How to make hand soap last longer

Just discovered this. I cut my hand soap bars in half and just put out half sized bars. I was quite surprised that these half sized bars seem to last as long as the full sized bar used to before. I wonder how much extra hot water we were using to wash off the extra soap before. This goes along with bigger holes in tooth paste tubes I think.

last year I bought myself some really lovely hand made soap. i as looking forward to my soap running out so i could get more but the first bar is only half gone. i just make sure to keep my bar of soap very dry except for when i use some soap to wash my hands. so i wanted to add the tip of making sure to keep bar soap dry! it apperently lasts a very long time this way. my husband always leaves the bar in the shower and it starts to dissolve very fast that way.

I moved my soap dish from hanging from the shower head to the far end of the shower, halved my soap consumption. I dont have a bar of hand soap, just lather up from the shower bar.

I use liquid (pump) hand soap. I keep it for refill, and add lots of water. you might have to use one squirt.. or three. but at least you never have more soap than you need on your hands.

I'm sure you all have a pair of socks where one has a hole in the toe or heel, and the other is fine.

Take all of those 'too small to use' slivers of soap and drop them in the good sock.
Makes the best scrub cloth for shower use.

Back in high school, soap was used in calculus as part of a rate of change problem.

By cutting the soap bar in half, you have reduced the surface area by about half. The smaller the surface area, the slower the soap erodes. There is some science behind this.

If I can keep the soap dry between uses, it lasts worlds longer.

As it's a farmhouse and we have to wash our hands frequently, i sometimes need to keep a few soap on the go at one time.  At the end of the day, put the soggy soap to dry, then put a dry soap next to the sink for tomorrow.

I also find a lot of people now don't know how to use bar soap.  They get confused and ask where the soap is, or will take the bar soap and scrub it under the running water, instead of getting some soap on their hands, turn off tap, put the soap down, and then wash their hands, then turn on tap to rinse hands.

It ends up having liquid hand soap next to the sink for guests, cuts down on the rate the bar soap gets used up.  

r ransom wrote:If I can keep the soap dry between uses, it lasts worlds longer.  

This. I have been doing it for years and it works!

My trick is to rest the soap bar on a brush with the bristles turned up. In my bathrooms, I use Lee Valley scrubbers. In my shower, it's a couple of old nail brushes that lie flat on their backs. The bars last for ages.

(Pardon the lousy photo.)

Nice, Douglas!! Then you also have the added benefit of a pre-soaped scrubber, when you need it! I like it!

Filtered water will make soap last longer too.

I have really hard water here as it has 37 ppm iron and I go through heaps more soap simply because the soap simply does not lather as well.

A bit like the 'stuff the bits in a sock' idea, I crochet little soap bags to put soap bits in when they get too small to be efficient. We have one each hanging in the shower, colour coded. If the amount of soap in the bag ever seems to be not quite enough, I just decide to swap out the bar of soap by the hand basin a bit sooner. They work as pre-soaped body scrubbers.



Here's the tutorial I use.



Edit to add - they make awesome gifts, along with a couple of little bars of home-made soap.

I make those, too! In our bathroom, I have a smaller one for my face, a bigger one for the rest of me,  then a pair in my travel kit, too. I also give them as gifts.