Bar soap frugality...

[Mrs-M]

For the past little while now, I've been somewhat strict (with the kids) Re: bar soap use. For quite some time now I have been finding new bars of opened soap gracing the sink edge, only to find the replaced bar of soap in the plastic trash-can with plenty of life left.

So, being Sunday and all, a time when I like to involve myself with domestic things in/around the house, I just finished going downstairs to give the kids bathroom a once going over, and, to my amazement, looks like the boys have frugaled-up!

Check it out!

http://www.simplelivingforum.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=915&d=1348419243

So, how about you? How long, and to what degree do you use bar soap? When do you decide the old bar has served it's time?

[goldensmom]

Timely topic. My husband opens a new bar of soap when the old one is 2/3 used and I use the old one down to a shard then collect the various shards and crunch them into a bigger one. I use the squeezed together soap shard until it’s so small I can’t handle it (literally) anymore. Just this morning I decided that I am going to use the newly opened bar of soap not just once but every time. Being frugal, lets see how long my new resolve lasts. Not long is my guess.

[sweetana3]

I like to use a recycled pump bottle and liquid soap. Really keeps the shower and sinks cleaner and lasts a good long time. I keep refilling it with the same brand.

[Stacy]

I'm the only person in my family who even seems to open a new bar of soap, so I pretty much control its life-span. When it's too small to handle, I remove it from the shower and put it in a container to dry. We get a new bar of soap in the shower to replace it. When I get a few dried pieces of old soap, I use the cheese grater to make soap flakes, which I use in a homemade laundry soap recipe.

[lmerullo]

I take the old sliver and meld it onto the new bar. There is no wasted soap in our home.

[Miss Cellane]

I have had no luck melding the old sliver to the new bar. They keep coming apart. For days and days.

I take the old slivers, at the point where they pretty much stop lathering up anymore, and when I have several of them, I break them up into tiny pieces and pour hot water over them. This creates a sort of jelly of soap. I use it to wash handwashables.

[Rosemary]

Also the only soap-opener in our house here. When the sliver breaks in half, I open a new bar and I use up the two half-slivers myself.

[ToomuchStuff]

Pretty much nothing left. I have had them break up in the shower, and then they become a trip hazard (small slivers that are hard to pick up), so typically when it gets that small, it becomes what I use for getting under the nails, after working on a car/mower/engine, etc. I think I have bars, from three years ago, due to replacements being given to me as gifts at Christmas and such (family won't listen to the request of nothing, so they get practical stuff). We have the same holiday arguments every year; too different values.

[Mrs-M]

Lots of super ideas!

I, too, have tempted to meld-together soap fragments, and on the rare occasion, have managed the process, however, most times my efforts proved to be futile.

[SteveinMN]

I, too, have tempted to meld-together soap fragments, and on the rare occasion, have managed the process, however, most times my efforts proved to be futile.
Same here. So I use them until I can no longer physically handle them and I don't feel bad about tossing what is left. Smooshing them together has never worked well for me and grating them into something else at that point is downright dangerous. :0!

[Mrs-M]

I hear you, SteveinMN. Major pet-peeve of mine is handling minute soap bars. Always slipping out of your hands and getting away from you.

[domestic goddess]

I'm really the only bar soap user in the house. The rest of them like shower gel. I use the bar until it is gone.

[thinkgreen]

Sometimes I put the slivers into a net soap holder. I can buy these at the dollar store and they work as well for the entire bar for me. They have a loop to go over your hand so you don't drop the bar and the net gives your skin a scrub up.

[Mrs-M]

My husband and oldest son love shower-gel, too, DG. We use a mix of bar soap, liquid soap, and shower-gel in our home. Sound so complicated, doesn't it? Whatever happened to the days of plain old bar soap?

Super-nifty idea, Thinkgreen! Got to remember this one.