Probably, most of the bars of soap you’ve used in your life, you bought in some big drugstore, pulled off the shelves of a large grocery store, or picked up at a superstore. And most people, when they hear about soap making, they think it takes place in some big factory.

But there was a time when just about every family made their own soap. There’s real historical value in soap making. Some people will drive for hours to an open-air museum, where they can see how people lived a hundred or two hundred years ago. You might see women with long dresses, acting the roles of historical figures as they stir iron pots over open fires at one of these historical recreations.

You can do the people who travel to historical recreations one better, in the comfort of your own home. Just by making your own soap, you’ll get a much better sense of how people lived their daily lives all those hundreds of years ago. You’ll know exactly what you and your family are using to wash with, every day, because you’ll be able to eliminate harmful chemicals and unnecessary additives. You can add the natural ingredients that you find most beneficial to the soaps that you plan to use. And you’ll find that a basket of homemade soaps with all natural ingredients make a wonderful gift, as well!

In the process, plan to do your great-great-grandmother one better, too, because you can enjoy all the benefits of homemade soaps, without the muss and bother your ancestors had to put up with. Make your own soaps at home, using modern versions of the same ingredients that your forbearers used.

Soap making is so easy, just about anyone can enjoy doing it. And when you’re done, you’ll have so much more than a bar of soap in your hand—you’ll have a link to heritage.