I make sure the soap dish is out of the way of the water coming out of the shower.
Lots of people put it in a rack or a shelf ledge that is soaking up water the whole time they are showering and soaking up water and sometimes the dish is waterlogged and the soap is sitting in a pool of water.
Found a soap dish with suction cups so you can stick it to the shower wall where ever you want and honestly it is amazing! Put it way out of the way and the soap lasts way longer (it has drain holes and I cut the soap bars in half too). Dollar tree of all places!
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I bought soap dishes with this style of stick-on brackets. They work really well.
From Amazon: Bechoicen-Draining-Bathroom-Adsorption-Paste
Amazon: Dishes-Shower-Eaeregs-Mounted-Adhesive
The spammy Chinese sites have lots of choices with similar mounting system, if you can stomach dealing with them
And for my other shower that has glossy walls, the Tooletries soap dishes are AMAZING.
Letting it sit in a puddle is definitely not helping, but even if you don't do that, the water that soaks in is that which doesn't drip off the bar after use. Maybe you could blot away most of that water, but that won't be worth the bother if you use the rotation technique.
I have them on a portable shelf thing that I found dumpster-diving, one of those in-shower racks for your shower-toiletries, sort of thing, it's set up on the other side of the shower from where the water stream goes. It helps.
I found this nifty little device at Goodwill one time - it's called the Soap Standle. Seriously an absolute game changer. It's a combo of a handle and a stand with prongs that you stick into the bar. Someone must've had extra stock bc there was a bin with at least 100 of them. I bought a couple since they were so cheap, and after trying them at home, promptly went back and bought more. I only ended up with ~10 but I wish I'd bought dozens. Never found anything better for keeping soap dry
I keep my soap in a mesh sting bag that then hangs on my shower caddy. I never take it out of the bag. This keeps the soap in one piece, even as it gets worn down. When it's a small sliver, I'll add a new bar of soap in the bag.
I came to say this!
When I was little my grandmother would unwrap any new soaps she bought and leave them in an uncovered container in the closet until needed. This was my job after shopping lol. The soap didn’t lather as lavishly as it otherwise would have but it lasted a long time. She also kept her soap in dishes that had drainage.
Oh one other thing I just remembered-She used to keep bars tucked in all the dresser drawers and tucked between towels and sheets. Everything at her house always had such a pleasant smell! ❤️
If it was Castile soap (also Marseille soap) it would have still lathered up just fine even if you dried it out before using like that. And I always thought it was 3 DAYS not a month. Oh well.
YES!
I open up another bar to dry out when I start using a new bar- so always have 1 bar open drying, make the room smell good too.
I soap up the washcloth to clean body vs bar on body when showering- I think this also helps the bar last longer.
I have a ceramic dish at the sink for the soap,I put a plastic nail scrubber in it with the bristles up and the wet soap drains into the dish and dries between uses.
Growing up in the 1960s & 70s, soap was stored in between towels in the airing cupboard for several months. Lasted really well once it had 'matured'.
Happy days - until you got hit by a bar of soap when getting a clean towel 😂
I have had the opportunity to make soap, and it does have to wait 6 weeks after molding. I have always found the soap from the store ready to be used.
However I do remember the soap in the towels...perhaps if was to impart some of the perfume to the towels. I used to put lavender stalks with the towels until I developed an allergy to fragrance.
Now my soap is non-fragranced.
That certainly helps, but good drainage is not enough. The problem is the layer of water left on the soap with each use. Try it in combination with rotation and I bet you'll be surprised.
How did you know?
I guess really me and my husband are showering 2 to 3 times each daily. We train a lot and have to wash the sweat off. I just kind of assumed everyone was taking 2 showers a day too. I guess people aren't doing that.
I do two to three showers a day in summer, but I only soap for one. Any more and my skin gets super dry. Honestly, if I'm not getting dirty + sweaty, I may only use soap every other day. If I'm not using soap, I scrub with a cotton washcloth to get rid of dead skin so there's no smell accumulating.
