August 7, 2007
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Homemade Soap
Ever hear the old idiom
"Uglier than Homemade Soap" ?
Check out Southern slang HERE
My husband's mother is thrifty and uses everything that would otherwise be thrown away.
People give her their scraps of soap and she boils them down to make bars of soap,they are colorful but they gross me out knowing that... EVEN THOUGH IT WAS BOILED AND ALL THE GERMS WERE KILLED... they were used on other peoples bodies
!!My Mother in Law is not the only one that does this,I found
Make Bar Soap
I take all my small pieces of soap and put them in a microwavable safe container
and melt them in the microwave. Remove Then pour them in a container.
They will harden as they cool. Remove them from the container and you have a whole bar of soap. You want to use a small container, so the soap will be easy to hold in one hand when you bathe. If it is difficult to remove the soap, put the bowl in hot water for a couple of minutes.__________________________________________________
Doing laundry with homemade soap is hard on the hands.
Animal fat, water and lye were boiled
in a kettle to make soapSoap could be bought at the general store. Most of the early pioneers made their own soap using lard and lye. For lard they used animal fat or leftover cooking grease. Ashes were collected from the fireplace or from burning tree stumps. The ashes were placed in a barrel (with an opening at the bottom) or in a hollowed-out log. Then water was added to the ashes. Lye was formed when ashes were soaked in water. The lye was drained into pails. Lye was combined with the melted lard and water, then boiled in an iron kettle outside. After a few hours the mixture thickened and was poured into a pan and left to harden. Then the soap was cut up into squares or bars.
Children had to collect enough wood to prepare for soap-making day. The lye was very dangerous to work with. Lye could burn skin if it was touched and it was unhealthy to breathe in the fumes.
Info from HERE
HOW TO MAKE SOAP
I have to use a washboard
with the greenhouse clothing sometimes,the jeans have ground in dirt and oil that will not come out in the washing machine.I bought blue laundry soap bars in Jamaica
when we were there on a mission trip ) that get anything out
including the color of the fabric... so I use this when all else fails.
I use Fels Naptha sometimes too , we also have found that
this is good to use when you get poison .
Comments (95)
I remember my family having lye soap around when I was little. I think my grandmother made it.
Wow, I didnt know that. I melt down the ready squares of glycerine soap and add my own scents and colors.
*sparkle
i've never had the urge to make soap. but candle making has interested me.
You!?!? Nobody's favorite?!? That is hard to believe! You MUST be somebody;s favorite!
I've never heard that expression! I don't melt down soap, but I when I get out a new bar of soap, I press the old one onto it, and therefore, none of the soap is ever wasted! Pretty thrifty, huh? Actually, I do that for the guys, because I like the bottled body wash better.
Kathi
Only liquid soap for this girl. I can't stand bars of soap. I'd of never made it back in the good ole' days.
um yeah, that's gross! lol
We have a little pouch made of netting with a sponge inside and the scraps of soap go in there... its a great body scrubber...
I've been wondering what I could do with my small pieces of soap. How many do you save before you melt them down? What kind of container do you melt it in? And what kind of container do you use to mold it? Great idea! Thanks!
that is soooooooooooo gross! i don't use bar soap for that reason anyway!
Well, I would hope that your MIL would clean the soap before melting it down... you know, wash it off.
But this was the way people made do in the yesteryears... there wasn't always a store down the street from them, or even if there was, there might not be enough money for such things. It's only been in the last 50 years that we've become a wasteful society.
I laughed when I saw my sister had," washing powder",on her shopping list and she is only 47yr old.
And when it gets old, the old fashioned homemade stuff, can really smell up . . . When my grandfather came from Cuba he brought a small piece w/him (to show mom what they had on the island these days). The thing smelled worse than chickenshit! Mom set it in her curio cabinet (yeah, odd place, huh?) and it shrank down to a pebble size as time passed. I suppose it stank up cuz there are no fancy frilly nice smelly stuff for soap on the island. This was back in the early 90's, when Russia pulled out and the island suffered greatly . . . which led the bearded bastard to negotiate w/other countries . . . crap, I've digressed.
