AIBU: handsoap?

[Dottdoo]

What's the view?

Is it unreasonable to switch to a bar of soap instead of pump dispensing handwash in bathrooms and kitchen? I made the switch in our ensuite and it's lasted yonks. Plus no plastic to throw away and storing bars of soap is easier. I'm converted.

But I can't help thinking would guests be thinking 'ewww no hand-wash in the bathroom only a bar of soap, this is disgusting?'

Plus is a bar of soap as hygienic for washing hands in the kitchen?

YABU - ewwww gross, save the planet but do it with clean hands at least and without weirding out visitors
YANBU - it's soap - does the same job, do it! I might do it now too! Or/ I already do this.

Bar soap is less gross than liquid soap! When you use liquid soap you’ve got the pump that you touched with dirty hands but with a bar of soap you just touch the soap itself which is inherently clean.

This reminds me. Every time my PiL stay with us they do something which turns the bar soap into a sludgy mess. As if it’s been left sitting in water for hours, soft all the way through.

I’ve never had the courage to ask them what it is!

@NarcissasMumintheDoghouse

Soap gets rid of stuff, it doesn't kill germs. A bar of soap can retain live bacteria.

Of course it does. Why do you think hcps wash their hands thoroughly with soap and water in clinical environments?

We switched to soap bars a couple of years ago. Wouldn’t switch back now, tbh. Cheaper, lasts longer, and it’s better for the environment.

I can't use most bar soaps because they irritate my skin (too drying!). I'd avoid them for that reason, not because they're "dirty".

@deadlanguage

Bar soap is less gross than liquid soap! When you use liquid soap you’ve got the pump that you touched with dirty hands but with a bar of soap you just touch the soap itself which is inherently clean.

Does touching the pump matter though, when you're washing your hands directly after? Not something that's ever bothered me, tbh!

I think these are great for avoiding sludge. You push a metal disk into the top of the soap and there's a magnet in the holder - so you can just hang the soap from the holder. Genius

I have both in our house. Bar soap in our bathroom.
Touchless soap dispensers in the bathroom and kitchen.

We have both.
Downstairs bathroom has liquid soap as most often used by guests
Kitchen has liquid dish soap in pump and bar soap. People can wash hands with fairy if they prefer or go wash in bathroom 2m away

I sometimes use a bar of Dove soap in ensuite. My inson used a bar of Dove soap in his shower room. In family bathroom I put liquid soap and in downstairs toilet liquid soap and liquid soap in kitchen. I like Dove liquid soap though as I don't like dried out hands.

I tried using soap instead of handwash but it seems to turn to sludge so I've gone back to handwash.

I'm trying to use up all the bars of soap we've accumulated over the years in the shower but I hate it really. Our water is so hard that you never get it to lather and I never really feel clean. Can't wait to go back to shower gel.

I use bar soap in the bathroom both for hand and hair washing .
I was given a huge container of liquid soap which I use in the kitchen but once that is gone ( in about 3 yrs ! ) I will go back to bars of soap there too .

The only thing I dont like about bars is what to do with all the bits once they are too small to grip easily , I was going to buy a sponge and cut a hole in it and shove the soap in but that seems to defeat the object of using less plastic ! plus how do you rinse it after using it without wasting the soap ( I use a flannel )

I have bar soap in our en-suite and main bathroom, liquid soap in the downstairs loo (guests use that toilet) and liquid antibacterial in the kitchen ( both liquids are refills, so you still get packaging unfortunately but not as much)

I use bar soap in the shower, bar soap in the bathroom for us and liquid soap for the kitchen or when guests come. I prefer using liquid soap after handling raw meat, it's easier to clean places like under the fingernails and rings, but it's in a reusable glass bottle that gets refilled by the milkman. I don't mind the odd bit of beard hair or whatever in the bathroom soap, but I'd prefer guests to have a clean glass bottle to use.

@NewYearCalavicci

I use bar soap in the bathroom both for hand and hair washing . I was given a huge container of liquid soap which I use in the kitchen but once that is gone ( in about 3 yrs ! ) I will go back to bars of soap there too .

The only thing I dont like about bars is what to do with all the bits once they are too small to grip easily , I was going to buy a sponge and cut a hole in it and shove the soap in but that seems to defeat the object of using less plastic ! plus how do you rinse it after using it without wasting the soap ( I use a flannel )

Collect all the bits and squish them together in a small dish, eg a ramekin. It forms another bar of soap.

Use bio d liquid hand soap, bought a 5 ltr while ago, lasts ages, never buy bar soap

we use bars of soap, but if I am expecting guests then I whip out the glass bottle of liquid handsoap in case they find the bar off putting. Once guests are gone, I hide the bottle again so my DC are forced to use the bar.

Bar soap is ‘eww’?
I think I have now seen the height of MN hygiene-freak lunacy.

^This. I use bar soap. Better for the environment, better for your skin, and cleans just as well as liquid soap. Some people seem to just invent random, paranoid stuff about hygiene. It's ridiculous.

We use bar soap, mostly due to liquid soap drying our hands out. I put a pump bottle out for guests though, so they can choose.

I know what you mean about some people not liking bars in others' houses.

Liquid soap is crap and dries your skin out anyway, bars are better, the only place that shouldnt have bars is public toilets because eeewwwww.

Surely the soap only turns to sludge if you leave it in the sink in the water. Most sinks have an indentation by the tap which is meant for soap.

@NewYearCalavicci

I use bar soap in the bathroom both for hand and hair washing . I was given a huge container of liquid soap which I use in the kitchen but once that is gone ( in about 3 yrs ! ) I will go back to bars of soap there too .

The only thing I dont like about bars is what to do with all the bits once they are too small to grip easily , I was going to buy a sponge and cut a hole in it and shove the soap in but that seems to defeat the object of using less plastic ! plus how do you rinse it after using it without wasting the soap ( I use a flannel )

@NewYearCalavicci

Mash the bars together & wrap your flannel round, lather up & scrub away

Tbh I have a (plastic) loofah, they last years for me, so I mash the bits into that to lather up. I think for our individual use, switching to soap (or dove bars and the like) is a really good way to use less plastic. I’ve been on holiday with a friend who uses an entire 200ml of shower gel in a week (!). The plastic loofahs or a sponge/flannel are so much more economical on soap & shower gel

How well I remember the exclamations in recent times gone by of horrified and disgusted mumsnetters at the thought of using a nasty, unhygienic bar of soap instead of handwash.

@NarcissasMumintheDoghouse

Soap gets rid of stuff, it doesn't kill germs. A bar of soap can retain live bacteria.

If bar soap retained live bacteria, I'd have spent my entire life up until aged 50ish suffering from an upset stomach! Guess what? I didn't. Another vote for common sense bar soap versus anti environmental liquid soap. And Baylis and Harding soap seems to be made in China....

Handwashing technique is far more important than the type of soap used - that's why they have handwashing instructions on the wall in hospitals and the instructional adverts broadcast early on in the covid pandemic.

Bar soap is far cheaper per wash as well - bar soap and shampoo bars last for months.