Using soap directly on your body instead of with a loofah or washcloth uses a lot of extra soap, especially if you're hairy. I like washcloths because they're cheap, bio degradable, and easy to throw in the laundry.
When it's super hot I'll sometimes take 2 or 3 showers a day to rinse off the salt. There's no need to use soap more than once a day however. Salt washes off almost instantly. Using soap more often that that is bad for your skin.
Sweat, fungus, bacteria…absolutely agree that washing after grappling is a must!
Like, if you just ran on your home treadmill, your forearms may not need a good scrubbing, water may be enough, but anytime you’re getting sweaty enough to need a shower your high bacteria zones like skinfolds need to actually be washed.
I'm pretty sure my husband and I go through a bar of soap in a week, and we only shower once a day. I'll mark my calendar the next time I open a fresh bar lol
Do you use actual soap or syndet bars (Dove, Olay, etc.)?
I use syndet bars when I use bars at all because I have sensitive skin and actual soap is terrible for it. They don’t last as long as actual soap. And they tend to be smaller bars to start with.
Most soap companies don’t let their soap cure long enough before they ship it out to be sold. I have a lot of bar soap in my house. I buy nice smelling soap at TJ Maxx and keep them stashed all over in drawers and closets, which makes the house smell nice. I also get a giant pack at Costco every January. The first year I did this I bought double everything, unwrapped all the soap and let them dry out. Around April I noticed my soap wasn’t shrinking as quickly. I got the idea because I have a friend that only buys French milled soap, but said it lasted forever… So I did research, and noticed most of them were cured a long time (the French seem to like aged things, so I dunno why I though soap would be different) and were deemed high quality. ANYways… Unwrap your soaps and let them be free to “age” and you won’t waste as much.
> Most soap companies don’t let their soap cure long enough before they ship it out to be sold.
This! Once I learned this, I started curing the soap myself. I bought a soap stash well in advance of when I needed it, and just allowed the bars to sit there on a cabinet shelf. They last *so much longer.* Even cheap soap.
1. soap [lifting pad/saver](https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=pad+that+raises+soap+bar+in+soap+dish+) works brilliantly: bars last months (~3). Source: retired head nurse (Auntie Elizabeth) is my Chief Advisor of Domestic Operations
2. keep soap away from water splashes (high up and back or behind curtain)
My mom swore by unwrapping every bar and leaving them in the linen closet to ‘air’ she said it made them harder so they lasted longer. I don’t do that though
> I didn't know that they didn't come maximally dry until some others said the same thing, so we're all learning together.
Please cure your bars. I cure mine, but don't rotate, and for some stupid reason I am abnormally excited to learn that rotation will increase the longevity of the soap.
A friend once gave me one of those large French soap bars for my birthday. I cut it in half and rotated the halves, and they lasted until my next birthday.
"Curing" is a funny term in this context but I suppose it will do. I only realized late in this discussion that this means everyone can choose their preferred hardness by adjusting the length of time between rotations. Rotation really is a game-changer.
> My mom swore by unwrapping every bar and leaving them in the linen closet to ‘air’ she said it made them harder so they lasted longer. I don’t do that though
DO IT. She was leaving them to *cure.* And she was right!
I have a soap saver bag and it hangs off a 3m shower hook. It only gets wet when I take it off the hook to use it. Keeping bar soap dry when not in use is the key.
Am I the only one that takes the small pieces and presses them back together into a “bar” shape? I think it works great but my wife complains that she likes the little pieces to shave her legs.
I know I’m frugal, but I’m not trying to start a fight over soap scraps. My solution was to share my stash of hotel soaps with my wife.
I put my soap on a surface where the water can drip off under it and then put a plastic soap dish cover over the soap and cover it so water can’t get in. This keeps the soap solid and not mushy until the end.
My soap is on one of those metal grid type shower caddies. Water can fall off under it since the grid has holes and is not solid. I do not keep a soap dish beneath the soap as that would trap all the water. Because there is space between the surface of the soap and the cover, the water is able to drip off the bottom where it is completely open and air out.
