How to Make Your Liquid Dish Soap Last Longer

6 by Becky Striepe on January 16, 2012

If you do any cooking at home at all, you probably use liquid dish soap. I don't mean the sort for the dishwasher, but the kind for hand-washing your dishes. Not only do we seem to go through our liquid dish soap quickly, it can be pricey, especially if you're opting for eco-friendly dish soap.

Whether you make your own liquid dish soap or buy it at the store, it seems to run out at the most inopportune times, doesn't it? I feel like we make most of the last-minute trips to the store around our house for two things: cat litter and dish soap. You can't really push it with cat litter, but last time we were out of soap, I found a great way to stretch the bottle for a couple more washings! Here's how:

Fill the bottle halfway with tap water.
Shake really well.
Apply liberally.

There's enough soap residue in the bottle to do at least a few more dishes, and maybe more! We "ran out" of soap days ago, and I'm still using the bottle that we refilled. Since the soap is super diluted, it's going to take a lot more to get a lather going, but it's all soap that would have otherwise been wasted, so just use lots!

Have you found any simple ways to make things last around the house? I'd love to hear more ideas in the comments!

Image Credit: Creative Commons photo by Jek-a-Go-Go

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“Geena Green”

Hi,

have you ever cut open a toothpaste tube, a body lotion container, rinsed a shampoo bottle for washing your hair etc.?
All those containers are trashed in billions, but still contain a couple more days of clean teath, soft skin, clean hair or dishes etc. On a global scale, imagine how much this would save, if just everybody did it!

Even more, you should consider to ALWAYS dilute your liquid dishwashing soap with the same amount of water. That way you don’t waste the (usually over-concentrated) soap at all and for the whole container – by accidentially applying too big squirts! This happens so easily and on a daily basis by rushing, not paying attention, by the kids. The pre-diluted soap spreads much better on a (dry) sponge and you will notice how much longer the bottle will last and save in future.
By the way – I banished all body shower and shampoo plastic bottles for good by using a vegetable oil based soap bar and a shampoo bar. This prooved much better for my skin, too, that used to be dry.

Becky Striepe

Ooh I love those ideas! Pre-diluting your soap makes so much sense. We use way too much at a time.

cajungal328

I started making homemade laundry detergent months ago, and it’s awesome to make this stuff and save money. Well, tonight I ran ouot of dish liquid, so I began researching how to make that too. I came across a few sites with this same recipe. So I tried it. I took one whole bar of ivory soap, ground it up in the food processor, added about 16 oz of water, 1/4 c. vinegar, 2 T. washing soda, and a few drops of lemon scented essentual oil, and I ran it thru the food processor until smooth. It was a bit thick, so I filled up 2 large dish liquid bottles halfway, and filled the bottles the rest of the way with water, and shook them until mixed. I washed my dishes, and wow!!! Works better than Dawn and Palmalive!! And doesn’t give up after the first sinkload either! Lasted through 2 1/2 sinkloads of dishes, which included nasty pots and pans… And cost apprx. $.35 to make 2 bottles….Glad I tried this…. it’s a keeper!