Homemade Soap

Let’s talk about homemade sauerkraut first. It’s easily justified by taste and cost. It’s as good, if not better, than the store-bought version. And the ingredients to make a whole gallon cost less than a burrito from a food truck in Seattle. But what about the time? All the shredding and compiling and pounding required takes one hour, tops. I could make a hearty profit making sauerkraut full-time.

Homemade soap, however, is not justified by cost. The raw ingredients are more expensive than store-bought soap that does effectively the same thing. And what about the time? It’s a long process. If I were to sell soap at the price point that I would break even, paying myself only $15/hr for my time, I’d have to sell each bar—one bar!—for roughly $12. No one would pay that much.

I’m yet to meet someone that doesn’t really appreciate the gift of a homemade bar of soap.

People like sauerkraut gifts.
People love soap gifts!

Your gift to the world may not be profitable—or monetized—but that doesn’t mean it’s not valuable.

Actually, it may be more valuable if it’s free.

What’s your soap?

[There are at least two more thoughts here that I’d like to discuss, but I’m going to save them for later: 1) What am I missing when I use price (and market forces) to measure the value of a thing? and 2) Is there something people intuitively know about the value and quality of homemade soap that doesn’t translate to their spending habits?]