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Money Saving Tips

making bath soap last

13 years ago

I was reminded as I unwrapped the newly bought bars of Dial bath soap to remind everyone how to make bath bars last. Unlike Dial from 50 years ago, they now wrap the Dial bars in a plastic wrapper. Therefore, the bar is moist to the touch. That means it will dissolve much, much faster. They used to wrap the bars in loosely sealed paper, and so the bars dried out and took longer to melt into water and washcloths. So unwrap your soap bars and stick them in your underwear and other dresser drawers and your linen closet. Everything will smell so fresh, but the bars will have a chance to harden and will last so much longer.

Comments (9)

maifleur01
13 years ago
I would like to add a little to the suggestion. Because of the moisture in some bars there can be a large amount of shinkage with the end of the bars appearing to separate into flakes. The cleaning ability is not damaged by this and the bars are safe to use. Sounds silly to mention this but some people are afraid of things that do not look like they expect. GF pitched very expensive only used occasionally soap because of this.
grainlady_ks
13 years ago
When you make your own soap you "age" (cure) it as well. Keep your bars of soap out of standing water while in use will also help them last longer.

-Grainlady
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tomgyrll
13 years ago
My dad told me how during the war they sewed all the soap bits from used bars into a washcloth bag and used it. I tried it once but it was a bit yechy. I save them up and when I have a ton, chop them up and boil them down, basically handmilling into new bars.
trishohiozone5_6
13 years ago
tomgyrll,

I bought a soap chip bag at the grocery store about 5 years ago. It was in the bath section. It works great and has paid for iteself 10 times over! It is made out of that nylon mesh that those puffball bath scrubbers are made from.

My mom used to make a pull string bag out of a thin washcloth. When the soap gets thin, just slip it in the bag and when you have enough to make a bar of soap, you use it bag and all. The thinner the washcloth the better. It rinses better so you don't have soap gunk on the bag between baths or showers.
tomgyrll
13 years ago
Cool. I'll have to rethink it then. Perhaps using terry cloth as I did was not the best as it dries so slowly and is too thick.
tomgyrll
13 years ago
Is this the kind of bag you mean?

Here is a link that might be useful: soap mesh bag
trishohiozone5_6
13 years ago
Tomgyrll,
That is exactly it!!! That is what I paid for it too. It's a great little bag that just hangs in the shower until I want to use it.
Trish
azzalea
13 years ago
There's a much, much easier solution to soap slivers than either putting them in a mesh bag OR boiling them down.

After your shower, when the new bar is nicely wet on the surface, just 'piggyback' (press) the old sliver to the new bar of soap. Put it back in the soap dish, and by the time you take your next shower, the wet soap will have 'glued' the sliver to the new bar. Have been doing that for years. Works great, and it takes only seconds. It's especially effective with the aforementioned Dial soap, because it's concave surface nests the old sliver perfectly.

I always have at least a couple of dozen bars of unwrapped soap in a box in the bathroom closet, drying. The OP is right--it makes a HUGE difference in the length of time your bar will last.
joyfulguy
13 years ago
Unlike humour - soap that's dry ... lasts longer!

o j

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