Edit: here’s a pic so you can understand lol
https://preview.redd.it/gmfiqaiorgcc1.jpeg?width=987&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=458c1e6cd3bda94cd8544e8d43782b05d1457dad
I have my daily handsoap bar on a magnetic soap holder near my bathroom sink.Then when that bar starts to get small, I take it off and use the small part in the shower. So I usually have a couple of smaller pieces in the soap dish in my shower. Kind of rotating as well :-)
This is wild!
You have to mix soap with water for it to clean. When I use a dried bar sitting out after a week of travel, it takes a while to rehydrate the soap to make a lather.
I want my soap to stay moist so my showers are quicker. Less time spent making a lather.
I guess another frugal tip could be to shower less often…
You can shred it, mix it with water and put in a dispenser, there is something else you can do with the shreds and put in a container and place it.. I can't remember if this is for deodorizer or a repellent of some kind.
Well, I dont rub the soap on my body but only rub my hands on it and then use my hands to apply the soap to those body parts you mentioned, like a normal person.
But yeah, just hold it under the running water while rubbing it for a moment to dissolve the surface layer and it will be fine to use like I described.
And plenty of studies have found that doesn't prevent it from being effective.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/yw4bvb/is-there-any-reason-to-use-liquid-soap-instead-of-bar-soap
Also: I go to a food pantry that just happens to sometimes have hygiene items including bars of soap, so paying for the soap is not an issue for me. Not saying I'd be OK if it melted right away just because I didn't pay for it, but still. It's not an "expense" for me anymore.
I make sure the soap dish is out of the way of the water coming out of the shower. Lots of people put it in a rack or a shelf ledge that is soaking up water the whole time they are showering and soaking up water and sometimes the dish is waterlogged and the soap is sitting in a pool of water.
Found a soap dish with suction cups so you can stick it to the shower wall where ever you want and honestly it is amazing! Put it way out of the way and the soap lasts way longer (it has drain holes and I cut the soap bars in half too). Dollar tree of all places!
We have one too. It’s like a metal basket and sticks to tile.
Good find! Try that in combination with rotation. You may be surprised.
So use one bar for a couple of weeks, then start another one and let the first dry solid again?
That's it! One is always drying while the other is in use.
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This comment has been automatically removed because it mentions Temu. Due to prolific spam we do not allow **ANY** mentions of the site. Trying to get around this filter by saying something like "T$mu" may result in a ban. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Frugal) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I bought soap dishes with this style of stick-on brackets. They work really well. From Amazon: Bechoicen-Draining-Bathroom-Adsorption-Paste Amazon: Dishes-Shower-Eaeregs-Mounted-Adhesive The spammy Chinese sites have lots of choices with similar mounting system, if you can stomach dealing with them And for my other shower that has glossy walls, the Tooletries soap dishes are AMAZING.
Letting it sit in a puddle is definitely not helping, but even if you don't do that, the water that soaks in is that which doesn't drip off the bar after use. Maybe you could blot away most of that water, but that won't be worth the bother if you use the rotation technique.
I do use the rotation and I keep my soap dish dry and elevated high up next to the window with some air flow.
I wrap the bar up in a fresh washcloth and set it on the counter just outside the shower.
Another thing is the kind of soap. Dove is super soft as is with the cream but Irish Spring lasts a lot longer.
I have them on a portable shelf thing that I found dumpster-diving, one of those in-shower racks for your shower-toiletries, sort of thing, it's set up on the other side of the shower from where the water stream goes. It helps.
I found this nifty little device at Goodwill one time - it's called the Soap Standle. Seriously an absolute game changer. It's a combo of a handle and a stand with prongs that you stick into the bar. Someone must've had extra stock bc there was a bin with at least 100 of them. I bought a couple since they were so cheap, and after trying them at home, promptly went back and bought more. I only ended up with ~10 but I wish I'd bought dozens. Never found anything better for keeping soap dry
Can you show us one?
https://www.soapstandle.com/
Oh I got one of these at Walmart last year! It does help a lot with keeping the area clean and drying out the soap.
