The following is a recipe for refilling foam soap dispensers. I’ve used this recipe for nearly a year and found it’s very easy to make and saves us a ton of money! To make mine smell extra special, I sometimes add a 2-3 drops of essential oils. My favorites are lavender, peppermint, and rosemary. I use Tone dispensers with the plastic label removed from the bottle.

Hand Soap Saver

With the advent of foam hand washing soaps, I have come up with a way to reuse the foaming soap dispensers (such as Dial or Tone…Tone brand dispensers are prettier!). To get this going in your household, it is worth purchasing a foaming hand soap container for each sink in your house (or ask family and friends to save their empties for you). Once a container has been all used up, the real fun begins! Buy a 64 oz container of Equate Milk & Honey Moisturizing Hand Soap from Wal-Mart (or whatever liquid hand soap you prefer). The cost is about $3-$4….been a looong while since I purchased mine, so can’t remember exactly. I used to make this just using dish detergent for hand washing dishes, but found my hands getting very dried and chapped, so I now recommend the aforementioned moisturizing hand soap.

Savings # 1

Take your empty foaming soap dispenser and twist off top (they make this really hard to do … I wonder why? )

After opening, simply pour in enough hand soap to cover the bottom, up to not quite half an inch of soap in the bottom. & Then slowly fill the dispenser with warm water (for ease of mixing). The water should go to about half an inch from the top of the bottle (I am not counting the threaded part of the bottle).

After filling with water and screwing cap back on, gently rock the bottle to and fro to mix. Over time you will note some of the thicker moisturizing agent separating to the bottom. This is of no concern, but if it bothers you, simply rock the bottle to mix back in.

I have been reusing these foaming dispensers for several years. After a while the spring gets tired of bouncing back and you might want to buy a fresh one or put out the word to those you know buying them that they might save the empties for you rather than throwing them away.

Savings # 2 & 3 & possibly 4!

Now comes the retraining of your family on how to wash their hands. Think about the instructions above…..a little soap and a lot of water. Water!

This is how I wash my hands with foaming soap: Since there is already so much water present in the foam squirt, there is absolutely no need to turn on your water faucet to wet your hands before dispensing the soap into your hands.

When you need to wash, simply dispense the foam into your hands, lather up your hands and then turn the water on only for rinsing! No more running faucets while you stand there washing your hands! Think about how many gallons of good, clean water head down the drain as your little ones stand there diligently washing their hands as you’ve taught them.

Think about it! The old way of washing hands potentially effects up to 3 bills: water, sewage, electric (or gas if you have a gas fired hot water tank). If you have trained your family to always wash hands in cold water, you are still going to save a lot on your water and sewage bill. Septic system? Less water into the septic. Well water? Less precious water down the drain and less electricity to run the pump.

In all cases, from less soap to less water, you are monetarily ahead with this method of hand washing!

Kelley

Originally posted on the Kindred Spirits Journal e-mail list. Subscribe to the daily Kindred Spirits Journal by sending a blank e-mail to Kindred_Spirits_-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. It is not a discussion list, so you will not be bombarded with e-mails. This is one of my favorite lists with posts SO RICH in godly wisdom! Printed by permission.

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer. ~Psalms 19:14

Posted under Frugality, Homemaking