Liquid Soap

[610Alpha]

Wasn't sure where to put this. Having a good supply of soap is important and to make that supply last as long as possible is just as important.

Get x # of the generic foaming dispensers.
Put 10%, of total volume, into dispenser with Liquid soap.
Fill the rest of the bottle with water.

I do this now, especially for washing hands. I bought a huge bottle of Dawn soap from Sam's club and use it to fill these foaming dispensers. Works great and I reduced waste.

[Lowdown3]

Great idea. We do something similar with liquid dish soap. When it gets down to about 25% you can fill it up with water and put it back for handwashing, etc. later on.

[Kat]

Absolutely. I like to wash my hands A LOT! Every time we find soap on sale, we buy it. We scored about 7 or 8 big bottles of dish detergent last year at Wal-Mart cheap. I am rotating them however because I've had many like soap, shampoo, bleach, etc containers break down over time and make a mess. I write the date that I bought it on the bottle right away, then when I start using it I write the start date on it so I can see how long I stored it and how long it lasted once I started using it. I do the same thing with storage foods. When I see the "opened" date on it I know approximately how fast I have to use it up before it goes bad. You could also write on the original bottle how many times you watered it down and find out from that how much longer you were able to use it by watering it down.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

I've been stocking up on it too, glad to see i'm on the right track. I've been doing trash bags, paper towels and TP too. I think hygeine is often overlooked but as we see time and time again as with napoleon it is important.

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

We have used the foaming dispensers at our place of business. This business had about 300+ kids weekly plus parents and siblings. The foaming dispensers will wear out with extreme use, so be sure you have backups.

A thought?? Has anyone done a test to see how long a bar of soap will last compared to liquid? What I mean is 1 bar of soap = ?oz of liquid soap. Will it be easier to store "x number of bars" and/ or x number of liquid soap.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

Bar soap has dried out on me after 1-2 years where liquid soap is at 2yrs and still looking good. Thats about all I know on it.

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Bar soap has dried out on me after 1-2 years where liquid soap is at 2yrs and still looking good. Thats about all I know on it.

Good to know, thanks Matt

[Lowdown3]

Bar soap has dried out on me after 1-2 years where liquid soap is at 2yrs and still looking good. Thats about all I know on it.

Can you explain further on the "dried out" part? Our oldest bar soap we have used was about 10 years and if anything it felt just a bit slimey at first before you got a couple lathers out of it. Humidity I bet.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

It was irish spring soap that we got on a sale and it dried out after about 1 to 1 1/2 years. It is possible it was old and thats why it was on sale but I dunno. I didn't store it in any fashion just on the shelf in the bathroom. It is quiet possible that humidity got it but it was enough to convince me that it is hard enough to store food, fuel, water and ammo in special manners and if SHTF I don't need to worry about the soap too. The liquid soap, probably because of it's containers, seems to store better without extra work. I can admit to an extent that after the beans and bullets I can get a little lazy.

[Lowdown3]

I know what you mean. We found that soap stores best in totes or something to control humidity.

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

What about laundry soap...liquid or powder?

If bar soap or powder laundry soap was stored in sealed 5 gal buckets, would this keep it from drying out? I'm not talking mylar and O2 absorbers, just the bucket with the lid on it.

[610Alpha]

I would be afraid that the powder would turn into 1 big block even sealed in the bucket. I would probably store liquid. You might be able to do powder with O2 but don't hold me to it. Try a small batch of powder for 6 months both ways and let us know what happens. :)

[1Admin]

I'll ask the wife to start using some the older washing machine powder, it's easily from 03. It's just been in a cabinet in the cardboard container. "Found" some old stuff cleaning up lately.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

During one of my deployments we recieved some laundry soap that was in sealed waxed plastic bags that had been in storage for about 3 yrs. It was ok. Some of them were caked due to humidity but easily broken up and repowdered. I have never thought about storing it.

[Klayton]

Curious, anybody remember making soap in Boy Scouts? I wonder if there is a recipe out there to make your own laundry soap? If we can make it, one less storage thing to worry about. =)