Soap scraps from my house.
All of my soap scraps have gotten tinier and each time I wash, it takes a little bit longer to get a proper lather compared to if I were using a full sized bar of soap, but I really want to see if I can use these soap scraps until the very end. Just so you know, these slivers of soap are really slippery and sometimes they just fly out of my hands! I’ve even found myself scrambling to catch these slivers before they slip right down the drain.
I’m not sure if I should share this, but what the heck (yes, I’m from Utah), I already have it all out there. 😉 This is what I did, well . . . the parts that I’m willing to share. I began collecting all the soap scraps I could find and I’ve even collected one or two from my sister’s house! Back at my house, I have a soap dish in my bathroom that is home to these little scraps and I use them until they turn into the wafer thin shreds and are extremely hard to use. After all, my kids just reach under the sink and into the pile of unused soap bars long before their soap is just a small scrap. I’ve tried squishing my soap scraps together to make a large chunk of soap, but sometimes they just break up again!
So, I’m here showing you in the photos of the little precious bits that I have left. These little bits seem to be taking their sweet time to disappear. I’d like to know if I’m the only one out there who likes to hang onto these scraps of soap. What do you do? Tell us what you do with those last soap scraps. Are you willing to let go too soon and move onto the next bar quickly or do you stick with that tiny bit to see how low it can go? How low do you go?
To make this a little more fun, share your comment with us about your little bits and I will choose randomly two people who comment and send them some fun items from thesage.com and our blog kitchen.
I, too, am guilty of using all the bits and pieces of my soap at our sinks, rather than putting out a full-size bar. I do get full-size bars for the shower but when they get too small to work up a decent lather there, they go to the bathroom sink for handwashing. When the handwashing bars get too small, they go into the soap trimmings bowl to be melted down for use as laundry detergent. No soap wasted here!
I knit soap sacks out of fishermans wool and fill
them with with all my scraps! That way I get
every last bit of lather from my soaps and exfoliate
at the same time!
OMG! That is so funny! I have a plastic soap dish in my bath tub for the soap I make especially for me. It is full of tiny wafers. I use my bars until they are so thin they break in two and then will try to get them to stick to the new bar so they won’t be waisted. In fact I think I have some smaller than yours. I guess I am “weord about the whole soap thing” also!
I have lots of soap scraps too!! I hate to get rid of them, because I like them all! I have at least 5 or 6 scraps on 3 different soap dishes. I also have a soap sack, with a lot of scraps in it! Of course, I also have many bars out too, ranging from full size, on down to the slivers! My kids tease me too, they think I need an intervention! But I just like to have lots of choices, depending on my mood, and I never like to toss any soap, even if it’s a tiny sliver!! 🙂
Making soap takes a lot of time and sometimes money. Plus, it creates a huge disaster. So I don’t blame you one bit for hanging on to every tiny scrap. I am a thrower awayer though. 🙂 I become so excited to use the next perfect unused bar that I become impatient. Plus, I can always make more right? But if I bought the soap and paid good money for it I will hold onto every last bit of it.
Catherine 🙂
My grandparents were very frugal. I don’t know if it was living through the depression, growing up on homesteads, or just natural tendencies. Lengths of string were knotted together and rolled into balls. Aluminum foil got washed, flattened, stored, then used a second time. Nylons with ladders became stuffing. And scrappy bits of soap were saved and set aside. I was always interested in what my Grandfather was doing. So I watched carefully as he heated those soap scraps in a (used, re-purposed!) tin can until they melted. They were then poured into a mold and became a ‘new’ bar of soap. I didn’t think the ‘new’ bars were very pretty, but I was fascinated in the possibilities.
So, yes, I save and re-purpose. And I use the slivers of soap until they slip through my fingers and disappear down the drain.
I come by it honestly.
I hate wasting the last bit of soap, so my weird trick is to wet it really well, and stick it onto the back of a new bar! Usually after 1 or 2 washings, it stays on quite well!
Those little scraps look identical to the ones by our sinks! Have you noticed that commercial soap bars don’t lather after a certain point? But handmade soap give great lather until the very end. “Good to the last drop”, my mom says! 😉 You don’t want to waste any of that good stuff!
-Cheyenne, CanfieldCrafts
I attach my scraps to the new bar by getting them both wet and using them both at the same time. Before too long, they stick to each other. My poor soaps in my bathroom end up looking pretty deformed. I have thought of knitting soap sack to toss them in, but have never actually gotten that far.
LOL Too funny! I’m worse than you are. I save those small soap scraps until I have enough to fill a 4-5 oz. mold. I chop them with a knife; dump them in a 1-cup Pyrex; add a little water to wet all the pieces; and nuke them for 1 minute. I let it set for a minute or more and then knead it with gloved hands and press it into the mold. Once set, I take it out and start using it all over again! I think there’s something wrong with us… we deserve to treat ourselves with a new bar of soap whenever we want. Ah, luxury!
I haven’t actually had this problem because I bought a little exfoliating bag to put soap in and I never get those little slivers. But, here’s an idea: once you have enough little soap slivers, melt them with some water to make liquid soap. I saw a tutorial once that shredded whole bars of soap then heated them with water until melted to make body wash or liquid soap.
I am a soap maker and a quilter. When my handmade soaps get down to a sliver, I use them to mark dark fabrics for my other obsession (quilting). Just tip the sliver piece of soap up on its edge and write or mark on the fabric with it. Works great and no expensive marking pens to buy. The soap marking rubs right off when you would it removed.
I use my soap sliver until they cannot possibly be used any more. I have one of those soap socks that I place it in if it is too small to rub on; I can get a lather going inside the sock thing and use up the very last!
My husband loves using my homemade soap, but he takes a no nonsense approach to the small scraps in the shower. He squishes the old onto a new bar. This had lead to some strange combinations, such as chocolate/lavendar or bay rum/peppermint
I save all of my family scraps and at the end of the year, shred then down and hot process them. Of course they are not sold… they are just reused for the family. Nobody is allowed to choose a new soap from the bin. We are only allowed to use the milled soaps mama makes. (Nobody likes this rule within the house, but “waste not, want not!”)
Marcia
I crochet so I make Soap Savers to put all the little soap pieces in. The yarn makes the little pieces lather up faster and the soap saver holds those little pieces until they’re completely gone. My kids kind of get annoyed when they want to get a new bar of soap and I ask, “Is the Saver empty?”
Well — WHEW!! I thought I was the only one who did this! Kinda embarrassing too – NAH! I usually wait until just before going to bed. I wash my hands with a new bar, then I put my sliver(s) in a non-draining soap dish (oh, the horror!) and put my new soap on top of the slivers. By morning, it’s mushy enough to stick to the new bar! Works for me!
Glad to see I’m not the only one out here!
Kathy R
I too use my soap for as long as possible! In the bath I’ve found those fluffy scrubbing things will work up a fabulous lather with a surprisingly tiny piece. Usually though, when my soap is down to a piece too small to be held conveniently I simply take out my new bar, wet them both and stick the small to the large. It makes an unattractive little lump for a while but its a quick easy way to finish it up.
I use them down until you can read through them! Then, I have a container on my soap shelf that I put them in. Then, when I make my detergent, they are shredded into the rest of my soap basis and turned into laundry detergent. No waste and those not quite right batches get used and I save face.
Glad to see there are others with this affliction.
I gather up the small pieces of soap, put them in a piece of net or tulle, tie with a string or wrap with a rubber band at the end, and use them as a bath / shower scrubber. Works great!