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Last Updated on September 23, 2018 by
While being sick this entire week with a head cold plus already struggling to breathe at 36 weeks pregnant, I have participated in some rest and recuperation time and took advantage of lounging around while going through new pins on Pinterest. As I mentioned in my previous post, Hanging Hamper, I have been searching for ways to cut back on costs for things we need/use around our home and put those funds towards baby’s needs. Pinterest did not disappoint! It amazes me how fast time flies by when you’re looking through all the wonderful ideas out there.
Within the last few days, I have found a variety of projects that I am excited to try out and in addition to the hamper project, I’ve also experimented with DIY Hand Soap! I love having the option to create my own scent for the soap as well as knowing that I’m saving us some money by creating everyday items from scratch. Usually, I don’t have this much time on my hands and I am sure once baby gets here, I will have even less time to experiment with DIY recipes. But, until his arrival, I plan to try as many DIY projects as I can and even stock up on household items through DIY. I guess this is my nesting phase??
This week, I created homemade hand soap. There are various recipes out there for this kind of project, so you just need to figure out which method works best for you. I decided to go with a simple recipe and grated a Mrs. Meyer’s soap bar, added the shreds to 14 cups of warm water, and then mixed in two tablespoons of Glycerin. Pretty simple ingredients, right? And all the time it took me actually standing on my feet to make was less than 30 minutes! The least amount of time I spend on my feet these days, the better! 😉
Just warm up the water (not quite to boiling), add the shreds of soap to the warm water, and let that all melt together. I gave it about 10 minutes while stirring occasionally. Once all the shreds have melted, turn off the heat, add the glycerin and let it all sit for 12 hours. See? Easy enough!
Once those 12 hours were up, I used a whisk to break up the mixture and give it a good final mixing before putting it all into the soap dispensers and a storage container. If you find the soap is too thick for your liking, you can always add more water (small amounts at a time is suggested). The recipe yielded about one gallon of soap so you can either use a milk jug to store the remaining soap or use something fancy like a beverage drink dispenser that will make refilling the small bottles easier when the time comes. I imagine we will have hand soap for many months to come just from this one batch!
In the end, I spent approximately $8 purchasing the ingredients and got a gallon of hand soap out of the recipe. And it was not difficult to do! I could definitely see myself doing this again several months down the line when we run out of our supply. All the money we spend to keep out bathrooms and kitchen stocked with hand soap will now go to wipes and diapers!
With only 24 days to go until our due date, I’ve decided that keeping busy with things like DIY projects will help me to not become as anxious and driving myself crazy just waiting for the big day! Baby’s room is already to go, baby clothes washed and put away, hospital bag has been packed/unpacked/repacked, and the car seat is installed. Nothing more to do except wait for him to make his appearance! Next up on my things to try list will be DIY laundry soap. *Wish me luck!*
Have you tried to create DIY household items?
Always,
Samantha <3
Let me know your thoughts!