DIY Soap Dish Hack

DIY soap dish hack with twigs, twine and saucer.

This soap dish hack takes a thrifted china saucer and adds a handmade rustic wooden soap holder to keep the soap from getting gunky.  I was using some candy dishes originally thrifted for my wedding reception as soap dishes, but they broke.  You might argue that part of the reason I hack is because I’m ‘picky’…but I don’t see it that way (just like I don’t see myself as ‘bossy‘).  I’m not just selective, I also like re-using simple, versatile objects rather than buying fancy, complicated systems (ugly, expensive, also expensive, messy, also messy).

Checking for lead on thrift store china saucer.

The first step in this hack – and in any hack that uses objects of unknown origin – is to check for lead.  I use 3M Lead Check Swabs because they had the best consumer and lab reviews of all the home lead tests I researched.  I also tested them myself on the test card that comes with them as well as on some solder I knew to contain lead, and found a positive result easy to distinguish from a negative result.  So, I feel pretty sure I can trust them.  Happily, these thrift store china saucers had no lead and I started using them as soap dishes right away.

Goopy soap, nasty soap dish.

However, the soap quickly turned into a goopy mess because it was sitting in water all the time.  To combat this, I needed something to keep the soap raised off the surface of the dish.  I though about crocheting a soap bag with a thick natural fiber, but I’m not very good at crocheting, and I needed the fix quicker than it would take to brush up on my skills.

I thought maybe I could use some tiles or rocks or pieces of wood to keep the soap off the dish, but loose objects would just get stuck on the soap and fall into the sink and all over the counter (and I have a toddler, so…yeah…).  Then, I thought I could tie some pieces of wood together but I figured that would look too kludged (oh goodness, there’s a rabbit hole of hilarious fails to get lost down into).  However, if I used natural sticks instead of lumbered pieces of wood, I thought it might look nice.  I gathered some sticks from the park behind my home and tied them together with some jute.

Sticks tied together with jute.

The keys to this hack are to use sticks that are dry and don’t have peeling bark.  You also need to make at least two large knots in between each stick to allow room for the sticks to fit together since they aren’t straight.

Place the first stick in the middle of a length of cut jute.

Make a simple knot around the stick with both pieces of jute.

Make a second knot and place the next stick between the two pieces of jute.

Continue for the remaining sticks, tie off with one simple knot and repeat at opposite end of sticks.

The finished product – I like the silver rose china pattern china with the rustic sticks and jute.

This hack worked great for a day and then I noticed a bit of mold on the sticks.  I took the rustic wooden soap holders and soaked them in a solution of alcohol and water for a day.  Since then I haven’t noticed any more mold.  I think the mold probably came from outside and in hindsight, I should have done something to kill it off before using the sticks. Oh well, it’s fine now.

A nice, clean soap dish and no more goopy soap!