Jumping off the body wash bandwagon to reunite with classic bars of soap comes with benefits for your wallet and the environment. But it also leaves you with a relatively small but still annoying problem: What to do with the little pieces left when you’re almost done with a bar.
One option is to turn multiple slivers into a “new” bar of soap—something that Lifehacker has covered in the past. But there are other possibilities, too. Here are a few more ways to use up the remnants of a bar of soap.
How to use up the final pieces of a bar of soap
Don’t even think about throwing those soap scraps away—especially if you splurged on a particularly nice bar. Try one of these other uses instead:
Keep your clothes smelling fresh
Rinse off the leftover pieces of soap, then leave them out to dry. Then place them at the bottom of a drawer where you keep clothes or linens, or in your suitcase when you travel. Put smaller scraps in a small mesh bag or piece of cheesecloth to keep them together.
Make liquid hand soap
You only need about one ounce of grated soap (roughly one-quarter of a bar) and some water to make your own liquid hand soap. Here are some directions.
Rub over zippers
Have a pair of jeans with a sticky zipper? Or maybe a suitcase that doesn’t zip up as smoothly as it used to? Rub a small piece of bar soap over the teeth of the zipper and it’ll be smooth sailing from there.
Keep your fingernails clean
Run your nails over a piece of leftover bar soap before working in the garden or garage to keep the dirt and grime out, and make cleaning your hands easier when you’re done.
Make a body scrub
Grate leftover soap ends, add some kosher salt (or any kind with slightly larger granules) and coconut oil, and you have a body scrub that exfoliates and gets you clean.
