Yesterday I was filling up the soap dispenser when my husband walked into the kitchen and asked me what I was doing.
I thought it looked a little obvious but he was a little perplexed.
Mavis: I’m filling the soap dispenser.
HH: But it says hand soap on the bottle.
Mavis: What are you, the soap police?
HH: I thought you just bought that container at Costco a few months ago..
Mavis: I bought it like three years ago! {4 bottles for $9.99!} I like the container so I fill it up with dish soap when it gets low. You’ve never noticed this?
HH: Why don’t you just buy a new bottle of hand soap?
Mavis: Because Costco doesn’t sell it anymore. And it’s too expensive everywhere else. And anyway, what difference does it make? Soap is soap. I’ve been doing this for years.
HH: Well I don’t think you should put dish soap in a hand soap container.
Mavis: Well la dee dah…. Don’t you have high standards.
Husbands. They’re so strange.
How can they go 30+ years and not know the difference between using hand soap and dish soap and then all the sudden be outraged that you’ve been making the switcheroo all this time.
Do you do this at YOUR house? Do you keep containers that you like and just refill them with whatever is on sale?
Do tell.
Team Mavis or Team HH? I’ve got to know.
Nancy Settel says
Team Mavis and yes it is a husband thing if you ask me……
Diane Buckner says
Team Mavis! I’ve been known to buy something just for the container. But I take the labels off things—sort of an obsessive compulsive thing. Then if it’s confusing I make a nice plain label.
Erin says
I definitely refill the soap containers I like but I don’t put dish soap in them. So I’m a 50/50 split between teams here. I buy castile soap in bulk, dilute it & add a little essential oil. Lemon in the kitchen. Orange in the bathroom. And as far as dish soap goes, every brand seems to have added way more fragrance to it (& advertised it on the bottles as if everyone will be excited about a bunch of overly perfumed dish soap) & it gives me a literal headache. I’ve had to stop buying it in bulk & just buy the fragrance free Palmolive at the grocery store now.
Yma P says
All praise for the fragrance free Palmolive!
Sandra says
I have been using the same foaming dispenser for years, too. I keep it by the kitchen sink and even use it to wash off the occasional plate or bowl. With the foamer you need to dilute it quite a bit, probably 4 parts water to 1 part dish soap.
Denise Cox says
Team Mavis. I’ve been doing this for years and no one ever notices.
Wendy C says
I refill for sure, but refill with hand soap.
Christa H. says
Yes- I refill all the time but I am a bit OCD so I like all items to match and wanted to save money over time and buying hand soaps with their random containers looked messy and got expensive.
I 2019 I bought inexpensive permanent containers for refills and we are still using them.
I bought 6 squared clear glass foaming hand soap dispensers from Amazon for all sinks in the house and fill them 1/3 with Dr. Bronner’s lavendar castille soap and the rest with water and shake to combine.
By the kitchen sinks, I put down 12×4 plain white ceramic platters beside each sink. On each one I put one of the hand soap containers, one taller and skinny squared off clear glass bottle with a liquor pour spout on the top that has my dish soap in it, and a bowl with a scrubbie. Everything looks neat and tidy and I have saved a lot of money over the years refilling.
Sue says
I have a dish soap dispenser mounted on the corner of my kitchen sink, fed from a gallon jug of dish soap beneath. There’s a bottle of foaming hand soap next to the dish soap dispenser that gets refilled at a 5:1 water-to-hand soap ratio.
If I’ve got super greasy hands, I use the dish soap. Otherwise, it’s hand soap, because dish soap is harsh.
I do refill hand soap bottles in the bathrooms with body soap from the showers. Quelle horreur! No one’s ever caught me, though.
So HH didn’t notice the lack of coconut/citrus scent all these years? Imagine that. ;^)