Someone on Threads asked me a very reasonable question:
“If I only used a bar of soap for handwashing, say six times a day, how long would it last?”
My first thought was: how long is a piece of string? Which is spectacularly unhelpful, I know. But even with the number of washes supplied, there are a few more things I’d need to know before offering anything resembling an accurate answer.
How big is the bar?
A little guest soap and a full-sized bar aren’t starting with the same amount of soap. “One bar” is a bit like “one slice of cake”. There are slices, and then there are slices.
What’s the soap like?
Different recipes produce bars that behave very differently in water. The oils used, the formulation and how long the soap has cured can all affect how quickly it wears down. So even two bars of the exact same weight, but from different makers, won’t necessarily last the same length of time.
How much soap do you use each time?
Do you rub the bar just long enough to get soap onto your hands, put it down and carry on washing? Or does the bar stay in your hands for the whole performance? Both count as “one wash”, but they can use quite different amounts of soap. I’m not suggesting you shorten your handwashing. Just that once you’ve got enough soap, the bar can sit that bit out.
What’s your water like?
Hard water makes it harder to build a lather, which may mean you use more soap each time. Same bar, same number of washes, different water: potentially a different lifespan.
What happens between washes?
This is a big one. A bar on a draining dish, away from splashes, gets a chance to dry. A bar sitting in a puddle keeps softening even while nobody’s using it. You might only wash your hands six times a day, but your soap could be spending the other twenty-three-and-a-bit hours quietly turning to mush. Not the way it should be spending its free time.
How many people use the bar?
Six washes a day for you is one thing. Six washes for you, plus everyone else who wanders past the sink, is another. Soap does not keep a visitors’ book. The children may have been involved.
So what’s the answer?
I can’t reliably turn “six washes a day” into a particular number of days or weeks. And even if I had answers to all the questions above, It would be difficult to even hazard a guess, there are so many factors involved. So the simplest way to find out is to note when you start a bar and see how long it lasts in your household. That gives you a useful guide for the next similar bar, used in the same way.
In the meantime, give it a draining dish, keep it out of standing water, and put it down once you’ve got enough soap on your hands.
I can make the soap. I can’t supervise its living arrangements. 😉
Vicki x
