I absolutely love to make things. It’s not only fun but often times I’m able to use up things or refashion objects that I may not have gotten good use out of otherwise. If you make any of my products make sure to tag me (RebeccaKelsey and #RebeccaDIY) on Instagram with a picture or show me on Twitter @RebeccaKSampson. All DIY requests should also be tagged #RebeccaDIY so I can easily sort through them.
Every Saturday I share my favorite videos and blog posts from that week. It is incredibly important to always share the things that inspire me. If you want a chance to be featured you can email me at mail@rebeccakelsey.com with “Link Love” in the subject line.
Walk Off the Earth made this spectacular one take video. The amount of dedication they put into their videos makes me always come back. Can you imagine how much planning this must have required?
Who wants to spend $10 or more on something you are only going to use every once in awhile that is full of weird chemicals? With only two ingredients you can make a similar version from home.
Ingredients:
Extra virgin coconut oil
Baking soda
Instructions:
Add one tablespoon of melted coconut oil to a container
Mix in one tablespoon of baking soda
Put in the refrigerator until the coconut oil solidifies again
How-to use it:
Rub a small amount of the mixture onto the sticky area you want to clean
Wait ten minutes
Scrub with water and a rough sponge
Most substances will come off just like that but some may require you to put on a second coat of the mixture and wait another ten minutes.
Yay for natural solutions! Thank you Rosy Blu Handmade for the recipe.
Every Saturday I share my favorite videos and blog posts from that week. I want to make sure I am always sharing the things that inspire me. If you want a chance to be featured you can email me atmail@rebeccakelsey.com with “Link Love” in the subject line and I’ll consider you!
I have always been the girl that takes all the soap, the body lotion, and the travel sized shampoos and conditioners from hotels when we are on vacation. So much is free in hotel rooms! Did I use them? No. I just kept them in a box for years. Stupid! Since I started my Learning to Live Minimally resolution I’ve been working my butt off to make sure I get my use out of everything I own, including my stupid hotel soap collection.
After some researching, I found the answer to my hotel soap collection problem. You see, I hate bar soap. Liquid soap on the other hand, I love it. SavyHousekeeping.com has a recipe on how to turn bar soap into liquid soap so I took that recipe and tweaked it after some trial and error.
Here is what I came up with!
Ingredients and Supplies:
2 tablespoon glycerin
1 cup soap flakes (approximately 4 – 6 small hotel soap bars or 1 – 2 traditionally sized soap bars)
Essential oils for fragrance (optional, I used 1/2 teaspoon of orange oil)
10 cups of water
Measuring utensils
A large container to store the soap (I used an empty olive oil container) and a normal soap dispenser (I’ve been reusing one from Bath and Body Works for years)
A large pot
Cheese grater
Instructions (as demonstrated in video):
Make one cup of soap using a cheese grater. It needs to be grated so that it will dissolve in the water. Add to a large stove pot.
Add 2 tablespoons of glycerin and 10 cups of water to the pot.
Turn the stove on to high heat. Add the essential oils.
After the soap particles dissolve turn off the stove and wait for the soap to thicken up slightly. I put my pot in the fridge to speed up the process but it still took 2 hours.
Find the soap a home to live in (Everyone needs a home!) and store it there. It’s easier to put the soap in it’s container before it is totally done thickening because it can be a pain afterward. The reason why I didn’t just put the hot soapy water from the stove straight into the container was because I was worried about dealing with a big pot of hot water. Safety first!
Wait more. A few hours after that it will be ready to use. My soap didn’t look entirely ready until 5ish hours later. That night I was able to pour some into my bathroom soap dispenser.
Modifications:
If you don’t like how the thickness of the soap, put the soap back into a pot on high heat until it turns liquid again. Then add more grated soap. The more soap you add the thicker it will be.
If the soap becomes too thick then you can heat it up again and add more water. That will help thin it out.
Any scent is possible! Lavender would be lovely if you have that around the house.
I really love this project because those small pieces of soap finally got to be used. It felt like a miracle too me.
Are you re-using anything of yours in a new way?
P. S. I’m happy to report I only have two travel sized shampoos and conditioners left in my collection! We are in the home stretch!
