Make Your Soap More Efficient and Save Money

Is soap getting too expensive? Do you find yourself pondering the merits of not washing? Here is any easy way to stretch the lifetime of your soap while using it more efficiently. This instructable will help you make a soap dispenser much like those in doctor's offices and medical buildings, where cleanliness is extremely important.

Step 1: Find Yourself a Foaming Soap Container That You Think Is Attractive

I bought myself a cheap facewash that I liked the look of. Note: It is critical that you buy/use a foaming pump for this project otherwise it will not work. It is easy to tell if a soap product uses a foaming pump because it is a popular selling point, so it should say "foaming" or "refreshing" a minimum of 17 times on the bottle.

Step 2: Remove the Labels and Stickers

You are going to want to peel of the stickers of your bottle to avoid confusion. They should come off easily by hand. The labels might leave a little gooey residue on the bottle. You can get rid of this with a little elbow grease and soap. Otherwise you can use a product like googone which should do the trick.

Step 3: Flush the Container and Pump

This is pretty simple. Just rinse out the bottle until no bubbles form when you run water into it. This could take awhile because it had soap in it. Clean the pump after the bottle is completely rinsed. You can do this by filling the container with water and reconnecting the pump. Pump the water until nothing comes out but water.

Step 4: Fill 'er Up With Soap and Water

I haven't done too much experimenting with ratios, but 2/3 water and 1/3 hand soap gives a lot of foamy soap action and is thin enough not to clog the magic pump. This is the step that saves you the cash. Buy cheapo hand soap and buy in bulk. Using this foaming pump will more efficiently dole out suds for you and reduce waste. Your soap supply will last longer too!

Step 5: Mix and Dissolve the Soap in the Water

This is an easy step. Seal the container and gently rock your container back and forth until the soap is all dissolved and the liquid is of a single consistency. The key here is DON'T SHAKE IT. If you do you will get foamy soap all over the place.

Step 6: Bedazzle It!

Now you have a blank slate of a soap container. You can spruce it up with whatever you want. I'm sure you could print something cute or ferocious onto adhesive printer paper and seal it with heavy clear tape. I opted to write "Soap" with blue sharpie.