DIY Handwash Station for the Car

Warning: long-winded back story.

When I was younger, my Dad always had a container of Wet Ones in the car, to wipe up the dust that invariably builds up, as well as for the occasional messy hands.  When we got our own car, I started the same habit, but eventually stopped, because we used them so infrequently that they would invariably be dried out by the time we needed them.  It was fine, though, because there would often be a packet of baby wipes in my bag. However, once the kids were out of diapers and the messy learning-to-eat-properly phase, I got out of the habit of buying wipes.

When Facebook started advertising a new portable hand-washing station (a bottle with an integrated foaming soap dispenser), I was very tempted to buy it, because while we sometimes had hand-sanitiser on hand, they worked great for killing bacteria before we ate, they didn't work very well for the sticky after eating messes. However, it was selling for almost USD40, it was too rich for my blood, so I never got it.  Then the company came up with an adapter that one could use in place of the bottle cap on disposable water bottles.  Which works great for reusing those bottles, thus reducing waste.  But they were almost USD30, and once again, I was too stingy to buy it. 

When the pandemic struck and the plan was for the kids to return to school, and I decided to buy a pack of mini sanitizer dispenser bottles so that I could fill them up with hand sanitizer and attach one to various bags we often use so that we would always have hand sanitizer on hand regardless of which bag we used. (Because I don't always use the same bag, I often found myself with no hand sanitizer.)  So one day, it occurred to me to fill one of the mini hand-sanitizer bottles with liquid soap instead, and to attach it to a freebie sports water bottle that we never used and was just taking up space in the cabinet. I do recommend this type of spout because the flow of water can be regulated easily, and thus we don't run out of water before everyone can wash their hands. It now lives under one the the seats in the car and has come in handy numerous times.

And that is the story of how we got our portable handwashing station.