Space is always at a premium, right? Come on, who doesn’t wish they had just a bit more closet space, or garage space, or bathroom space?
Well, that goes double if you’re making and selling cold process soap. Let’s see: ingredients, tools, molds, packaging supplies, shipping supplies, and soap that needs to cure for 4 weeks! Whew!
Well this week I’ve been able to help with the curing space, anyway.
I found this baker’s rack and pans on Craigslist for a steal. It was used by a cupcake baker, so it needed some heavy duty elbow grease to get it shiny again. But look at all that space!! I calculated that if I use all 20 pans (yes, 20!) I can cure over 1000 bars of soap! And it doesn’t take up any more space than the rack that was there before with 5 shelves. Needless to say, I am thrilled!
Here’s the rest of my soap closet: cured soaps in boxes labeled with sticky notes. Some of those are for sale, and some are from classes, and some are for a project I’m working on.
And since I moved the curing soap to the new rack, I was able to move the shipping supplies off the floor!
That means more room on the floor for other things, of course. Nothing yet, but it’s only a matter of time… 🙂
Make Me Some Soap... 
What a fine score Ruth! Love it and all that organization. Must be scary! Have a wonderful holiday season.
Thanks, Pam! I feel so lucky to have found it. It’s really so efficient. You have a good season, too!
Ruth- I love your storage boxes- they look just the size for a batch of bars. Where did you find those?
Hi Janey, yes, they ARE perfect for the usual size of soap bar. They are actually baseball card boxes! You’ll find them here in lots of different lengths: http://www.bcwsupplies.com/products/trading-card-boxes/
Love the room, I still in the process of getting mine into shape. Maybe some point next year it should be ready
You can’t do it all at once. Mine is always a work in progress! 🙂
Hello Ruth, Thank you for the update and I love your new rack!!! What a great find and creative way to cure your soaps. Have you found that the soaps cure differently than before?
So I noticed that you just sell online. Do you ever do craft fairs or farmers markets? I ask because I love making and selling my soap but really don’t want to do the fairs because I also have a full time job. I haven’t had much success with etsy or selling online. Though I haven’t promoted my website very much. How do you promote your soaps?
Thanks for all of your blogs. I love watching your progression.
Amber
Thanks, Amber! I can’t take credit for coming up with the idea of the baker’s rack. Getting one of these on the cheap is like the Holy Grail for soapmakers. 🙂 I feel very lucky!
I have done fairs, but haven’t found them profitable for me. A big part of that is finding the right fair, with the kind of customer that is looking for your product.
If you don’t want to do fairs or markets, then the way to really profit from a handmade product like soap to sell at wholesale to stores. It’s much more efficient to sell 50-100 bars of soap at once, even if you are selling at 50% retail. I have a few wholesale accounts that are local. Since my main focus is really teaching (and I have another part time job, too), I don’t go out and look for accounts, but they keep my name out there.
I promote my soap and classes on Facebook. Each part of the business kind of helps the other. Especially if you have lots of friends on Facebook, the word can spread quickly and you can get a lot of exposure. But you have to update regularly. It’s all a part of having a business!
Good luck!
I’ve been eyeballing the baker’s racks over here too! Crossing fingers that I can find a good deal for Christmas lol
Good luck with that, Dorothy! It’s been such a huge space saver!