Space

Making soap is an endeavor we got into a bit too lightly.  Not that we didn't think long and hard about it before we started.  And I’ll bet nobody read more books on the subject than we did.  But somehow we didn't consider the full cost carefully enough.  And now, I want my house back. 

First of all there are the tools of the trade: spoons and bowls and pots and other containers, a scale, a mixer, and a bunch of huge, clunky molds.  Then, when you've made soap, which it turns out, also takes up a lot of space, you need places to store it and things to store it in. 

And, did you know that before the soap, comes the oil (and the lye and the gallons and gallons and gallons of distilled water)?  Oil, it turns out, takes up an incredible amount of space, like maybe, as an hypothetical example, a whole wall in your kitchen, two buckets high and five buckets wide, plus a whole corner in your dining room.

Oh, and don’t forget the scents and the colors, and the strawberry seeds and the luffa.  No, you can't forget the luffa.  These items don’t individually take up a ton of room, but when gathered together with all their colorful and smelly buddies, take up enough space to fill a couple apple boxes.

We knew soap had to cure before it could be wrapped but, I guess we just didn't do the math on what that meant.  One batch a day and you run into the 600 bar zone in just a month.  Not that we've ever had 600 bars here, but it could happen.  Ugh! 

Good thing we love it - A LOT!