, plain and simple. While using Extreme 18X for carpet cleaning, I never needed to protect myself with gloves or a use a breathing mask to avoid inhaling harmful fumes.

Here's a picture of the yuck pulled from the carpet using a handheld carpet cleaner, Extreme 18X and water. Pretty gross, huh?
Here’s a picture of the yuck pulled from the carpet using a handheld carpet cleaner, Extreme 18X and water. Pretty gross, huh?

These are important considerations if you have family members with asthma, breathing issues or with chemical sensitivities.

A medium vanilla latte is better to drink than to spill, trust me on this but our marriage and carpet have stood the test. I saved money and time. With a modicum of effort, peace was restored to our home.

Don’t wait for a big mess to try soap nuts; check out Olive Shoot Institute to learn more.

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Cindy Winter-Hartley is a contented wife, mom and writer. She blogs about real-life struggles, faith and what it’s like raising three strong and tenderhearted sons in this messed up world. After spending a lot of time fighting against her God-given strengthens and talents, Cindy now embraces the domestic life. Her son Nathan is an officer in the Army and is currently in Ranger School, Aaron is a sophomore at Moody Bible Institute and Ike rocks it as the feisty, basketball playing ginger of the family. The pink highlights in her hair keep people guessing! You can read more at her blog, My Awesome Oliveshoots.

 

 

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