Slowly, I had accumulated a small pile of soap pieces in my shower. Sitting in a corner ledge that didn’t get too wet. What was I going to do with all these little bits and pieces of soap? (My husband probably throws his away- he’s like that with the toothpaste tubes too. You wouldn’t believe how much tooth paste is left when he throws them away.) Sadly, I can not throw the soap out. Maybe just because I put so much effort into making it? So, I have all these little pieces of soap and what was I going to do with them? Here is what I did…

I have some in a small jar by my kitchen sink. I use them for multiple purposes. I run hot water into the jar, and dump it out (covering the top lightly with my hand.) I will do this a few times into a dish that needs to soak, for a quick bit of soap to wash the counter off, or to wash dishes cause I’m too lazy grab the massive bottle of Dawn dish soap my husband bought a year ago when covid -19 hit. (Obviously, we didn’t need it as badly as he thought!)

The second way takes a little more work – however, you can end up with a new bar of soap -or ball in my case- to use once again in the shower.  Using an old washcloth, I place all the pieces inside and wrap it around the soap, clasping the top edges firmly together and running hot water over the soap end.  Squeeze the soap together. Repeat with the running under water until it starts sticking together. Squeeze, squeeze, and squeeze some more. Til the soap is solidly stuck together. Let it air dry for a day or so, and new soap!

If you have a clean sock with no holes in the toes or a foot part of pantyhose, fill the toe area with your soap pieces. You can actually store soap pieces in the toe end for quite a while. Keep the sock in a dry place til ready to use. When you have a goodly amount of soap, tie a knot in the end of the sock or pantyhose. Then, hang it in the shower to scrub the kids, yourself, the dog, or even the tub!

Lastly, foaming hand soap or foaming body wash. You need a foaming soap bottle for this (yes, I am the person that buys a new one at the store, dumps the soap out and fills it with my actual homemade liquid soap.) Anyway, take soap pieces and chop fine, or use a cheese shredder. The smaller the pieces the faster they will melt. Place the soap into a glass cup. Figure out how much water you need to fill your soap container. Pour boiling water over the soap in the cup. Do not pour boiling water directly into the dispenser. They are usually a PET 1 plastic and it will distort or totally melt. Don’t ask me how I know, just believe it to be true. LOL Once you’ve poured the hot water into the cup with the soap pieces using a butter knife or chopstick- mix, mix, mix. It can easily take 5 minutes or more- depending on how fine you chopped the soap- for the pieces to melt completely. When completely melted, pour the soapy liquid into your foaming soap dispenser. And enjoy the bubbles! Yes it’s soap, no there are no preservatives, but it is also water, so keep an eye out for mold. I have YET to see any such thing in our dispensers. Even with my long process liquid soap from scratch that I make.(Some people worry about it, I guess.)

I’ll leave you with a quick tip. To clean the nozzle of the foaming dispenser (I’ve had unbelievable things lodged in there. Hay! How does a person get hay and grass lodged in the nozzle of the soap dispenser???? Anyway, place some boiling water into a small cup. Turn the soap dispenser upside down and place the nozzle in the water for at least 5 minutes. If some debris remains use an old toothbrush to scrub it out.

These few suggestions relieve my mind in using my soap to the bitty end. (lol pun intended!) If you need more ideas, do a quick search on the internet. There are plenty! Happy soaping!

3-12-21