# So just how big is your soaping space?



## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

Dh is starting to think about how to get my soaping out of the kitchen/house. I keep reading how everyone has outgrown their space and am wondering what's a good size to start with. Right now we're fitting everything in various spaces in the house but it's starting to get more and more difficult esp. when we're having company and want to get things out of sight. LOL And I'm at the point that I can't expand much more because of space issues.

So tell me about your experience. What would you do differently if you knew then what you know now? We're actually thinking of simply finishing our attached 2-car garage for a start. Then building something else if/when I outgrow that. We also have a barn loft we're fixing up but I don't think I want to haul soap and supplies up and down stairs. We've got the foundation of an old building with water already at the site....we could build something on it but I think that'd be a tad smaller than the garage. We have a couple other buildings that could be fixed up but honestly it would probably cost less to just put up a new metal building.


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

I hear you, Kathy. I'd like to get out of the kitchen. I have a sewing room downstairs that DH suggested I store all my stuff in so that it's not taking over the laundry room (through which you have to walk to get to the garage) but then I'd have to haul stuff up the stairs to the kitchen. I don't know if I could soap down there (no windows, near the kids bedrooms so I might keep them up if soaping late at night which I often do, only water is in the bathroom down the hall, which is not very far, but still). We've talked about finishing the garage, and probably we will eventually do that, but DH leaves for Egypt for a year in July, and there's no way we're getting it done before he goes.


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## Becky-DixieDoesAlpines (Oct 26, 2007)

I soap in my laundry room which is 12x20. It does have the laundry area, but I have a deep sink with hot and cold running water, a huge counter, worktable, and lots of shelving.


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## momofmany (Aug 18, 2009)

I'm also sharing my laundry room in the basement. My hubby just put in a double utility sink for me and I put up some nice wire shelves for curing my soap on. I just have a fold up table there as well. I wish it was JUST my soap room...maybe someday! (when I get bigger!!) LOL Because it also has the furnace, hot water heaters and water softener in there too. BUT its better than using the kitchen.


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## nightskyfarm (Sep 7, 2009)

Off the top of my head I had come up with a 10' x 20' room minimum and that has already been suggested by Miss Becky. I work in my commercial kitchen which is 10' X 32" with two secondary 10' x 7' rooms for packaging and curing/storage.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

I soap in a 10x20 area that will soon have 20x20 added to it, and yes the washer and dryer is in a corner. But I have raw products in my husbands big shop and lye in my barn, an soap in boxes under every bed and in every closet in the house. We live debt free, but I am honestly think about getting financed for a shop, one that will be at the front of the property, have a loading dock, so no more customers who aren't coming to buy stock, roaming around my whole place (which also means no more explaining litters of pups and lawn unmown and 3 homes under construction and a husband who rivals Sanford an Son. Just in not being peeved about the mess anymore makes it worth it. I know exactly whose soap workshop I would copy also with help from soapequipment.com which is how she did hers.


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## tmfinley (Feb 21, 2008)

I work out of our extra 10x12 bedroom which also doubles as a storage room for everything else. I am crammed in there, but I like it better than making soap in the kitchen. I can leave anything I want out in my soap room for as long as I want. I don't have running water in there but have a large container with a spigot on it with water in it if I need it. I do have to transport all of the materials to the bathroom for cleanup where I wash everything in the bathtub. Not ideal but I think it is better to have any kind of dedicated space than work out of the kitchen. The one thing I am trying to fit in the room somewhere is a microwave. I am getting tired of schlepping to and from the kitchen when I'm melting my pko. 

Tiffany


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## adillenal (Feb 6, 2009)

I bought the neighbors 14x70 mobile home when they built their new house and we moved it across their hay field and behind our back yard and that is my soap kitchen. I use one bedroom for packaging materials, one for my office and one for my extra boxes etc. The living room is my packaging area and the kitchen, of course, is for making soap. Plus I have two bathrooms which come in handy too. I love not having "stuff" in the house and all in one place.


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

> Not ideal but I think it is better to have any kind of dedicated space than work out of the kitchen.


Ya know, this thread really got me thinking and I totally agree with that. So yesterday, I rearranged my sewing room and now it's my "craft" room, to include soaping. I put in a table and a bookcase. I want to get a microwave, but there's a hot plate down there now and an old pot to heat oils in if needed. I moved all my supplies down there and it's nice to not have them in the kitchen, the laundry room, etc. Now to get a better place to cure and store the finished soap.


