Body
There are a ton of options with body soap! I grew up on the Sensitive Dove bar soap. I wanted to try different ones but this has always worked. It’s simple, packaged in recyclable boxes (though frustrating when I want to buy in bulk, it comes together in plastic wrapping, so I can’t win with that), and I am not always recycling bottles.
My husband likes to try new things all the time, which is frustrating when I just want to save money…just find one and stick with it! But he likes the natural homemade bars of soap. So I just get different kinds for him to try. He found SoF at the natural food store which comes in boxes as well! So that is working as of right now.
Hand
There are many options for this one too! People get creative with this, by buying glass jars with cool metal dispensers. They re-fill it with the soap when it gets low. Looks so pretty!
I originally got plastic AloeVera SoftSoap bottles for the kitchen and bathroom, with re-fillable bottles of the soap. Thinking of zero-waste and re-using, I tried to keep it for a while. But it was frustrating when it would get low fast, and re-using the bottle felt weird for some reason. Like I was slowly melting away the plastic off the bottle walls by re-filling all the time. Finally I recycled it! Using re-fillable bottles is still using plastic bottles and can be pricey! I would like to use glass and metal dispensers but worried the metal would get rusty and of course, always re-filling the bottle.
Moving into our trailer home, I decided, “Just get bars of soap like the body soap.” So I bought Dial or any cheap soap I could find. I put them in ceramic soap dishes for the two bathrooms. I had a plastic one for the kitchen sink since there weren’t many good options at Walmart.
NOW I have plastic soap dishes for the bathrooms. Why? One day my 2 year old and 1 year old were out of my sight. I assumed they were in the bedroom playing as they always do. Then I heard a CRASH! I ran over and they weren’t in the bedroom. I saw the bathroom door closed, but heard noises, so I opened it. My 2 year old was standing on the toilet with the seat down, trying to climb onto the sink to “wash hands!” My 1 year old was standing in between the toilet and bathtub. The whole roll of toilet paper was all over the floor! And somehow, the ceramic soap dish was flown from the sink, into the tub, with pieces on the floor with the toilet paper! Luckily I grabbed both of the them before they walked any further! I put the gate back on the bathroom door frame to keep them out as I cleaned up the mess! Note to self: no breakable items when having kids! (I try to find recyclable plastic items if possible)
But all-in-all, having the bar soap lasts longer, and is cheaper. Now I just need to figure out how to make it pretty!
