Soap Solution

Now that it's back to flu school season I am constantly reminding my family to wash hands. In fact, washing your hands is the easiest and most effective way to prevent infectious disease. The Centers for Disease Control says, "Hand hygiene is the first line of defense against a pandemic, the common cold, the flu, SARS, foodborne illnesses, and other infectious diseases. Adherence to proper hand hygiene is proven to prevent outbreaks in healthcare facilities, reduce transmission of antimicrobial resistant organisms, and reduce overall infection rates."

I noticed the regular soap pump was hard for younger kids to mash down with wet hands, not to mention the top of the pump was covered in dirt and germs and who knows what else (eww, gross!). I didn't want to pay the $30-$50 for a refillable automatic soap dispenser from stores. I purchased the Lysol automatic soap dispenser (around $8) and love it. The kids get just the right amount of soap and they like washing their hands because it comes out by itself "like magic". The only problem is that the small refill cartridges only last 2-3 weeks around here and they are not cheap (around $4 each). My solution...have my husband drill about a half inch hole in the top of the soap refill cartridge so I can refill it myself with regular antibacterial dish soap! You can get a bottle of dish soap for about $1 and it should refill the little soap dispenser at least twice. That's saving us about $72 a year! I'll stop there at risk of sounding like a presidential candidate (at least mine is a real savings plan).