what to do with all your stolen toiletries

Posted on | March 16, 2010 |

i’m always impressed when people can resist grabbing as many soaps, shampoos and sewing kits from their hotel rooms as their luggage can hold. i have yet to develop such willpower and rue my weakness everytime i look at my drawer full of miniature bottles. instead of throwing them away, here are some ideas about what to do with them:

use the showercaps to cover leftovers. it saves saran wrap and is a lot easier to work with.
this one’s obvious - after using up all your shampoo on a trip, clean out the bottle and save it so that you can refill it for your next trip.
building off of that last one, i just started a “waters of the world collection.” fill your empty bottles with water from your destination as a souvenir of your travels.
use the shampoo as dish detergent (or just use it as shampoo!) instead of buying it at the store.
melt all of the soaps down in the microwave and make them into one giant soap. you can buy molds here.
krissy just mentioned something that blew my mind: why don’t hotels just refill those big shampoo/conditioner/soap dispensers that hang on the shower wall instead of giving out individual bottles? it would save money and materials. i’ve stayed at a couple places in europe that do this and i did not even miss the bottles at all! while we’re on the topic, i was excited to see that many hotels are adapting to a system where guests must insert their keycard into a slot in the room for the electricity to work. this way, the tv, ac and other devices do not drain energy when no one is in the room. you can’t leave the lights on either.

shower cap…forgot to take a pic of it in use. kind of defeats the purpose, i suppose.

Category: Confessions of a Former Urban Piggy
Tags: old > recycle > toiletries

Comments

6 Responses to “what to do with all your stolen toiletries”

Mary J.
March 18th, 2010 @ 2:04 pm

I love the soap molds!
Isabel
March 18th, 2010 @ 3:01 pm

I made a comment on A.Doan’s blog this morning regarding the Ecouterre article about chemicals in clothing. Now that I realize you are the author, I should instead direct my comments to you.
The article raises many questions for me, such as: does the headline focus on high-end name-brand clothing merely to get attention? What about all the concern we have regarding chemicals in children’s toys and drywall for example that are manufactured in China? Will Inhabitat sponsor an investigation to confirm that such chemicals can be found in garments for sale in the U.S.?
Alexander Wang
April 18th, 2010 @ 2:10 am

Wow,I love the second one!
Mary
June 22nd, 2010 @ 10:35 pm

Actually- I donate them to homeless shelters or drop in centers for street/mentally ill people. There is a great need there.
hari
July 1st, 2010 @ 12:57 am

best bes
best
best
Shedeep
July 5th, 2010 @ 4:34 am

best best

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