Anyway . . . a coworker makes soap and other bath stuff . . . she gave me a patchouli bar which I absolutely love! I wish they'd make patchouli shower gel.
The thought of using other people's soap . . . yeah, not so appealing to me either. Just think about it . . . some people are pretty furry . . . and they shed . . . and it gets imbedded on the soap . . . yeah, not so appealing to me to lather up w/other people's hair.
Lye soap is the best when one has encountered poison ivy.
I use liquid soap. I agree with AcidSam. I get grossed out when I find hairs stuck in the bar soap. Liquid solves that problem, and I don't drop it in the shower, either! ** I remember we always used to buy my Dad soap on a rope. I have no idea if he even liked it, but somehow we girls were convinced he did. Poor guy.
Thanks for pointing out the website. I always get frustrated with those little bars of soap that are too little to use, but now I have many uses and they don't go to waste! Have a great rest of the week!
Heather
Now I know how lye is made and also how to make homemade soap! Thanks Beth!
Yes! We used to use bar soap... But it always left soap scum in the bath that would have to be scrubbed off! Liquid soap does not do that!
I'm with you ~ it kind of gives me the willies to use other people's soap, but hey, we probably eat more germs than that every day without even knowing it, right?
Uglier than homemade soap.......... yep. I've heard that. ALOT! LOL
Interesting....but...yikes!! I prefer new soap...thank you very much! Hope you have a great day! *hugs*
I live for homemade soaps....I haven't made my own in years...but I keep a few local soap makers in business.
RYC: Arsenic and Old Lace and Casablanca
I don't even want to think about reused soap.
Liquid soap~~ does a body good. I do make my boys all share bar soap (shiver~ gross)~~ bcs they manage to go through a whole bottle of the liquid on a daily basis. I thought when they grew into teenagers~~ they would have managed to mature some and not squirt it all over the bathroom~~ in each other's toothbrushes~~ up their noses~~ or hatever else they do with it. I was wrong.
Question: What makes the Jamaica laundry soap blue? It's probably something real obvious~~ Tamy
I use to hate that lye soap my grandmother had. YUCK! Mom always put the old bars into a sock and used it in the shower. I only use liquid soap. So much cleaner to have around.
Love the barbie dresses. My mother made all of my sisters and mine and all of my girls Barbie clothes. She even crocheted wedding and prom dresses for my girls dolls. Each set of clothes came in a zip lock bag with shoes, jewelry and flowers to match. I never had the patients for that small detailed work.
Funny, I used to do that with the soap scraps we had at the house. I guess it wasn't so bad because it was just me, mom and dad. (Didn't mind sharing the germs with them.)
Our next door neighbor use to make soap when we were kids. She had a big iron kettle. It didn't smell too good.
Fels Naptha a familiar old timer. Have never heard of the blue laundry soap before. I remember my grandmother making lye soap a few times, though she would never let us kids get near the stuff. Have used my own soap bars to melt and reuse, but NO WAY to taking others left overs and using them, ugggggg!!!! Gee I even remember my mother using a scrub board when I was little, guess I am older than dirt.
I have a couple of books and all the ingredients, goggles, plastic apron, thermometer etc to make home made soap. One day when I have no kids and can concentrate I will concoct some. I am a little afraid of causing an explosion or something. My friend makes home made soap. It is excellent.
I have a friend who makes me wonderful lemom verbiana soap! I love it!
My mom used to melt down the bits of our soap and make bars, we never have bits left around here though... some how the monsters use up the little peices until they slip down the drain. lol
Hope your having a great day and you aren't feeling like a muppet turd today. lol
It is boring here today... I'm thinking nap time is in order, unfortunatly I can't fall asleep until little man does. lol
You are one the most interesting people. You never know what you are going to read about on your xanga - - it is quite fun! Ok - my soap bit: My mom went through this nature kick when I was in high school and she stopped using deoderant and bought this rock soap that you wet down and use in stead. She talked me into trying it out. While it was a deoderant it was not an antipersperant. So it bugged me. I quit using it. Not for me.
Always interesting.
I'm preferring liquid soap these days. It seems more efficient.
Somehow this reminds me of that scene in Fight Club where they were making soap out of human fat. Gross!