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## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

Okay....so it sounds like my garage will be ample space. That's good to know. I really have no space to claim in the house or basement. I'm only using about 2/3 of the space I have dedicated for curing and storing soap so I'm not maxed out, yet. Gives us time to work on the garage.


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## midkiffsjoy (Feb 27, 2008)

adillenal said:


> I bought the neighbors 14x70 mobile home when they built their new house and we moved it across their hay field and behind our back yard and that is my soap kitchen. I use one bedroom for packaging materials, one for my office and one for my extra boxes etc. The living room is my packaging area and the kitchen, of course, is for making soap. Plus I have two bathrooms which come in handy too. I love not having "stuff" in the house and all in one place.


I *LOVE* this idea!!! I have a neighbor down the road that uses an old mobile home as a hay barn. I have another one who uses a mobile home as his rabbit barn. Kinda weird but I can totally see using one as a soaping house!!!

Heck, I believe theres a goat dairy that uses a mobile home as their milking room in Collage Station.


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## adillenal (Feb 6, 2009)

ANd that old trailer had been remodeled with sheetrock walls and real wood kitchen cabinets for the grand price of $3000. Also has central AC and a dishwasher. No way could I have built anything with plumbing and electricity for that price with that much space. And it is mine all mine. My own little work space. Even came with underskirting and the concrete steps. I think I am a lucky soaper.


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

> I think I am a lucky soaper.


You are indeed.


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## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

Oh yes, I have heard of the mobile home idea....probably here. I think it's a great idea too. If we ever come across one we'd definitely consider it.


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## Jenny M (Nov 21, 2009)

My soap shop is a 25' travel trailer. We gutted it & put in counter tops all in the front & shelves in the back. In the middle I have a 3 hole commercial sink with a restaurant faucet that has the pot scrubber nozzle - makes it so easy to wash out my soap pot. 

It's been a great space but I'm running out of room now so hope to get a bigger space soon. 

Jenny


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## Faye Farms (Sep 14, 2009)

I don't have a dedicated space but I sure do like reading about others. I soap in my kitchen now. Around here the Mennonites build these cute little buildings that are deliveed with a truck and are on skids. We plan on getting a 12x32 one. I hope to have a dedicated soap production area in the back and a small retail area in the front.


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## adillenal (Feb 6, 2009)

Heather - I bought a 14x20 premade building that came on a truck about 5 years ago to use for my milk room etc. DH somehow didn't get the message that it was for ME and he quickly filled it up with a workbench and saws and big tool box etc. I do get to store my feed in it. We live in the country so I don't think I would have any luck with a retail outlet but you never know. Maybe when I reture.


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## Faye Farms (Sep 14, 2009)

adillenal said:


> Heather - I bought a 14x20 premade building that came on a truck about 5 years ago to use for my milk room etc. DH somehow didn't get the message that it was for ME and he quickly filled it up with a workbench and saws and big tool box etc. I do get to store my feed in it. We live in the country so I don't think I would have any luck with a retail outlet but you never know. Maybe when I reture.


LOL, guys. Luckily my DH already has a huge Quonset for a shop........Mmmmm, or can I soap in the shop? I never thought about that.


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## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

My dh has about a fourth of our larger barn for his shop. But he needs more space. One reason why we are fixing up the loft....so we can store some of the stuff that lives in his shop. You know, all those old pieces of furniture that him and the kids want to fix up and do something fun with. They've been collecting for years. LOL He really is a woodworker at heart.


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## midkiffsjoy (Feb 27, 2008)

WHERE DO YOU FIND THESE GUYS!!!?????!!!! rofl The garage has a shop in it, but its mine! giggle. I was always surprised when my hubby was actually able to hit a nail on the head!!! giggle


OMG I HATE soaping in my kitchen!!!! I keep seeing Maddy crawling in when mom's got her back turned. I've been discussing it with her for about 2 weeks and then on the way home it occurred to me that out in her back pasture is a wired plumbed 20 X 20 building just SITTING there!!! It just needs the inside finished!!!!

hummmmmmmmmmmmmm


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