# Who'da thunk it? \[soap slivers\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 2, 2019, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoda-thunk-it-soap-slivers/828844 "2019-02-02T16:40:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoda-thunk-it-soap-slivers/828844/41 "2019-02-04T18:03:23Z")
I just don’t see the appeal of saving soap slivers. It probably saves less than fifty cents a year in soap. Nothing wrong with it, it’s just not really worth the effort to me. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoda-thunk-it-soap-slivers/828844/42 "2019-02-04T18:08:38Z")
I use body wash, so there are no slivers. But when it gets too low for the pump to reach, I’ll get a new bottle, and after using it a few times, I’ll balance the old bottle on top of it to get the last bit out. Same with shampoo. Spousal unit uses bar soap, and he sticks the sliver to the new bar. AND my daughter just started using cloth diapers on my granddaughter. The cost of disposables was killing her, since she’s only working part time. And it’s really not that big a deal. Heck, I grew up using cloth diapers on my sibs and the babies I baby-sat. The ones she uses now are an absorbent pad that slides into pants with a gazillion snaps, so they’ll grow with the baby. Very cool idea! ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoda-thunk-it-soap-slivers/828844/43 "2019-02-04T18:29:38Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > Washable cloth diapers and cloth handkerchiefs anyone? In an era of poop and snot removal, you couldn’t have too much soap around. I’ve had the same two dozen or so cloth handkerchiefs since college, so they’re over 30 years old and holding up great. I guess in at least one regard, I’m actually not that much of a blow-hard. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoda-thunk-it-soap-slivers/828844/44 "2019-02-04T19:14:05Z")
I find it baffling to learn that some people throw away products (like soap) that aren’t used up. Of course I stick it onto the new bar; doesn’t everyone? I guess not. > [@](#): > > Huh. Next thing you know, you’ll be telling me people still save leftover bacon grease in tin cans. Leftover… bacon grease? I don’t understand. When I’m cooking bacon, it’s because I want bacon grease, and so I cook the amount needed to provide the needed amount of grease. To the extent that leftover bacon grease exists in my household, it’s as an ingredient in a leftover dish. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoda-thunk-it-soap-slivers/828844/45 "2019-02-04T19:30:41Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > I often attach the old sliver onto the new bar. But I often just bring the sliver down to the kitchen to use for washing my hands there. Or into the bathroom soap dish. > > Bacon grease? I fry the eggs in it. Delish. In addition, I crumble the bacon into the omelet. Win-win. Num! That’s how my parents made fried eggs - with bacon grease that was saved in a coffee can. We called them dirty eggs, because they’d come out speckled with bacon bits. We don’t eat much bacon, so no bacon grease at my house.☹ ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoda-thunk-it-soap-slivers/828844/46 "2019-02-04T21:41:01Z")
> [@Miss\_Mapp](#): > > The other night in the shower, I was wondering if there’s still some essence–even just a few molecules–of the original bar in there commingled with its successors. Yes, there is - and through the power of homeopathy that original bar is now the most powerful soap in the universe! Ingesting it will enable your body to clean itself. > [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > I’m the only one in the house who uses bar soap (everyone else is into that sissified body warsh–how you supposed to wash you face if all you have is body wash?) so I get to do whatever I want with the slivers. Which is to stick 'em to the new bar. My wife and daughter have separate bottles of body wash, face wash and hair wash. In this age of soap specialization I fully expect to soon find bottles of Big Toe Left Foot wash, Big Toe Right Foot wash, etc. > [@TRC4941](#): > > Num! That’s how my parents made fried eggs - with bacon grease that was saved in a coffee can. We called them dirty eggs, because they’d come out speckled with bacon bits. We don’t eat much bacon, so no bacon grease at my house.☹ Hmm, if one were to put the bacon grease in an unrinsed coffee can and used that to fry the eggs, it would make an all-in-one-breakfast omlette! ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoda-thunk-it-soap-slivers/828844/47 "2019-02-04T22:21:23Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I find it baffling to learn that some people throw away products (like soap) that aren’t used up. Of course I stick it onto the new bar; doesn’t everyone? I guess not. > > . Its just not worth it to me when I do the math. A bar of soap costs me about $0.50, I use about one a month, which means a sliver is maybe a nickel worth of soap and I throw away about 12 a year. Even if I do that for the next 40 years, I’ll still only save $24 over the course of my life. Its just not worth it. I like having a hard, solid bar of soap. Slivers are all slimy and fragile. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoda-thunk-it-soap-slivers/828844/48 "2019-02-04T23:02:03Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > When I start a new bar of soap, at the end of the shower I stick the old sliver on to the new bar. Usually after two or three showers the sliver has completely welded with the new bar. Me too. I also save my old grease in a jar, but that’s because I don’t want to pour it down the drain, and if I just pour it into the trash, critters will get to it when i put the trash out. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoda-thunk-it-soap-slivers/828844/49 "2019-02-04T23:02:10Z")
Dammit, I wish you hadn’t said that. I’d been feeling all virtuous that I recycle the slivers. But, crap, I’ve been fighting to keep those slivers from falling off the new bar, to save less than a dollar a year? I think you might be right. ETA: this was @Wesley Clark ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoda-thunk-it-soap-slivers/828844/50 "2019-02-04T23:16:45Z")
In the shower, I use shampoo as body wash, as it’s essentially the same thing and I’m using it anyway. No soap slivers or soapy soap slime to deal with. At the bathroom sink, I have one of those foaming liquid-soap pump bottles. When it runs out, I add maybe 1/4 shampoo and 3/4 water (or even less shampoo). It still foams and is plenty soapy. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2019, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoda-thunk-it-soap-slivers/828844/51 "2019-02-05T00:00:37Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > Dammit, I wish you hadn’t said that. I’d been feeling all virtuous that I recycle the slivers. But, crap, I’ve been fighting to keep those slivers from falling off the new bar, to save less than a dollar a year? I think you might be right. > > ETA: this was @Wesley Clark Just think of me as the fat kid on the bus who tells you that santa claus isn’t real. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2019, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoda-thunk-it-soap-slivers/828844/52 "2019-02-05T02:06:55Z")
You mean Santa’s not real? Holey-moley. Soap slivers are now my last thing to worry about.☹ ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2019, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoda-thunk-it-soap-slivers/828844/53 "2019-02-05T07:39:08Z")
I tried to stick-the-sliver-to-the-new-bar, but Hubster got obsessive about picking the sliver OFF the new bar. So now I just throw the damned sliver away. I have zillions of little tricks I do to save money, so I don’t feel guilty about that. ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![Chicken\_Fingers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Chicken\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicken_Fingers)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2019, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoda-thunk-it-soap-slivers/828844/54 "2019-02-05T15:26:00Z")
I save bacon grease. I also meld old soap bars to new. We each have our own individual soap bars in our house. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2019, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoda-thunk-it-soap-slivers/828844/55 "2019-02-06T03:56:44Z")
But do you have your own individual bacon grease? ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2019, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoda-thunk-it-soap-slivers/828844/56 "2019-02-06T19:26:33Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > But I do turn fraying shirt collars to get a few more years out of them I had to google this since I couldn’t picture it in my head. It never would have occurred to me to do that much repair for a shirt [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoda-thunk-it-soap-slivers/828844.md?page=2)