June sponsor---- Laundry Tree

I'm so happy to welcome my first June Sponsor Laundry Tree. You've already heard me talk about the awesomeness of Soapnuts here. This time I asked Lisa Albright the owner of Laundry Tree if she would do a little interview so we could get to know her and her home-run business a little better. Yeah for small business run from home!

Tell us a little bit about your company and what led you to selling Soapnuts. 

LaundryTree is a small family business based in Houston, Texas. We sell soapnuts (which aren't actually a nut at all — they are the fruit of the Sapindus Mukorossi tree). Soapnuts are totally natural, and are an EXCELLENT alternative to traditional laundry detergents and cleaners.

What are things that sold you on using and eventually selling Soapnuts? 

LaundryTree was born as I stood, baffled, in the laundry aisle of the grocery store. I was looking for a laundry product that fit our "laundry" list of requirements:

• Something without dyes or perfumes, to accommodate a munchkin with eczema and super-sensitive skin
• Something without too many suds, to accommodate our high-efficiency washer
• Something with no harsh chemicals, to accommodate a persnickety septic system and desires to be kind to the environment
• Something without an over-inflated price tag, to accommodate... well, our under-inflated wallets.

Yes, there were a lot of choices... but not one of them met ALL of my requirements. I compromised and went home with two different products to try that day, but quickly found that I didn't like either one. So I kept searching.

When I found soapnuts, we totally fell in love -- because they meet EVERY ONE of the criteria above (PLUS a few more!) My favorite things about soapnuts, now that I’ve been using them for a long time, are that they are organically grown and are totally natural.


How did your family find the transition from using detergents to using soapnuts? 

Honestly, I didn't tell my family I was trying soapnuts. (I thought they were too weird to try to explain!) But when I'd been using them awhile, my husband asked what I was doing different with the laundry. He'd never cared one whit about the laundry before, but he'd noticed that his jeans were softer and wanted to know why. So I said, "Check out these weird-looking things. They’re called soapnuts, and I've been using them for the laundry -- that's why you notice a difference. When he didn’t laugh at me, I told him what else was on my mind: “I really, really, really want to order a ton of them and go in business to share them with other people." He shrugged, grinned, and said, "Okay."

Do you use them only on laundry?
I love making soapnut soak, because it’s so versatile! We use it mostly for laundry, but also use it to clean floors and windows.

As a mama and creative being/blogger I know it’s hard to work and do family life at the same time. How have you been able to integrate and find balance with your business and family life?

My key to sanity is being able to prioritize: anything my family needs comes first, and I fill in the rest of each day with everything else. It doesn't all get done, and sometimes it doesn't all get done well. But I try to make sure that anything that falls through the cracks isn't as important as the stuff that I choose to focus on.

It also helps that LaundryTree is a family business, and we really do enjoy working together as a family to get things done. Even mundane tasks like making sample bags and building shipping boxes can be fun when we’re together and laughing.


Thanks so much for taking the time to talk to me Lisa. You've got a great product and a wonderful company. You can connect up with Laundry Tree on twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.




----------------------------------GIVEAWAY--------------------------------

Lisa is giving away one starter kit to one of you lucky readers! She has also created a coupon code for you lucky readers! Just use HOMESTEAD when checking out. It's good for 25% off any order until 7/1/2012.




I'm going to try something different this time, and use a Google form instead of comments. This will make it easy to collect your fragrance preference and lets me contact you by email if you win without having to post your address in a comment. Only the winner's contact information will be send to Laundry Tree and I'll delete all the data after the giveaway, I promise!


Of course I'd still love to read your comments even if they are optional.