Friday, July 10, 2009

Ivory beacon


Hello. This is a picture of my soap.

When my soap gets used up to the point when it is nothing more than a thin slip that no longer supplies suds no matter how vigorously I rub-a-dub-dub it, I do not throw it away. Instead, I get a new bar of soap and, after cleansing and rinsing myself, I get the husky new bar good and sudsy again, but only in order to glue the frail old soap fragment to the top of it.

I carefully rinse the old/new soap-bar conglomerate, making sure the suds between the two entities remain intact in order to adhere them together. Then I put the bar in the recessed soap dish for 24 hours of drying time, which will hopefully permanently fuse the bars together in time for my next shower.

After two or three showers, all evidence that the soap was once two parts is gone. Hence, by this method, not only do I eliminate waste, but soap becomes a pleasant continuum in my life, a constant commodity that waxes and wanes but is never subject to absolute end. Simple procedures such as this relinquish me of sin and render me holy in lieu of traditional religious practices.

That is all.

14 comments:

paul bitzan said...

Interesting. At once compulsive and spiritual. Nice.

Anonymous said...

http://www.nakedsoapcompany.co.uk/shop/index.php?act=viewCat&catId=31

Soap Sacks
Make the most of your soap by using every last bit…. Put your soap-ends in the unbleached drawstring bag and use the bag as you would normally use your soap. The soap lasts longer and every little bit is used.…

Bags can be used for regular soap bars, remnant slices or Naked Traveller bars... Washable and re-useable - a money saving item from Naked to help us all beat the credit crunch…

Why buy a re-usable soap sack?

• Stops slippery soap leaping out of your hand in the bath or shower
• Soap on a rope - uou can hang your sack off the taps or shower rack
• Soap in a sack gets to properly dry as it hangs loose
• Sacks are eco-friendly…
• Sacks are washable and reuseable

Muslin measuring 4x6 inches with drawstring.


Soap Sacks
£1.25


Apparently soap ends have stimulated much thought. 118,000 hits on google.

I personally grind the last piece which I cannot grasp into little pieces and watch it go down the drain. The wrath of an angry god.

RJ

Jim said...

A much healthier form of religious practice than currently found in America. Clean, socially conscious, satisfying, yet simple and pure. I bow to your greatness!

Leslie Morgan said...

My Granny used to do it this way: put the soap remains in the toe of pantyhose no longer used. Wrap the leg part around the faucet outdoors. Make Gramps clean his hands outside when he'd been working in the yard or on the car.

Of course, we also use a funnel when resupplying liquids like shampoo, so we don't lose a drop. I didn't realize I'd been rendered holy, but I'm glad to adopt that notion.

Anonymous said...

I'd find it mighty tempting to use different colors of soap each time and try to see how interesting I could get the end product...

Erin O'Brien said...

Anon, I like the way you think.

But for reasons that I surely do not care to publicly enumerate, I only use dye- and fragrance-free soap.

glittermom said...

We use to take a piece of net material and make a little draw string bag and add the soap pieces...Not only saved the scraps of soap but made a good scrubbing material...Good for your feet if you walk around barefoot outside...

Jen said...

wow, i was just elling my husband how my grandma (glittermom's mom) would put sopa shards in a net bad. and my own mom already posted about it!

erin, thank you so much for the memory!

Tony Rugare said...

If this sweeps the country, Proctor & Gamble may be next on the list for a recue package.

Mr. L said...

Hmmm....but what of the soap used up in the fusing process? Are we talking zero balance here?!? :)

THE MERKIN MAN said...

I do the exact same thing, and even buy soap according to their adhesive qualities. We are soulmates -- I keep telling you.

Whitenoise said...

Continuity is good. Frugality is better. Conservation and care for the environment ices the cake. You are a goddess!

dean said...

I do this too. Sometimes it doesn't work and I get annoyed.

sevnetus said...

Love you. I recommend budget, like Equate or Target knockoffs, of dandruff shampoo. Head and Shoulders type shit. Use it as a body wash and tingle antimicrobicrobial free. Keep up the good work, I read most of it. Maybe comment on my blog? Peace.