# How big is your soap space?



## jimandpj (Mar 11, 2008)

Right now, my soap stuff is everywhere. We soap in the barn (to keep the lye away from the children), we unmold and cut in the dining room. We cure in the bedrooms. We store upstairs. It is really inefficient. We're planning to build an addition onto the barn so we can keep all the soap stuff out there.

I'm trying to balance cost with having enough room and am considering a 20 x 20 addition. I know the general recommendation is to build as big as you can afford, but I'm also going to have to heat and cool it, so I don't want to go too big either.

So - how much space do you have for soaping?

PJ


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## Sondra (Oct 25, 2007)

How abt right now a 40 ft trailer  that I also live in. however am going to be using a 42 ft 5th wheel for my soaping only area that right now is just used as storage.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Mine is about that size, but I also have a washer and dryer in there and a freezer and my treadmill  I am adding on twice again this large this fall, and it is mostly going to be about storage of done soap, storage of raw products including boxes, a large heated closet that holds a days worth of soaping to gel in their molds, and a quick dry closet for rushed orders with a dehumidifier in it. The great thing about soaping now in two different soap rooms, is that I know exactly what I want in my next one...more counter space!!!!! I have to wait to make and pour my next soap until my soap in the mold is set or else I am walking around with sloshing soap in molds to the rack...stupid thing to try.

The space I have now will be about customers, and will be attached to my soaping area, with a much more professional looking display area, place to sit to fill out orders and talk to customers picking up soap and milk. I have had my first 'real' buyers here and I would have loved to have been sitting in my soap room talking about their stores rather than leaning on the counter because he was too big for me to offer the bar stool my soap class gals or friends sit on. Vicki


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## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

I soap in my kitchen. I have a shelf in an adjacent room that holds most of my soaping supplies. The rest, along with my bulk oils, are in the basement. I have a large shelf in the LR where my soap cures. I have a second I can use when the first is too full. THen I have an antique cabinet in my DR where I display what I have for sale. When I get customers at the house they shop from there.

My dh would love to build something for me to move it all into as well as some sort of store front for that and other farmgoods but honestly I don't sell nearly enough to justify the cost, yet.


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## adillenal (Feb 6, 2009)

My neighbor built a new house last year and we bought his old 14x70 mobile home. Moved it across the hay field behind our house. It has a very large kitchen for soaping. I use the living room to package products which leaves me three bedrooms for various storage areas. I love having everything out of the house. I can just close the door of the trailer and go back to my other life. It was cheap and we moved it with the neighbor's big tractor. He was happy to get rid of it (he had no title since it was sitting on the land when he bought it) and we are happy to have it. Central heat and air was a bonus. I have it on a separate meter so I can track utlities.


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## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

Hmmm, if we didn't live in such a windy area I think the idea of a used mobile home is very economical.


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## jimandpj (Mar 11, 2008)

Jim wants to get a used trailer to make into a commercial kitchen for cheese production. 

PJ


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## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

Oh, you guys have given me a great idea! We now live in a 16x80 mobile home. I hope to build a house here one day, and that would be a perfectly lovely thing to do with the trailer.I hadn't thought of that. There is nothing wrong with the trailer, we're just cramped, trying to soap in, plus bottle milk, etc. Of course, my utility bill in the winter this year has been running $400 to $500 dollars a month, so I guess I might need to use one of those outdoor wood burners to heat it, which we are already looking at. 
Anita


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## Guest (Apr 6, 2009)

My soap room is 20 x 20:

Here are some photos of the construction, sorry don't have any photos of it in the current state with shelves and stuff:
http://s34.photobucket.com/albums/d140/nitrors4/Soap Room/

*MICHELLE*


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## Madfarmer (Nov 18, 2008)

Michelle, is all that ground-contact wood treated? What about termites?

Tom


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## Sheryl (Oct 27, 2007)

Ohhhhh Michelle I am so jealous. You better hang on to that ole Troy. He is a workhorse! If you ever want to loan him out.......I know lots of soaping ladies that would die for a soap room like that! That is absolutely gorgeous! I hope you enjoy soaping out there!


Sheryl


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## Guest (Apr 6, 2009)

Yes, Tom all treated wood and if the termites want to eat it then I guess Troy will be installing a cement floor 

Sheryl...husband for hire! For the right price, he will build anything! :rofl

(I guess I had better run now...cause he is going to kill me for that one!) :help
naa....he loves me too much! :biggrin

*MICHELLE*

p.s. - I DO enjoy soaping out there! I can see my babies in the kid pen out of one window and my garden growing out of the other window...'tis the life! Now I need to quit my day job!


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## Sheryl (Oct 27, 2007)

Well Dang! If I wasn't such a broke old woman, I'd say come stay for a visit while he worked :rofl yea like you'd leave your goats for that long. But I do admire your new barn, and new soap room. Enjoy!

Sheryl


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## Katarina (Oct 25, 2007)

Mine is the kitchen of the travel tralor that my Gandfather sometimes stays in when he is visiting. About 5x3, I am guessing, not very big at all!


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## jimandpj (Mar 11, 2008)

Thanks everyone for all the input. I can't wait to have everything consolidated into one place. 

Michelle - that does look like a very nice place. I'd love to see photos of it finished if you get the chance to take some.

PJ


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## Guest (Apr 7, 2009)

I'll see what I can do 

*MICHELLE*


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## Guest (Apr 8, 2009)

I added a few more pics of the soap room with racks and soap and STUFF in it. 
http://s34.photobucket.com/albums/d140/nitrors4/Soap Room/

*MICHELLE*


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## Guest (Apr 8, 2009)

Did my wife just try to hire me out??? :crazy 

Like she does not keep me busy enough!


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## jimandpj (Mar 11, 2008)

Thanks for the pics, Michelle. Your space looks great. 

PJ


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