Avoiding Wastefulness

In thinking about the girls' bathing routine there was one piece that annoyed me. Since bath time is viewed by two small children as a time to play, and clearly not a functional washing period, we often struggled some in washing hair. So we decided to just not do it anymore. Kidding!

See, once you get past the whole "I promise I'll try not to dump a whole bucket of water in your eyes so please stop shrieking" part, there's the "why won't this soap EVER come out of your hair" annoyance.

In looking into the problem deeper, it was blatantly obvious that the large amount of shampoo that poured out of the bottle was the culprit in annoyance and wastefulness. I don't know if you've noticed, but attempting to get a small amount of shampoo from the bottle while trying to assure child's lack of drowning and tip the bottle just right to keep from palming a mountain of shampoo was challenging.

So after running across this idea in frugality, I thought it would work well for our shampooing needs as well.

So we converted our shampoo into foaming shampoo, which our children now call "whipped creme on your head" followed by hysterical laughter. Way to go Ms. Creativity. ;)

We worked together on this project: me filling an inch of shampoo in the bottom of a foam dispenser and adding water to about an inch from the top. (shown on our sensitive soap)

 Inch of soap in dispenser.              Water added to 1 inch from top.

After the lid was screwed on, Rachael and Abi began their participation. (It took us five minutes so we did it during lunch - hence the bibs). ;)

Shake, shake, shake...

And voila! Foaming shampoo that's portioned out well. (shown below: soap, not shampoo)

2 Squirts for Abi. 3-4 Squirts for Rachael. And then we rub in the whipped creme. ;)

It comes out of their hair much better, since it's not in abundance, and it saves us money in avoiding wastefulness.

Win, win!

We also used a really cute dispenser, "Hello Kitty", which is a THRILL to our children in getting to use the "kitty shampoo." - Gotta enjoy life where you can. ;)

We also tried this for their sensitive skin body wash (pictured above). Now, since the bodywash is lotion-based it squirts out of the foam dispenser unevenly, causing much hysterical laughter as the bathtub wall sometimes receives a spraying. But, it works well enough to prolong out the life of the soap and "portion control" the "liquid gold" soap for our little sensitive skinned kiddos.

Plus, slapping a label on it helps too. ;)

We tried this method for our handsoap dispensers too, using liquid handsoap (which always comes out of the pump squirters in WAY too large an amount for little hands). Now the foaming soap is fun, well portioned, AND my counter/elbows don't catch the extra soap waste every time we wash hands. YAY! More Wins!

- maybe this could help you too. =)