Introduction: Inexpensive Foaming Soap

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About: I discovered Instructables when I was looking to buy a bunk bed. Instead of buying, I decided to build the sturdy bunk bed that my kids now sleep in every night. And thus I discovered that I loved building t…

My wife loves foaming soap. My kids love foaming soap. Heck, even I like foaming soap. As I see it, there are two issues with foaming soap:

  1. It's expensive because... my wife buys it from a well known retailer
  2. It's really, really, really expensive because... my kids like it, therefore washing their hands becomes fun.

Well I agree the scent is great & the foaming feels nice, my kids can use up a bottle in less than a day. At upwards of $3 a bottle, we thus only leave it out when there is company.

Until now.

Supplies

  • Empty foaming soap container (8.75 fl oz)
  • Water, approximately 6.25 fl oz
  • Dish soap, approximately 2.5 fl oz (choose one for it's scent, colour, or both)

Step 1: Mix Ingredients

Note: Quantity of parts of water to parts of dish soap is not critical. Below is the mix quantity that works well but if you play around with the quantities, you can change the foam consistency to what you prefer. Mainly, though, this note is to point out that you do not need to measure precisely... eyeballing the quantities works well!

  1. Add approximately 6.25 fl oz to the clean foaming soap container.
  2. Slowly add in approximately 2.5 fl oz of coconut scented dish soap.
  3. Tighten top onto soap container.
  4. Mix thoroughly, shaking & inverting until both ingredients look like a single, consistent, ingredient.

Step 2: Enjoy!

Push nozzle until mixture pushes out all air. Once soap starts to squirt out, take pleasure in knowing you have saved money & saved plastic from ending up in a landfill.

Oh, and now the cost is so negligible that you can leave the 'foaming soap' out even when there's no company!! Happy wife, happy kids, & happy me!

Update: This also works when using Softsoap liquid handsoap--which has less harsh 'grease-busting, hand-drying-out' chemical(s). Cheers!