Teach Soap

How do you clean up after making cold & hot process soap? Do you wash everything by hand or do you run it thru the dishwasher? I haven't found a clear answer to this yet.

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Lisa

www.octoberepiphany.com

I am going thru a mid-life crisis. I am going "green" and getting rid of the chemicals in our house. Homemade soap....here I come!

You could use clean rags to wipe with and run them through the clothes washer the next day. I would not put my soap utensils in the dishwasher. Or lots of hot water and cheap, dollar store liquid soap in the sink. Since it's surfactant or syndet based, it cleans off oils better.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

OK, let me get this straight.....wipe out the containers I've used to make the soap with using clean rags. Hand wash them and allow them to dry. I can put the clean rags I wiped with in the washing machine? It won't hurt my washer? Do I run that load by itself or with other laundry? Do I use laundry detergent?

Sorry for all the questions. I'm so confused and I haven't even made my first batch of soap yet!

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Lisa

www.octoberepiphany.com

I am going thru a mid-life crisis. I am going "green" and getting rid of the chemicals in our house. Homemade soap....here I come!

I leave my pot for 24 hours. Then it's actually soap you're cleaning out, not oils.

Rinse the lye container in hot water only. No dishwasher, no detergent, nothing. JUST hot water. Then set aside to dry (I let mine drip dry as I don't even want cloths near mine).

My pot, utensils, colour pots etc all get popped aside. The next day I pop them in the sink and run hot water over them all and use one of those 'mini mop' things you can use on your dishes. I have one that is for soap items only. With the hot water and that + 24 hours allowing the mixture to actually be soap, it all just rinses right off.

Let drip dry.

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The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

Wait til the next day to wash the rags. By that time the soap on it would have saponified and will be safe to wash in the clothes washer. I normally wash the rags by themselves with no other detergent added. If your rags are greasy, then add a little bit of detergent.

I don't wait til the next day for my pot and utensils as I usually need them again the same day.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

How do you guys protect your work surface? Cover it completely with towels or paper? I would have to use my kitchen counters and table.

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Lisa

www.octoberepiphany.com

I am going thru a mid-life crisis. I am going "green" and getting rid of the chemicals in our house. Homemade soap....here I come!

I would try old newspapers to cover the work sufaces for soapmaking. I don't use anything since it's stainless steel and easy to clean.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

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The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

I clean my supplies up right away. I found if I put them on top of the fridge to wait until the next day... they were out of my site and did not get 'found' for almost a week. I just use dish liquid, hot water and a clean rag. And I follow the no soap in the lye bucket rule...only hot water. They all air dry while I have a cup of tea or glass of water and write my soap notes for the batch. Within about 30min my kitchen is clean and back in order... makes the DH happy.

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

So two of you said don't wash the lye container with soap...just hot water & let air dry. Silly question here--when you let the lye container air dry do you put it in the dish drainer in the sink that holds your regular dishes? Will the wet dripping from the rinsed lye container get on the dish drainer & contaminate it? Will that dripping water hurt my regular dishes or mess up the dish drainer?

I've bought a stainless steel handled pitcher to use to mix my lye water---just like the one they sell on Bramble Berry. I've read to use stainless steel to mix lye water but then I've seen people using glass instead. This is confusing to me. When I watched Anne marie's videos last night she had used glass to mix the lye water.

_________________
Lisa

www.octoberepiphany.com

I am going thru a mid-life crisis. I am going "green" and getting rid of the chemicals in our house. Homemade soap....here I come!

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Thank you Irena. Can you use a glass container to pour the lye water into to mix the soap? Again, I see on the videos a big glass mixing bowl being used to mix things up in. That's what is causing my confusion.

_________________
Lisa

www.octoberepiphany.com

I am going thru a mid-life crisis. I am going "green" and getting rid of the chemicals in our house. Homemade soap....here I come!

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

OK....big stainless steel pot for mixing everything in! I am a visual learner and seeing the videos showing the glass containers is really bugging me.

_________________
Lisa

www.octoberepiphany.com

I am going thru a mid-life crisis. I am going "green" and getting rid of the chemicals in our house. Homemade soap....here I come!

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.