Last weekend one of my errands was to replenish the liquid soap in our Manhattan kitchen. I had used Molton Brown products for years — White Mulberry was my favorite scent– and I thought I’d stick with that. Until I actually looked at the price: $25 for the standard 10 oz bottle. With the matching lotion, that’s fifty dollars to wash (and moisturize) our hands. Kray-zee. Put another way, that’s $2.50 per ounce, the cost of a really good single malt scotch. Would Daddy rather have a bottle of Laphroaig, or hand soap? Um, let me think . . . . There had to be a better solution.
For the soap, the solution came from a familiar source. We’ve used Method and Mrs. Meyer’s cleaning products for years. They smell great, with scents like Geranium, Sea Minerals and Lemon Verbena, and they’re made with natural, non-toxic ingredients, so they’re easy on your body and the environment. Both brands now have full lines of liquid soaps in attractive packaging (particularly Method) and at reasonable prices (about $4 for a 12 oz pump bottle, or $0.33 per ounce). Better yet, they sell large bag-like refill containers that bring the price down to $0.18 – $0.24 per ounce (Method is $6.00 per liter and Mrs. Meyer’s is $7.99 per liter — yes, that’s per LITER) and use far less plastic than traditional bottles. Both brands are now available at major stores (I got my Method at Home Depot), but many do not yet carry the refill sizes. You can get those, and all of their other products at www.methodhome.com and www.mrsmeyers.com.
In the end, I felt that my little hand soap project was a successful exercise in home economics: we saved money, improved the aesthetics of our everyday lives and helped the environment a bit, all at the same time.