Hey I make homemade soap................100% natural organic..............I love it..........hugs.
i prefer liquid soap these days- they last longer and i like to use a loofah so it's easier to lather up
however, i do enjoy homemade things..
i could use a box of that jamaican soap, do i have to go there in order to get some or is there a way i can have them mailed here?
wonderfully educational and fun post- as usual:)
gross, I cant imaging using used soap from someone else. Gross! it could have been boiled, fried, diced or sliced I have to stick with my Bath and Body works stuff. That fels naptha, that has been used in my family for many years and can get out any stain in clothes.
I am rather agitated to learn how soap is made. I knew there was often fat involved. The thing about lye being made from ashes is so weird to me. I had no idea. And it had never ocurred to me to melt down soap slivers into re-usable bars. What a strange world!
The washboard reminds me of the scene in "Far and Away" when he show the spoiled girl how to scrub laundry.
I had an aunt who would boil down soap to reuse too!!! Gross indeed!!! My father swears that Fels Naptha cures everything, we just cannot find it around here any longer. Wonder whats in that soap from Jamaica that works on anything? might not want to know!!!
think I will stick with buying new soap. Now I am all freaked out. THANKS..LOL
We use lye soap when we get poison ivy too. It seems to help in drying it up and preventing it.
Yes! Sparkles and Spazzzz!
I remember lye soap my grandmother made and I did not like using it. It made me itch. I remember that Fels-Naptha soap too and the smell!! I could probably use home-made soap like that but only if it had a good smell in the end from all those different kinds being mixed together. LOL!
I hope that I never used any of that soap when I was there!!
I have never heard that expression before, but I like it.
I have made soap already. The one time (about 35 years ago) we put tea leaves into the soap to scent it. To my recollection, it did NOT work to well, but it sure was some dang ugly soap!
The other day someone said to pour bleach on poison ivy exposed skin, I think I much prefer the fels naptha route.
I likewise prefer liquid soaps in the shower. I got used to it when I studied in Germany as I don't recall liquid soaps before at home I went there. I love to have a variety of soaps in the shower to start my day with a different scent. A small indulgence!
I am thinking about having a regular todays youtube tune... But I am not sure I would not soon be repeating ones I like! So I don't know! I am always wondering if I should have them autoplay like I have been the last day or so... The next day, I edit the previous days post to turn off the autoplay so it does not start multiple tunes at once... I dunno! Maybe! I know some people with dial-up complain they slow down the page load a lot...
oh, yeah, bar soap is a little bit of ick. It's liquid soap for me ! I'm with Donkey....who wants to clean the scum ?
I don't make soap but I like to dip my own beeswax candles. They smell so good !
I have heard the expression "she must have fell from an ugly tree and hit every limb". and "she can't help being ugly but she could have stayed at home."
I live in the worst, most hillbilly part of Tennessee and I've managed to get store bought soap all my life. Never had to use homemade...thank goodness.
That's wierd, I always thought we were on our friends lists. Oh well, we are now!
Mmmmmm...... soap candies.
ryc: interesting what you saw in the picture of my father with his father. My father absolutely adored his father, and in particular his mother. When he was in the army in WWII he was gone from home for over three years straight, and it nearly "killed" him...(thankfully he wasn't in a combat unit, but was a med tech)
used soap? I agree with you. Even with the boiling. lol
It's liquid body wash for me too... Al_son uses the bar soap... he gets too much hair on it (as others have already said). Soap is too drying...
I do however sometime use a Dove bar for my face...
Have a great day!
Eekk! I'm afraid to try it..
lol
ryc: betcha I am bigger!
hmmm, i use my bar of soap till it is all gone!! every bit of it!
the tigger in the box was $15, but i had a coupon for 2 bucks off, plus another for 20 percent off!! : )
I get my soap from motels and hotels. When we run out, I just book another night at some motel just to get the free soap!
You could put the scraps into a squirt bottle with hot water to make liquid soap.
hah your post reminded me of brad pitt in fight club, where he makes soap out of peoples fat.
I got homemade soaps for a Christmas gift two years ago...they reminded me of the clear, golden soap...can't remember the name of them now...:: sigh:: that durn memory is sometimes spotty this time of night/morning!
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