Step 8= Soap - choose well, use well and store well.
We already know that it is vital to wash our hands really well before preparing food and eating with our fingers, and after handling raw meat / using the toilet / assisting with toileting / nappy changing / handling dirty laundry / dealing with sickness or other infectious illness.
But did you know that 'really well' means washing all parts of your hands (fronts, backs, sides, thumbs, wrists etc), with soap, and warm/hot water, for as long as it takes to sing the whole of ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’?
Well, now that your hands are nice and clean, how do you turn off the tap? Use the edge of your hand (or touch the tap with a piece of loo roll if it is in a public loo), or if you have awkward-to-tun taps then give the tap a wash (with hand soap) before you wash your hands. On this note, I made sure that our new bathroom taps and new kitchen tap were the type with easy-to-turn handles. So just the edge of a little finger will nudge a tap on and off. This design feature also allows a person lazing in the bath to add hot water at will by turning the tap on with just their big toe. Bliss.
Choose with care the soap that you have by every sink in your house. I prefer plastic-packaging-free bar soap that is anti-bacterial, moisturising and has no / inoffensive scent – your hands can get very dry from regular, effective handwashing and the chemicals that add scent seem to make the dryness worse. My current favourite handwashing bar soaps are the Little Soap Company 'Cleansing Lemon' bar (100g for £2.50 from Tesco) and the potent lemon 'Bohemian' from Lush (100g for £4). Both are naturally antibacterial, with real-lemon fragrance, moisturisng and packaged in paper - or naked - with no plastic wrapper to send to landfill *UPDATE* The Little Soap Company previously used plastic-lined-crinkly-paper (which had me fooled), but the company says it has now switched to simply card/paper packaging, hurrah!
If badly stored, bar soaps leave scum in the sink (which is time consuming to clean as it dries super-hard) and bar soaps are usually to be found sitting in a pool of handwashing water, which is just the damp environment that germs favour. So store yours well! This involves choosing a soap dish carefully...
I always look for a soap dish with TWO layers, one layer with holes in to hold and drain the soap, one layer to catch the drips, without any metal / wooden parts to rust / rot. This ceramic one (pictured), in our bathroom, is from Amazon (LOFEKEA Ceramic Soap Dish), it is pricey at £12 but it is the only one that met the above criteria. It keeps the soap dry and hygienic, meaning the bar will last far longer than if sat in an impractical soap dish - so it should save money (and the planet) in the long run.
And / or opt for a plastic soap dish with STRONG suckers, like this one from Lakeland (for £5) which sticks to the side of the sink with suckers - tightened by a screw mechanism - and which drains well.
***NEW TIP*** Ideally add a plastic milk bottle lid under any soap on a soap dish (see picture above), to lift the bar just above the wet surface - this will make your bar soap last MUCH longer. Small children will need to be supervised so that the plastic lid stays embedded in the soap - also be aware that it could be a choking risk for very small children.
What's stopping you? Look after your bar soap and it will last and last. All together now, "Twinkle, twinkles little star..."