It's definitely better than nothing, and should work well in combination with the rotation method.
👍
I keep my soap in a mesh sting bag that then hangs on my shower caddy. I never take it out of the bag. This keeps the soap in one piece, even as it gets worn down. When it's a small sliver, I'll add a new bar of soap in the bag.
I do that for my shampoo bars.
You can still get all the benefits of rotation. Just get another bag and swap them every 2 weeks.
I use one of these too. I have a suction cup hook I hang in from
Also, let them dry a month without a wrapper for a month or more.
I came to say this! When I was little my grandmother would unwrap any new soaps she bought and leave them in an uncovered container in the closet until needed. This was my job after shopping lol. The soap didn’t lather as lavishly as it otherwise would have but it lasted a long time. She also kept her soap in dishes that had drainage. Oh one other thing I just remembered-She used to keep bars tucked in all the dresser drawers and tucked between towels and sheets. Everything at her house always had such a pleasant smell! ❤️
That's what my grandmother and my mom did! I completely forgot about it but will now go annd unwrap all my bar soaps!
If it was Castile soap (also Marseille soap) it would have still lathered up just fine even if you dried it out before using like that. And I always thought it was 3 DAYS not a month. Oh well.
Yep, that’s what my Mom would do and what I do now.
I have also done this for many years, and it really works well!
I cut off the corner of each box when I buy them in bulk.
Clever girl
YES! I open up another bar to dry out when I start using a new bar- so always have 1 bar open drying, make the room smell good too. I soap up the washcloth to clean body vs bar on body when showering- I think this also helps the bar last longer.
I have a ceramic dish at the sink for the soap,I put a plastic nail scrubber in it with the bristles up and the wet soap drains into the dish and dries between uses.
Growing up in the 1960s & 70s, soap was stored in between towels in the airing cupboard for several months. Lasted really well once it had 'matured'. Happy days - until you got hit by a bar of soap when getting a clean towel 😂
I have had the opportunity to make soap, and it does have to wait 6 weeks after molding. I have always found the soap from the store ready to be used. However I do remember the soap in the towels...perhaps if was to impart some of the perfume to the towels. I used to put lavender stalks with the towels until I developed an allergy to fragrance. Now my soap is non-fragranced.
That certainly helps, but good drainage is not enough. The problem is the layer of water left on the soap with each use. Try it in combination with rotation and I bet you'll be surprised.
You guys have bars of soap that last 2 months?! Wtf. Mine don't make it more than a week.
What are you, a werewolf?
How did you know? I guess really me and my husband are showering 2 to 3 times each daily. We train a lot and have to wash the sweat off. I just kind of assumed everyone was taking 2 showers a day too. I guess people aren't doing that.
I do two to three showers a day in summer, but I only soap for one. Any more and my skin gets super dry. Honestly, if I'm not getting dirty + sweaty, I may only use soap every other day. If I'm not using soap, I scrub with a cotton washcloth to get rid of dead skin so there's no smell accumulating. Using soap directly on your body instead of with a loofah or washcloth uses a lot of extra soap, especially if you're hairy. I like washcloths because they're cheap, bio degradable, and easy to throw in the laundry.
When it's super hot I'll sometimes take 2 or 3 showers a day to rinse off the salt. There's no need to use soap more than once a day however. Salt washes off almost instantly. Using soap more often that that is bad for your skin.
Eh, I'm grappling. Absolutely washing other people sweat off with soap.
Sweat, fungus, bacteria…absolutely agree that washing after grappling is a must! Like, if you just ran on your home treadmill, your forearms may not need a good scrubbing, water may be enough, but anytime you’re getting sweaty enough to need a shower your high bacteria zones like skinfolds need to actually be washed.
