What soap do you provide for guests?

[Sharla0]

We try to run as close to a zero-waste operation as possible, so we provide guests with liquid soap in a pump dispenser in both the shower and beside the bathroom sink; yet we've found that some guests want bar soap.

We have yet to find a way to provide tiny bar soap that will work for only a few uses where we are not wasting soap and packaging.

Ideas? What do you use?

[Laurel47]

I love this subject bc I’m always experimenting and trying to perfect my recipes. I don’t use bar soaps. I make my own foaming hand soap and reuse the pump containers. I clean them well and refill. Body soap is the biggest challenge but I recently made one I’m oretty happy with so I’m going to try it in my unit. I’m a hairdresser so I’ve made my own shampoo concoction for years with a professional sls free, green product base that I customize with various essential oils. Biggest issue there is, people expect lather and earth friendly doesn’t produce much, if any. I’m still in the experimental stage with that. So far I just leave pump bottles of everything and refill. 

[Sarah977]

@Laurel47   Yes, lather. The television soap commercials have managed to convince people that soap is supposed to create a veritable cumulus cloud of lather in order to get you, your dishes or your clothes clean.  Long ago, I was surprised to read that all soap and other detergents do is change the surface tension of water so the water can be absorbed.  It's not the soap itself that gets things clean, it's the way it chemically changes the space between water molecules. And it doesn't need to be "sudsy" to do that.

[Victoria567]

Hi@Sharla

A bar of soap shared with many different people?

Think of all those little microbes silently multiplying away ! Ugh!

Please keep to your soap dispenser from a hygiene point of view

[Catherine232]

Lol. Nope. Soap is antibacterial. There are no micro organisms silently multiplying away that might do you any harm at all. People's complete misunderstanding of the bacterial world is a major problem and has been extensively abused by corporations trying to sell. I am a microbiologist and health scientist btw. Those posts about the bacteria on the keyboard/your socks/your soap etc? Those are all bacteria that are a natural part of our ecosystem, and in fact vitally necessary to keep you healthy. You are aware there are more bacterial cells in and on you than human cells that make up your body? They help to protect you from pathogens, stimulate your immune system (to be stronger), assist you in breaking down food, and even make necessary vitamins (K and some of the B's) for you!

By the bye, I provide brand new soap for each set of guests (3 bars). 

[Letti0]

@Catherine232  I have some friends who's children are always sick, she asked me why my children never got sick all the time. I told her that her antibacterial everything was the issue. She took offense at my comment I let my kids play in the dirt and don't require them to be OCD about everything lol... But my statement was completely factual, her children were more prone to colds, infections and such because everything was sterilized in their environment. 

[Sarah977]

@Letti0  Ditto. My oldest daughter is a clean freak- she Lysols everything and washes the floor on her hands and knees with paper towels. A least one of them, her, her husband, and my 2 grandkids, are sick at any given time. Pointing out to her that she's survived to 45 years old and I didn't sterilize her world when she was growing up, she also takes offense at, so I bite my tongue now. 

[Victoria567]

Hi@Catherine

congratulations on your qualifications as a microbiologist and a health scientist.

I on the other hand was a hospital pharmacist and a community pharmacist working at the so called frontline of public medical services, for more than 3 decades career experience, who still has yet to see a bar of soap used within our NHS or in a GP surgery in the U.K.

What I did see were some patients eager to save the odd buck or 2, by going abroad for either ‘cheap private’ dental surgery or ‘cheap private’  cosmetic procedures abroad and then return plus infections to be treated free of charge within our NHS.

The link below makes interesting reading , and that’s why I will not be encouraging the sharing of soap bars, by strangers from goodness knows where they’ve been previously!

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=McBride%20ME%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=6486782 

[Sarah977]

@Victoria567   While many people might think of it as yucky, bacteria doesn't live on soap. At all. Soap kills bacteria. 

[Victoria567]

Hi@Sarah

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=McBride%20ME%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=6486782%...

[Letti0]

One of the things that drives me crazy is the fact that Texas does not recycle for the most part at least not in my area. In Chicagoland 3/4's to 7/8's of my trash was recycled. I pack it up and drop off at a recycle place, but the waste service should have this as an option I'd pay for it, but they don't. I have the pumps for hand soap that I refill, but also supply 2 different sized hotel bars as well as body gels. They are all oatmeal bars, but I keep a supply of the smaller ivory soap bars under the sink, just in case people have issues. 

[Catherine232]

One of the things that drives me crazy is that people think plastic can be recycled. It can't in any meaningful way. Most plastics shred when recycled, producing the tiny microplastics that are really worrying scientists now (it has been shown that essentially all tap water is now contaminated with them, and they're small enough to choke single celled organisms, and potentially infiltrate our own cells). Lest you think your bottled water will keep you safe (while making the problem globally worse) no. Bottled water has twice as many microfibres. 

[Kathie21]

Shower gel in the shower caddy, liquid soap pump on the hand basin, and bar soap by the bath.  For stays of 4 days or less I put out hotel soaps, for longer it's a small but proper bar,  because it works out cheaper.  But most guests don't touch either because they don't use the bath!

[Tara132]

When I first started, I purchased several travel size container kits from the dollar store and, using a label maker in fancy script setting, simply labeled each body wash/lotion/shampoo, etc., and filled with products from the dollar store (typically coconut oil lotion and "clean" scented shampoos, etc).  I thoroughly washed and reused the plastic containers if they were used. 

I have hotel amenities that I purchased my second year and am using up but I hate the waste it produces!  I provide bar soap under the sink (no fragrance, etc) for those that might need it (never gets touched). 

I did see a fantastic idea -which I wish I could find it to give proper credit - the gentleman cut regular bars of soap into smaller 2-3 use sizes and then wrapped them in brown paper (like a tootsie roll wrapper).  He placed these in a glass container with a nice label "Soaps".  They look nice, produce less plastic waste, and are the perfect short-stay size.  I will be doing this little project this winter for next season's guests.

[Kelly627]

I have a bar soap next to the sink in the bathroom for handwashing (on a pretty owl soap tray). The soap stays there until it is a sliver and then I use my mom’s technique of smushing it onto the new bar. Whole foods has bar soap in bins that are unpackaged, and one of my guests left a plastic travel soap container that I have extra bar soap available for use in the shower. I just make sure that the bar is smooth and free of debris between guests, I don’t think you need a brand new bar for each new set of guests. If someone prefers a new bar soap, they can purchase their own to use. I would say as long as it is kept dry and the soap dish is cleaned often enough, you won’t have any complaints!

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Sharla0

if you provide liquid soap and they want bar soap then they can bring / buy their own.

You could however provide a bar soap tray .