How To Make A More Effective Soap Dish

Here’s an attractive and easy way to address a perpetually slippery problem.

CREATIVE SOLUTION | It may not be the biggest problem of our time, but how do you keep a bar of soap from turning into sludge—or sliding all over the place?

Some time ago, I spotted a bar of soap sitting high and dry on a mesh cushion filled with pebbles. A friend told me her grandmother had a similar soap drainer filled with marbles. Unlike those techy looking soap dishes where wet soap can rest in a kind of gooey water, pebble and marble soap holders drain particularly well and are easily rinsed.

My soap drainer sits on the edge of a bathtub or sink, but you could customize one to fit into an existing soap dish. I chose a flanged cushion design sewn with waterproof nylon thread, adding old jeans buttons to the corners for decoration.

How To Make A Soap Drainer

There are two basic materials. The mesh is standard fiberglass screening used in windows and doors. It is available at hardware stores in black as shown or in silver grey. The stones are epoxy-coated aquarium stones; the coating makes it easier to rinse the soap off when it starts to build up. —Brendan Power

Photo: Heather Ross