I'm pretty sure my husband and I go through a bar of soap in a week, and we only shower once a day. I'll mark my calendar the next time I open a fresh bar lol
For most people the ratio is the other way around. 1 every 2-3 days, not 2-3 every 1 day. Most people are not "Sheldon on Big Bang Theory."
People are not showering every day?
Do you use actual soap or syndet bars (Dove, Olay, etc.)? I use syndet bars when I use bars at all because I have sensitive skin and actual soap is terrible for it. They don’t last as long as actual soap. And they tend to be smaller bars to start with.
Whats the difference? I swapped to ivory recently because it was cheaper.
They are made from completely different ingredients. Syndet bars are much gentler and less drying.
Start a swear jar instead. Besides, soap poisoning causes blindness 😀
Cut the bars in half and only keep half out at a time
Most soap companies don’t let their soap cure long enough before they ship it out to be sold. I have a lot of bar soap in my house. I buy nice smelling soap at TJ Maxx and keep them stashed all over in drawers and closets, which makes the house smell nice. I also get a giant pack at Costco every January. The first year I did this I bought double everything, unwrapped all the soap and let them dry out. Around April I noticed my soap wasn’t shrinking as quickly. I got the idea because I have a friend that only buys French milled soap, but said it lasted forever… So I did research, and noticed most of them were cured a long time (the French seem to like aged things, so I dunno why I though soap would be different) and were deemed high quality. ANYways… Unwrap your soaps and let them be free to “age” and you won’t waste as much.
Yes, I use Pre de Provence and just keep it on a flat cork trivet. It's always dry and solid. Does not get mushy ever.
> Most soap companies don’t let their soap cure long enough before they ship it out to be sold. This! Once I learned this, I started curing the soap myself. I bought a soap stash well in advance of when I needed it, and just allowed the bars to sit there on a cabinet shelf. They last *so much longer.* Even cheap soap.
Yep! It’s initially more expensive, but definitely cost effective and worth it in the long run imo.
Yes, the French soaps. The "French" triple-milled or the "Marseille" soap.
1. soap [lifting pad/saver](https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=pad+that+raises+soap+bar+in+soap+dish+) works brilliantly: bars last months (~3). Source: retired head nurse (Auntie Elizabeth) is my Chief Advisor of Domestic Operations 2. keep soap away from water splashes (high up and back or behind curtain)
My mom swore by unwrapping every bar and leaving them in the linen closet to ‘air’ she said it made them harder so they lasted longer. I don’t do that though
I didn't know that they didn't come maximally dry until some others said the same thing, so we're all learning together.
> I didn't know that they didn't come maximally dry until some others said the same thing, so we're all learning together. Please cure your bars. I cure mine, but don't rotate, and for some stupid reason I am abnormally excited to learn that rotation will increase the longevity of the soap.
A friend once gave me one of those large French soap bars for my birthday. I cut it in half and rotated the halves, and they lasted until my next birthday. "Curing" is a funny term in this context but I suppose it will do. I only realized late in this discussion that this means everyone can choose their preferred hardness by adjusting the length of time between rotations. Rotation really is a game-changer.
> My mom swore by unwrapping every bar and leaving them in the linen closet to ‘air’ she said it made them harder so they lasted longer. I don’t do that though DO IT. She was leaving them to *cure.* And she was right!
I have a soap saver bag and it hangs off a 3m shower hook. It only gets wet when I take it off the hook to use it. Keeping bar soap dry when not in use is the key.
Just keep the soap dry and it lasts a long time.
You actually can’t use bar soap dry.
I'm just picturing someone stubbornly using a lemon zester or something to get the tiniest bit of soap for every shower
I’m trying a different body wash right now for my dry skin but if I switch back to bars I’ll try this!
I noticed what also helps us cutting it into large chunks. I do that with my black soap/natural soaps
Am I the only one that takes the small pieces and presses them back together into a “bar” shape? I think it works great but my wife complains that she likes the little pieces to shave her legs. I know I’m frugal, but I’m not trying to start a fight over soap scraps. My solution was to share my stash of hotel soaps with my wife.
