Soap saver thingy

Hummingbird0_12

Would it work to put the soap bits in a jam jar and top up with hot water to melt it? Swill it around and put lid on to store. 
My mum just used to stick the bits together on a saucer to make a new bar😊

London_1

I have an old soap travelling dish that I grate soap into thenfill with a little water and leave until its melted a bit then squish(technical term ) it down until its full and put into the airing cupboard to dry off.Once dry its bar shaped and reusable

LadyHarriet

I used to make traditional (cold process) soap and natural skincare and when cutting bars from the finished block of soap, there were always scrap bits and pieces. I hated to waste these and there were often too many just to use as samples on my stall at craft fairs, so I looked online and most soapmakers suggested the following method:

Chop or grate the scraps up finely (I'd keep the scraps until I had a reasonable quantity). Take a couple of handfuls, put them in a pyrex bowl, and put the bowl over a saucepan of boiling water. Then add cold water around 75-100ml and stir the soap mix together - it will take a while to get the soap to smoosh down so that it eventually looked like mashed spuds - you can add more water if you need to, but it can take longer for the finished bar to dry out (as with all soap, the harder the bar, the longer it lasts).

When the soap mix gets to the spud stage, put it into moulds  - I used to use my individual silicon moulds as it was easier to get the soap out of those but I guess you could line any kind of mould with clingwrap instead. Once they'd hardened enough to pop out of the moulds,  I'd put the bars in my airing cupboard to dry out and harden fully. I didn't sell these bars, just kept them for our use.

I've never tried this with commercial soap bars, mind you - not sure whether the cosmetic bars named after the 'white bird of peace' would work but soaps with ingredients like 'sodium cocoate', 'sodium palmate' etc (which are more like traditional handmade soaps) would probably be OK.

Topher

We had a teaspoon shaped tea leaf holder. It was like an oversized tea spoon with the “bowl” part perforated. At the point the “bowl” shape joined the handle there was a hinge to hold a matching perforated “bowl” shape. The idea was to infuse tea leaves that were trapped within the two bowls which, with the hinge, could clamp shut like a clam shell. Do you think your soap holder was in fact a re-purposed tea leaf holder. If my image doesn’t post, just Google “hinged tea leaf spoon” (assuming you’re interested).  
soap scraps when damp, can be forced/pushed together to creat a bigger lump of soap.
My grandma used to collect soap scraps and put them in the toe of an old stocking or pair of tights, essentially a mesh bag, this could be swirled in water to get soapy water, however with some soap bars from Pound Stretcher costing 19p per bar, I’m not sure I’d go to the trouble. 

Topher

There’s a Which? approved washing liquid called Magnum available from Aldi which I use instead of the more expensive Fairy, and find it just as good if you’re talking about dish washing.

London_1

Topher said:

There’s a Which? approved washing liquid called Magnum available from Aldi which I use instead of the more expensive Fairy, and find it just as good if you’re talking about dish washing.

Is it me, or has Fairy washing up liquid become less bubbly. I bought a bottle the last time, as it was on 'special offer' but to be honest I seem to have to use twice as much, and the washing up water loses its bubbles very quickly I don't think I'll bother again, its certainly not as good as it used to be ,or is it just me that thinks that ?
JackieO x

LadyHarriet

London_1 said:

Is it me, or has Fairy washing up liquid become less bubbly. I bought a bottle the last time, as it was on 'special offer' but to be honest I seem to have to use twice as much, and the washing up water loses its bubbles very quickly I don't think I'll bother again, its certainly not as good as it used to be ,or is it just me that thinks that ?

JackieO x

Nope - not just you - I've stopped using Fairy for the same reason. Wonder if they've changed the formula?

Si_Clist

Topher said:

Do you think your soap holder was in fact a re-purposed tea leaf holder. 

Nope.  It was purpose-made for using up scraps of soap.  All I can remember about the thing itself was that it was red plastic, maybe 10" long overall, and one half of the business end (which when closed formed a sphere of maybe 2" diameter) hinged open and snapped shut.  At least it did when it was new.  It was the first plastic thing I'd seen, and it entered the household sometime before the first plastic washing-up bowl.  That would have been mid-1950s.

General_Grant

bouicca21 said:

I just lather them up and stick them together.  

I just moisten and stick the last piece of one bar onto the start of the next.  That way you aren't keeping odd bits of soap hanging around until you have enough to create a new bar.

basketcase

Si_Clist said:

Topher said:

Do you think your soap holder was in fact a re-purposed tea leaf holder. 

Nope.  It was purpose-made for using up scraps of soap.  All I can remember about the thing itself was that it was red plastic, maybe 10" long overall, and one half of the business end (which when closed formed a sphere of maybe 2" diameter) hinged open and snapped shut.  At least it did when it was new.  It was the first plastic thing I'd seen, and it entered the household sometime before the first plastic washing-up bowl.  That would have been mid-1950s.

Just lost a post.

We had one, but ours was white and the business end was whatever a rectangular cube is called!  Could be wrong, but ISTR ours was from Betterware.

Did The Betterware Man call round at yours?  My mother used to buy smallish things because we didn't have a lot of money, but she knew he was an ex-soldier and needed the cash.  So this is the sort of thing she would have bought that way, but not in a shop.  I remember we used to get free samples - especially small tins of lavender furniture polish.  Loved polishing.  Still do.