Soap Making Boo-Boo

[Wendy90292]

Alas! In my six years of less-than-illustrious amateur soap making adventures, I realized that the thing I like least is cleaning up everything when the fun is over and while, in theory, my lovely CP is entering into gel phase. I clean up unwillingly, often the next day. After all, I reason, it is soap. Soap is soap.

This past weekend, I made my second batch ever of hot process, which caused a elementary-school-science-fair lava flow of very hot hot process to ooze out of the crockpot and onto...pretty much everything once it escaped the rimmed cookie sheet and headed for the countertops and from there, the floor. (Think: Pompeii in 79 AD)

So clever girl that I am, I had an epiphany! Why not put my 10 c silicone slab mold, the two bowls and two 2 c. mixing cups for lye or oils, the measuring spoons, and best of all, the ceramic crockpot insert into the dishwasher? Express cycle, no detergent, probably little or no rinse aid left in there anyway. I'm a genius!

Feeling smug, I went to eat breakfast and throw in a load of laundry before work. Why had I not thought of this eons ago?

I'll tell you why: Because soap is...soap. And even the most basic soap, just HP coconut and olive oil, is...sudsy. When I came back to take a peek, I found that just like the earlier lava flow, now it had...well, let's just say I will not need to wash the floor again until late 2024.

Note to Self: No more innovation! Clean it up like a normal soaper!

 

[Ford]

ALOT! of great thing came out of "WHAT IF". Never give up! Never surrender!

 

[dibbles]

Sorry to laugh, and sorry it happened, but your telling of the story is pretty funny. Now if you can just remember your hard earned lesson, you are golden.

 

[BWt]

Alas! In my six years of less-than-illustrious amateur soap making adventures, I realized that the thing I like least is cleaning up everything when the fun is over and while, in theory, my lovely CP is entering into gel phase. I clean up unwillingly, often the next day. After all, I reason, it is soap. Soap is soap.

This past weekend, I made my second batch ever of hot process, which caused a elementary-school-science-fair lava flow of very hot hot process to ooze out of the crockpot and onto...pretty much everything once it escaped the rimmed cookie sheet and headed for the countertops and from there, the floor. (Think: Pompeii in 79 AD)

So clever girl that I am, I had an epiphany! Why not put my 10 c silicone slab mold, the two bowls and two 2 c. mixing cups for lye or oils, the measuring spoons, and best of all, the ceramic crockpot insert into the dishwasher? Express cycle, no detergent, probably little or no rinse aid left in there anyway. I'm a genius!

Feeling smug, I went to eat breakfast and throw in a load of laundry before work. Why had I not thought of this eons ago?

I'll tell you why: Because soap is...soap. And even the most basic soap, just HP coconut and olive oil, is...sudsy. When I came back to take a peek, I found that just like the earlier lava flow, now it had...well, let's just say I will not need to wash the floor again until late 2024.

Note to Self: No more innovation! Clean it up like a normal soaper!

Amusing indeed. Sorry it was at your expense! Cleaning up (wearing gloves) with old newspapers is a cheap easy way to wipe off nearly all the soap from bowls utensils etc. crumble the newspaper a bit and have a garbage bag at hand.

 

[Wendy90292]

Sorry to laugh, and sorry it happened, but your telling of the story is pretty funny. Now if you can just remember your hard earned lesson, you are golden.

I was hoping others would find it funny! ; )

Amusing indeed. Sorry it was at your expense! Cleaning up (wearing gloves) with old newspapers is a cheap easy way to wipe off nearly all the soap from bowls utensils etc. crumble the newspaper a bit and have a garbage bag at hand.

I was hoping people would find it funny! I never thought of newspaper - genius! Thanks a lot.

 

[TheGecko]

Too funny! I probably would have done that the one time I left my soaping stuff in the garage for a couple of days 'cuz I was too tired to clean up afterwards, but my daughter hadn't emptied the dishwasher so I did them by hand. And it was the one time because I didn't get the memo about making sure you clean off as much of the batter as you can BEFORE you leave your dishes.

I use microfiber towels and clean as I go so no matter how many batches of soap I make, I only have the last batch of soap's dishes to do. And it helps if your last batch is a simple soap.

 

[cmzaha]

When I soap I make 5-6 batches and I clean between each batch. I just cannot function when I have dirty soaping buckets, utensils etc., but when I am done all is cleaned up and I just have to put it all away. I have all my oils ready to go in individual soaping buckets and my lye is masterbatched so it is pretty easy. I should clarify when I soaped which I have not done in almost 3 yrs now.

 

[Wendy90292]

Too funny! I probably would have done that the one time I left my soaping stuff in the garage for a couple of days 'cuz I was too tired to clean up afterwards, but my daughter hadn't emptied the dishwasher so I did them by hand. And it was the one time because I didn't get the memo about making sure you clean off as much of the batter as you can BEFORE you leave your dishes.

I use microfiber towels and clean as I go so no matter how many batches of soap I make, I only have the last batch of soap's dishes to do. And it helps if your last batch is a simple soap.

Hahaha! Great insight.

 

[earlene]

Yeah, I did that once, not with soap dishes, as I wasn't making soap yet back then, but with liquid soap or maybe it was laundry soap. I don't remember, but it was a sudsy mess all over the tiny little apartment kitchen! The floor got clean, though. But it was a lot of clean-up work after the initial 'brain-storm' fail!

Another thing not to do: Put soapy dishes in the jacuzzi style tub and run the jets! No, I have not done that, but I read here once that someone put their soap dishes in the tub, so just as a precaution...

I thought I'd mention it because I found a bubble bath that created so much suds in the bath last night that with the jets running, it started to overflow just from suds, not the water, just a never-ending plethora of bubbles! Someone who designed this place thought it made sense to them to put the on-off switch for the jets in another room!!!! Meaning, get out of the tub, covered with bubbles and traipse over the carpeting in the adjacent room to turn off the jets so it will stop making suds! Then traipse back to the tub to rid self of a plethora of bubbles, then clean up piles of bubbles from the bathroom floor as well as from the carpeting. Then of course, may as well get back in the tube because, hey, there's a plethora of bubbles!

 

[soapme]

All these comments make me giggle! Lololol

Seriously tho, I only make possibly three large batches per year, there’s only me and my husband, and it doesn’t make sense to not fill my 6-lb loaf mold. I’m the lazy one who leaves the pot and utensils for a few days and then scrape. The scrapings can be incorporated into my next batch. Or I can wash my dishes in it, no extra dish detergent needed.

I really don’t like to waste!