ALL WASHED UP

Hygiene is an important part of any survival scenario, especially the long-term situations. Without the ability to clean your hands and body, skin infections and the transmission of bacteria and pathogens are increased. As a survival-minded individual, you’ll probably have a knee-jerk reaction to the realization that cleanliness is a survival priority; and that reaction is probably to go buy a case of soap. There’s nothing wrong with that.

Soap can last for decades, if you store it out of the reach of rodents (yes, mice and rats love to eat it). But there’s more to self-reliance than just storing the goods that someone else made. The truly independent will learn how to make things for themselves as well. In the event that you don’t have access to off-the-shelf soap, you can take a page out of the pioneer playbook and make your own.

Let’s start with a little history and a bit of chemistry. We get the word