Don't Throw Away... SOAP!

Your bar of soap gets smaller and smaller until it eventually gets so thin it snaps in half.  In frustration, folks generally toss the two halves away. But wait!...

...did you know those little scraps add up and can be reclaimed into a new, usable bar?  Never throw soap away again.  Here's how:



Step 1:  Collect all of your soap dregs that you've been collecting over the weeks.  Make sure they are all dry.

Step 2:  Start to break the old bars down into the smallest fragments you can.  The smaller the better.  This will help them re-glue themselves together better later on in the process.

 Step 3:  Now you'll have a nice styrofoam bowl full of soap fragments!

Step 4:  Add some hot water to the bowl.  Just enough to cover the soap.

Step 5:  Soapy-hot water soup!

Step 6:  Put the bowl of soap into your microwave and heat for about 30 seconds or so.  You want it nice and hot but not so hot that it is scalding.  So be careful!

Step 7:  Steaming HOT bowl of soapy-hot water soup!  Yum-yum (NOT!).

Step 8:  Take a drinking glass or something with a nice smooth bottom.  Carefully mush the hot soap to press it together and push out some of the water.  Go slowly and be prepared to have some soap stick to the bottom of the glass.  Just remove it, drop it back in the bowl and keep mashing.

Step 9:  Drain off the excess water.

Step 10:  Carefully mash the drained soap to press it together more firmly.  As you press into the center, the sides will creep up the side of the bowl.  So work the sides down as well to even it all out.

Step 11:  While you were pressing the soap into a more solid mass, you will notice a soap slurry forming on the top.  Just go ahead and smooth it out with your finger to make it nice and smooth.

Step 12:  Go ahead and set your bowl aside to let it cool down.  It won't take long.  But to be on the safe side and to give the soap enough time to properly harden, wait for an hour or so.  Once it's cooled down, cut slots all around the styrofoam bowl.

Step 13:  Carefully peel back the bowl back from the new bar of soap.

Step 14:  And - Whoala! - a new bar of soap.