7 Ways to Recycle Soap Bits
July 17, 2007 by Deborah Ng
Filed under Crafty Solutions, Reusing and Recycling
If you’re like most of us, you’re not sure of what to do with the leftover bits from a bar of soap. You want to use them up, but it’s hard as they’re slippery and don’t lather you up as well as a large bar. Still you don’t want to throw them away as that’s wasteful.
Here are a few ways to use those last bits of soap.
- I don’t know if this one works, but I read about it in several different places. If you suffer from night time leg cramps, take leftover soap bits (Irish Spring was recommended) and put in a mesh bag or old stocking foot and put under your bed sheet where it’s in contact with your legs.
- Collect a bunch of leftover soap bits and sew into an old wash cloth. Use this instead of a bar soap until it runs out.
- Collect soap pieces and place in an old liquid soap container. Fill with water and shake. Squeeze out this “liquid soap” whenever you wash up.
- Collect soap bits and place in a stocking leg. Tie a knot around the foot, securing the soap in place. Then tie the stocking itself to the sink you use for washing up after gardening or working around the house. This will enable you to soap up your hands without getting everything dirty around you.
- Melt the soap in a microwaveable container and pour into soap molds. Your local craft shop should have soap molds especially for this purpose!
- Use as a seam marker (in place of chalk) when making clothes.
- Use to mark wood or make measurements in household projects.
Wow, those all sound like a lot of work. Why not just use it as soap?
When the current bar gets small, get out a fresh bar, get them both wet, press the small bar firmly into the fresh bar, and then treat them as all one piece. There’s a chance they will come apart, so handle with care the first two or three showers. My parents always did this when I was growing up, and I was astonished to find out that some people don’t. It works best if both bars are the same kind, but they don’t absolutely have to be. If you bring home tiny hotel soaps, sometimes they can be attached to a new soap before they’ve even been used.
I haven’t had any luck trying to microwave Ivory bar soap. It kinda puffed up, then I stopped it.