Kit Collins

First, thanks to Permies people for furnishing the inspiration for me to become soap-less.

This thread inspired me a couple years ago to go shampoo-less and soap-less. Well, let's say 98% less of that stuff now, because I still wash my hands as needed with soap, and very rarely use soap on other body parts, only in the event of major dirtiness.

I'll describe the process of my change here, some advantages and disadvantages, and some things I discovered on the way, including the use of pumice stones.

When I started going soap-less, the first couple weeks I felt a bit itchy, but my body adapted and I haven't looked back.  Hair is fine, and body is fine. I felt completely "normal" again within a few weeks. Less expense, fewer chemicals: win-win.

An unexpected benefit of soap-less living is that there has been FAR less mess and cleanup necessary in the bathtub/shower. I hardly have to clean at all there now, if I'm the only one using it. Unfortunately, it's hard convincing family to also go soap-less!

One disadvantage of soap-less living is that I don't exfoliate as much. I guess soap might soften the skin so that the outer layer rubs off more easily. Just rinsing and light rubbing with water doesn't seem to accomplish this unless I do a long warm soak. So when my skin starts seeming too "thick", or looks a bit grayish, then--the next time I take a warm bath or a hot shower--I will rub my arms, legs, and face with, say, a towel that is a bit rough. That'll get the excess skin off, so I feel "baby-fresh". Might help to have a little strainer in the tub drain in order to catch and discard the skin bits.

As part of my soap-less journey, I discovered the effectiveness of using pumice stones instead of soap. I read that ancient Romans used pumice stones and skin-scrapers instead of soap. I tried pumice stones, and found that they work great at getting tough stains (like dried paint or oil or ink stains) off of fingers. Dried paint on fingers seems to just dissolve when rubbed with a chunk of pumice. Just avoid rubbing the more delicate areas of skin too hard, like the inside of the wrist, because you might break the skin there. Pumice "sticks" are available in a lot of hardware stores in the cleaning section, and natural pumice stones are available very cheaply at Mexican stores where I live. Pumice is sold for the use of cleaning scaling off of toilets or other hard surfaces, but now I mostly use it for hand-washing.

I definitely encourage others now to go soapless. No soap, no problem!

Hi All--
Just wanted to update and "resolve" this issue, in a bit of an unexpected way. Might be useful to someone at some point.
I never succeeded in getting the damp spot removed, but I figured out a workaround.

Tried a couple more times to remove the spot with vinegar and hot water, but never seemed to make a difference. The de-icing salt just seems to have embedded itself too much in the bare wood. Didn't try the baking soda idea, though, so that may work.

I quickly "resolved" the problem of the unsightly dark wet patch by essentially making the rest of the bare wood shed floor also look dark and wet. I found that rubbing dark oil stain into the still-dry areas of the wood floor basically matches the look of the wet patch. Didn't take long to do, and I had some oil stain on hand already, so no expense either. The bare wood, of course, soaks the oil in, so it is not slippery.

Thanks all. I tried once with vinegar but didn't seem to make any diff. I'll try again with hot water and vinegar, and perhaps later w baking soda. Somewhat comforting to know that "pickled" wood like this might not rot. Still, it is an eyesore and perhaps a slip hazard. Nice thing about this situation is that there is no floor under the wood, and the vinegar/water/salt just drips down onto the ground below. That should make eventually drying easier.

I had a bag of de-icing salt stored in my shed with unfinished wood floor.
The bag apparently had a hole in it, and the salt melted and has "pickled" part of my shed floor.
I live in a damp area, so now that part of the floor attracts moisture and stays wet nearly constantly this time of year.
This is NOT due to a leak. It's the salt in the wood that is apparently doing this.
Anyone know how to flush the salt out of that wood?
I'm worried that it will cause rot in the wood, by keeping it damp.

One point about Japanese personal (one-person) hot-tubbing that might be of interest to hot-tubbers elsewhere: the water (and its heat) is largely conserved a few days at a time. People there shower and wash well before getting into the tub each night. The whole family uses the same tub water for a few days before it is drained and replaced. A cover is put over the tub when not in use so that a lot of the heat remains. In this manner, not so much energy is used in heating.  Also, when people shower, they are often very conservative with water. They'll wet themselves, then turn the water off when they are soaping and scrubbing and shampooing themselves. They'll turn the water on again to rinse. Not everyone does like that, but a lot of them do.

Ideas:
1. Simple unscented castile bar soap for washing hair (like kirks or bronners hard soap bars) works very well for both hair and body and does not dry out scalp. I use this once or twice a week. My facial skin under my beard gets itchy if I don't use soap on it say once a week.

2. Pine tar bar soap also works. I believe it is a good remedy/preventive for head lice as well. Used to use this once in a while when kids were small.

3. People used to oil their hair in lieu of washing it so much. Olive oil or coconut oil is fine. This might prevent dandruff too. Hair oil fell out of fashion after the "greasers" of the 1950s. It's been all about "body" (puffiness) of the hair since then, it seems. Time to change to a simpler fashion?

4. Saponins can be extracted by boiling horse chestnut meats, This can be used as a light body soap or shampoo. I've done this once, just as an experiment, and it worked, but it doesn't keep long before molding. Natives used to use this brew to stun fish in rivers for easy fishing.  I could be mistaken, but might acorns also have similar saponins?

Amount of Lime +  Vinegar pickling without refrigeration

(1) I've done lime preservation once, following online suggestions for quantity of pickling lime and water. It seems that most of the lime I added to the water precipitated to the bottom, and simply stays there. I doubt that the lime on the bottom is really doing anything other than perhaps providing a "soft bed" for the eggs on the bottom. Might it be possible to use, say, half the lime and get the same preservation effect?

(2) In some restaurant supply groceries in my area, they sell hard-boiled eggs in big gallon jars. I believe these are in an acidic liquid (like vinegar or citric acid). They are not refrigerated. If I remember right, one brand said "refrigerate after opening" and another brand didn't. For people interested in non-refrigerated acidic-pickled boiled eggs, it might be good to look at ingredients list of these types of commercially sold eggs.

About six months ago, I preserved about 3 doz eggs for the first time using the slaked-lime (pickling lime) method. So far, so good. Eggs have tasted fine and haven't had any rotten ones yet.
One question: Can you reuse the significant amount of lime at the bottom of the jar?

One post here said that the slaked-lime method is no longer recommended because of links to botulism, but it appears that FDA's "dissing" of slaked lime pertains to the potential for less acidity when pickling veggies like cukes, for example (see this link https://www.thespruceeats.com/what-is-pickling-lime-what-s-a-safer-substitute-1389134).  Because the egg preservation has no later need for acidity, I'm guessing that any concern for botulism may be unfounded, but it would be nice to be better informed on the possibility or on any ways to recognize it in the eggs if it happens.

BTW there is a very informative and entertaining video on traditional egg preservation on youtube, and it has a lot of insight. In addition to slaked lime, the video has gotten me interested in trying to preserve using fireplace wood ash. The maker of the video took a very systematic approach to comparing the effectiveness of six different methods:  

Red plums are a good substitute for tomatoes, especially if they are a bit under-ripe. I've made pico de gallo with them a few times, and it tastes and looks very similar to regular pico de gallo with tomatoes. Like tomatoes, the plums are acidic. I suppose they would make good ketchup too, if blended, and in that case they could be fully ripe too, I think. Good luck!