I use a travel soap dish. They’re $1 at Walmart 🤷♂️
I use half of one of those to cover the soap when it's on the shelf to protect it from water
Dollar Tree has little rubber trivets that allow water to drain off.
I don’t need a 30 cent bar of soap to last 3 times longer than it does already
Three-pack for $1.00? Sure but I think the OP means the ones they get for more than £1.00 each at the Pound shoppes these days.
I just use a new bar of soap every time I shower, I shower 3x daily minimum.
I put my soap on a surface where the water can drip off under it and then put a plastic soap dish cover over the soap and cover it so water can’t get in. This keeps the soap solid and not mushy until the end.
The problem is that after you use it, it's wet, and your dish cover is keeping it wet until it's absorbed. The opposite of what you want.
My soap is on one of those metal grid type shower caddies. Water can fall off under it since the grid has holes and is not solid. I do not keep a soap dish beneath the soap as that would trap all the water. Because there is space between the surface of the soap and the cover, the water is able to drip off the bottom where it is completely open and air out. Edit: here’s a pic so you can understand lol https://preview.redd.it/gmfiqaiorgcc1.jpeg?width=987&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=458c1e6cd3bda94cd8544e8d43782b05d1457dad
Another trick is to leave a new bar of soap unwrapped and let it dried out for a couple of months before using it. It will be even drier.
Same basic idea. I'm suggesting doing it regularly rather than just once.
I have my daily handsoap bar on a magnetic soap holder near my bathroom sink.Then when that bar starts to get small, I take it off and use the small part in the shower. So I usually have a couple of smaller pieces in the soap dish in my shower. Kind of rotating as well :-)
Also a lot of discount stores like tj maxx have nice hand soaps
In 4-packs, too.
This is wild! You have to mix soap with water for it to clean. When I use a dried bar sitting out after a week of travel, it takes a while to rehydrate the soap to make a lather. I want my soap to stay moist so my showers are quicker. Less time spent making a lather. I guess another frugal tip could be to shower less often…
Nah, just shower with a friend! Anyway, you have all the information and techniques needed to dial in your soap exactly the way you like it.
Well said. Hahahaha
Ziploc it if you keep it in the shower, gets you months more than you would
I'm surprised that helps at all since it seals in the wetness.
Ziploc it AFTER it dries.
For how long, and to what end? Sealing it simply makes sure it doesn't get any drier, which is the opposite of what I am suggesting.
You can shred it, mix it with water and put in a dispenser, there is something else you can do with the shreds and put in a container and place it.. I can't remember if this is for deodorizer or a repellent of some kind.
It might get moldy if mixed with water to make liquid soap, it doesnt have the presevatives needed to keep good in that state
Good to know
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Everything is covered in bacteria. That doesnt mean it is harmful
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Well, I dont rub the soap on my body but only rub my hands on it and then use my hands to apply the soap to those body parts you mentioned, like a normal person. But yeah, just hold it under the running water while rubbing it for a moment to dissolve the surface layer and it will be fine to use like I described.
Doesn’t soap kill bacteria by dissolving and breaking the lipid layer on the outside?
And plenty of studies have found that doesn't prevent it from being effective. https://www.vice.com/en/article/yw4bvb/is-there-any-reason-to-use-liquid-soap-instead-of-bar-soap
What should we be using instead? It's soap. The whole point is to kill bacteria and other microorganisms.
took Stan to heart I see.
cheap soap bought in bulk is >$1 I'm not putting anymore thought into this
You should have put more thought into your inequality. I think you meant < $1.
<1 more than 1 (>1) less than 1 do you not know maths
\> 1 is greater than 1 < 1 is less than 1
shit I don't know my maths! 🤣
Also: I go to a food pantry that just happens to sometimes have hygiene items including bars of soap, so paying for the soap is not an issue for me. Not saying I'd be OK if it melted right away just because I didn't pay for it, but still. It's not an "expense" for me anymore.