My soap center

My DH is a scrounging machine!! *giggle* He loves to find things that people want to get rid of, and bring them home for our future use. After all, it's kinda like recycling...only we get to benefit with other people's free "junk", which sometimes turns into our "treasure"!

A few months ago, we were driving down the street in our home town, and he saw someone was taking some shelving out of an old store building that was going to be torn down, and laying it out by the curb to be hauled away as trash at a later date. He stopped and asked if they were getting rid of them and if so, could he load them up and take them home. They were happy to let him do so, as that way they didn't have to themselves.

So they were loaded in the back of the truck, and away we went with our latest prize! Little did I know, that I would end up being able to put some of the shelves to good use myself.

Now that I'm making soap, I decided I had to have a place to dry it, out on the side enclosed porch, because that would help keep most of the smells from the fragrance and essential oils out there, and not inside the house, where it likes to give both myself and DH a headache. I've found that a little bit of soap is fine, but when you get even just one small batch drying it really puts out the smells...and even I get a headache from it.

So I got to talking to DH the other day, about needing some shelves on the porch, and told him where I wanted them and he said he had those shelves we picked up that would be perfect for it...cause they would be easy to put up, cheap since we already had them, and would let air flow letting the soap cure like it should.

He got them put up earlier this week, and today I got 5 small batches of soap made (different flavors) and in the molds (which are under the blue blanket on the 2nd shelf) so in a few days, I should be able to get the soap cut and laid out on a couple of the shelves to dry for several weeks. I will have to come up with some small plastic totes I think, to store the soap in on the 3rd shelf, once it drys but for now I think I have my drying center pretty much figured out!

There were room for 4 shelves in the spot I wanted them, so the top one is where we are going to store the empty gallon jars we use for milk...and the other three are for my soap. I guess if I had the "perfect" soap center, I'd have room for all my supplies in it too but "beggars can't be choosers", so I'm just happy that we were able to put some shelves up for drying my soap on...and that it's in a place where the smells shouldn't bother us as much.

If DH ever gets the time he is going to put a short wall up at the end of these shelves, and make me another "pantry" area. I wanted to put the daybed back out on the porch, as it's kinda neat to sit out there sometimes with all the windows...but I'm finding I could use more shelf space for canned goods since I am hoping to do more canning, so we are going to have to use it for that.

I tried and tried to think of how we could rearrange the house, so he could have my office and I could use his for my 2nd pantry (as it would be perfect because it's right by the kitchen) but I just couldn't figure out where to put all the things in my office...so I couldn't take his. I really LOVE our house, but I also sure wouldn't turn down having another 2 or 3 rooms in it. *giggle*

Maybe once I get the soap to drying I can get a better photo of the shelves...I had the wrong lens on, and was to lazy to change it so what you see is what you get for today. LOL

This week has been a busy one, and I didn't have enough time to get everything I needed to do done...and it's almost over! *heavy sigh* I guess having to be gone two days just totally cuts into my week and makes it impossible to finish everything. We had two Dr appointments this week, and did next months shopping at the same time. As it turned out I think we should have done hay this week...but with the Dr appointments we kinda couldn't, besides they SAID it was suppose to rain yesterday and today...who knew that for once it wouldn't. We will hope for another week (or two) where we can...without pesky Dr appointments getting in the way! :)

Well I better get going, gotta start supper. Next week, if at all possible (and it isn't to late, as I was going to do it this week) I have to can some pickled beets. I just ran out of time this week. It's that time of year I think...where there is never enough time to do even half of the things I need to do.

Have a great weekend!!