Organizing/Storing Soap

[brian0523]

Ok - my one bedroom condo is tight on space, and I've been soaping like a mad man.

I need to come up with some way to store/organize my soaps while they cure. Right now they're all lined up on my dining table like dominos.

I'm thinking about getting some stackable plastic bins from Walmart? Just wondering if anyone else has a better idea. I want to keep them sealed from dust.

 

[Chay]

You could try a metal shelving unit. That way you don't have to worry about flipping your soaps so they dry evenly. I know some people say putting your soaps on metal will cause DOS but I have been doing it for years and have not had that problem. If your having a problem with dust you can cover them with a light breathable material, just make sure you have sufficient air flow.

 

[dagnukem]

We have a small house too so I had the same starage delima. I got a metal wire from the dollar store for $3. It has pull out shelves/ drawers. I just put paper towels or newspaper on the bottom and then cover top - that way it can still get air through the sides. It's worked pretty well for me but the colored newspaper is a bad idea. It put pink spots on a few bars of my first batch. The uncolored newspaper has worked great.

It's about 4ft tall/2ft wide/2ft deep and has wheels so I can move it around in the kitchen when it's in my way.

 

[IrishLass]

I'm just small time compared to those of y'all in business- and with a small house to boot- but I have 5 stackable cookie cooling racks from Pampered Chef:

http://www.pamperedchef.com/our_product ... uctId=2093

Their site says not to stack more than 3 racks on top of each other, but they are made of very sturdy metal that is coated with plastic, and so I have all 5 of mine stacked. They've been stacked like that for almost 2 years with nary a problem, too. I really like them, and being vertically stacked, they don't take up much space. I can fit a total of 11 nine-bar batches on them at a time (99 bars of soap). The size of my soaps are roughly 3 1/2" wide, 2 1/2" tall, and 1 1/4" deep, a little bit less if you allow for slight shrinkage.

As soon as a batch is cured, I remove it from the rack to make room for more, and then I store my cured soap in empty Puffs Plus Tissue boxes I have collected over time for this purpose. They are the kind that are rectangular, not cubed. I can fit a whole nine-bar batch of soap in each box with room left over for them to breathe. And they are constructed perfectly with the oval opening reaching down from the center middle of the top of the box, all the way down toward the center front bottom of the box. This means I can stack them on top of each other (which saves room), and also allows me to remove bars from each box without having to un-stack the boxes to get to a bar from a particular batch. So far, my system works out great. If I were to ever go into a full-time business, though I would have to re-think my whole system, I'm sure.

IrishLass

 

[jadiebugs1]

Wow! those racks look pretty cool! (another thing to add to my wish list :roll: ) Right now I just use metal cookie/cake cooling racks then after a few day transfer them to some cardboard boxes (lids?) lined with that plastic screen stuff. seems to work.

 

[dagnukem]

yes, just added those racks to my wish list as well!

 

[cambree]

This wooden rake is from mollycakes, she operates Molly Artisanal Soap. The picture was posted on her flickr.

I love it and think it's really simple, you can possibly make it yourself out of some well measured & cut woods.

 

[Birdie]

Whether you are curing them or storing them I would not use tightly sealed plastic unless you drill a few holes for circulation. Shoe boxes or something of the sort would be better. Those you can get from Wally World and shoe stores. If you have a lot of soaps to store, the card collector storage boxes are good and very strong & stackable.

To save money and space if you are making small amounts, plastic shoe racks/shelves are perfect. Leave the top one empty and throw a large towel over the whole thing to keep the dust off.
mho

 

[kwahlne]

I saw somewhere online where you could order these long soap storage cardboard boxes with lids and now I can't find them anywhere! They were so cool, they were long but double-wide with a divider down the center.

Grrr...I want them.

 

[Birdie]

:wink:

Click for Da Box!

 

[kwahlne]

:wink:

Click for Da Box!

Birdie, you ROCK!

 

[brian0523]

Thank you Birdie - I'm ordering those boxes today!

 

[brian0523]

This wooden rake is from mollycakes, she operates Molly Artisanal Soap. The picture was posted on her flickr.

I love it and think it's really simple, you can possibly make it yourself out of some well measured & cut woods.

I LOVE the way that looks....so spa-like!

 

[brian0523]

Here's another good ideal - canvas hanging shoe organizer. This would allow soaps to have airflow, and can hang in an empty closet.

http://www.organize.com/meshoratshor.html

 

[MikeInPdx]

Maybe this sounds silly...but....

.....I store whatever I can in my bureau drawers. Makes the clothes smell great and they're not too tighly sealed.