recycling hotel soaps
When we were away recently I had to move my husband’s toilet bag and was surprised at its weight. Took it out to the table, tipped out the contents and started sorting through the jumble. The toilet bag was a gift from me 39 years ago and it seems it’s only been added to, nothing has ever been discarded. He working life involved frequent traveling and he’d collected things from all over the world.
Sorted the sewing kits, the razors, shoe shine kits, the combs and folded hairbrushes, the nail kits, the ear plugs and the bars of soap. Most things went into the bin, but as I was scooping up the twenty plus bars of soap I suddenly wondered if I could reuse them.
Using tiny bars of soap isn’t easy nor appealing, although the bars seemed to get bigger as the years went by. So after I’d amused myself identifying the country of origin from the packaging I put them into a bag and brought them home.
Searching online revealed lots of ways to use scraps of soap to make more soap. Put it off for a while as it seem a bit of a faff and soap is pretty cheap to buy. But I also put off throwing the soaps in the bin as it seemed very wasteful as we had so many! Eventually unwrapped them and settled into reusing or rebatching them.
Apparently, the soap needs to be grated, boiled, pressed into a mold. When I’d grated one tiny bar of soap and one fingernail I knew there had to be a quicker/better way. Chopped the bars roughly with a long blade, sharp knife then put them in the food processor. Most of the bars were powdery and ready to mix after being cut, so I sifted them and only processed the larger pieces.
Cooking the grated soap and water.
I could have added a sprinkle of dried lavender to the soap or some scented oil or colours, but the soap mix was really aromatic without any additions. Added water to the powder and left it for an hour or so, then cooked it on a low heat until it formed a ball. Pressed it into a silicone cake mold. Left it to harden over three days. Cut into bars.
Would I do this again? No. The resulting bars of soap are very highly scented, which we don’t like and it was a lot of work to save a few dollars. We haven’t traveled much during the past two years but I have noticed most accommodation now offer shower gel. (All those little plastic tubes!) I usually take our own soap, anyway. My husband dislikes gels and insists on soap.
By the way, the Hilton Hotel Group and it’s associated hotel chains collect all the used soaps from their rooms and send them to be sanitized and turned into bars of soap for the homeless and third world countries. Sensible.
preparing for spring
Really enjoyed wet, cold winter days, for a while, but the bulbs have germinated and I’m looking forward to spring. Still enjoying boots, jumpers and warm scarves but I’m preparing for more time outdoors.
So I’ve renovated some little chairs hanging on a wall which were showing signs of rust. I also resurfaced a terracotta pot which has a solar fountain floating in the middle. The idea of the pot was to provide water for the bees with a landing pad so they could be safe and rest for a while. Only ever seen a few bees at the water but see little birds perched there frequently.
Treated the rust on the chairs with rust retardant. The next day I set up a ‘spray box’ aka a big cardboard carton. I sprayed the back of the chairs, left them to dry, repeated over two days, spraying a different side each time. I used a spray designed to retard rust, too, but it isn’t perfect. Which is why they needed re-doing!
The next project was the terracotta bowl. I scraped off the existing paint then sanded the inner surface before applying two coats of terracotta sealer. The outer surface was still in good condition so I only sanded a few spots. When the sealer was dry, I spray painted the pot twice. Left it in the sun for a few days as the paint smell was very strong.
Ready to go but it is too overcast for the solar fountain to work!
super moon
Image Roger Purdy, Pixabay
Did you see the Super moon, the largest and brightest moon on the 13th of July?
What a good idea for using up all those odd bars of soap. My husband used to do the same, bring them home from trips away. I think they would be too scented for us nowadays as we prefer no scent here too. I am glad to hear that hotels repurpose them, it would such a waste if they were thrown after each guest has opened them and used them.
Hello!
Isn’t the “rebatching” of used soaps brilliant? We need more ways to reuse products to benefit everyone.
Are you effected by the heat?