What to Do with Leftover Soap Bars: 4 Tips

Whether you're cleansing your hands or face or washing your body, soap is likely a major part of your daily skincare routine. Although it's a valuable personal care product, ditching an old soap bar can feel wasteful once it's whittled down into small, hard-to-use pieces. If you've ever wondered what to do with leftover soap bars, keep reading for some creative ideas to get the most mileage out of them.

Saving Soap

There are things you can do to help prevent soap bars from melting too quickly. While showering, try to keep your bar soap out of the direct line of water to keep too much from washing away. Allowing a soap bar to dry entirely between uses is also vital to minimizing waste. You can invest in a soap tray that allows water to drip away from the bar, too.

What to Do with Leftover Soap Bars

No matter how much you try to slow the shrinking process, your soap bar will inevitably get smaller and smaller. However, once those soap bars become teensy tiny, it doesn't mean they can't still be useful. There are plenty of ways to use or even repurpose those precious soap slivers.

1. Make a DIY Soap Saver Bag

A soap saver bag is a great way to use up every last bit of that soap bar, even once it becomes too tiny to hold on to. A soap saver bag can also help to extend the life of your soap bar because the bar will dry faster if it's hanging rather than sitting in a watery soap dish.

Learning how to make a soap saver bag is pretty simple. All you need is a mesh bag, a mesh shower poof, or even a pair of tights or pantyhose. If you're using a bag, simply place the soap inside and scrub. You'll get more use out of your soap and an exfoliating loofah effect from the mesh material. If you use a shower poof, cut it into small sections, place the soap inside and tie it shut with some yarn or string to form a small pouch. Leave a length of the string so that you can hang the bag in the shower to dry when you're done.

To use tights, cut off one leg and place the soap in the toe. Tie a knot in the material above the soap, and it's ready to use.

2. Reshape Them

Sometimes, a soap bar breaks into several smaller bars instead of whittling down to one. In this case, you can easily combine the small pieces to make one larger soap ball. You can also save up pieces from various bars for this method.

Using a cheese grater, shred the soap into tiny shavings. Add a small amount of water to the shavings until they soften. Then, work the soft shavings together until they form a ball shape. Let the soap dry, and you've got a brand-new soap to use.

3. Enhance Bath Time

The naturally derived fragrance and organic botanicals in your soap bar can make a great addition to a relaxing bath. Grate your leftover soap bar into small shavings and sprinkle them into the hot bath water. You can also shave a large amount at once and store them in a container for easy use.

4. Get Scent Savvy

No need to invest in a pricey sachet to scent your closet. Instead, add leftover pieces of scented soap bars to a mesh or thin cloth bag and place it in a drawer or on a hanger to add some aroma.

Finally used up those last soap slivers? Choose from a range of natural bath and body care products made with your health and well-being in mind.

Image Sources: Unsplash | Sher Warkentin | Sher Warkentin

The views and opinions expressed in any guest post featured on our site are those of the guest author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of Tom's of Maine.