A family can go through a lot of liquid hand soap. With washing hands multiple times a day during the Covid-19 pandemic, the amount of soap used can be greatly increased. Long before the pandemic started, I began using foam soap dispensers in my kitchen and bath. All you have to do is fill the dispenser with dish soap to the line at the bottom. Then you fill the rest with water and slowly swish it around to mix the soap and water. One container of dish soap will last a long time.

I found a study that said foam soap may not be as effective, but in that study they only scrubbed their hands for 6 seconds.
It was said that more research needed to be done. That article was written in March of 2017, about three years before the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020 began. We have been advised during the pandemic to scrub for 20 seconds. It seemed logical that the extra time would cause more lather to work up. I decided to scrub for 6 seconds and then 20 seconds, and see what happened. There was quite a difference in the amount of foam after 20 seconds. You do have to make sure you give a good, firm pump to get the intended amount of foam. I suppose if you had children who were old enough to pump their own soap but not strong enough to give a firm pump, that could be a problem. Possibly you could have them do two pumps.

Some websites speak of unhealthy ingredients in hand soaps, and some say they are less environmentally friendly than dish soaps. Some hand soaps and dish soaps may have fragrances or dyes that cause allergic irritation. There is a fragrance-free, dye-free dish soap by Palmolive, and there are some other natural ones that may be more expensive or less easily accessed, made by companies that produce natural products. To a fragrance-free dish soap you could add a drop or two of an essential oil to which you are not allergic. The essential oil would be an extra expense, but it would last a long time, since you need very little. Some say ant-bacterial soaps are not such a good idea for wide-spread use by the public. They fear they will cause bacteria to mutate and be harder to fight.

If you decide to buy foam soap dispensers, there is, of course, an investment in the dispensers, to begin with. I found some at a store, but you should also be able to find some online. If you don’t want to invest in them right now, maybe you could buy dispensers filled with foam soap and then refill them with dish soap and water. They may not last forever, but they may last a while. You should use 1/5 dish soap and 4/5 water when you refill them. One of my pumps has gotten to where it was reluctant to release back up. I think I may have used a little more soap than I was supposed to the first time I filled it. It’s probably important to be careful to get the right ratio. When it wasn’t working properly, I took off the cap and kept pumping hot tap water through until the water was clear. Then I put it back on. I noticed one website had instructions for a more intensive unclogging process by taking the pump apart. If you decide to try using foam soap, I hope you will find it as helpful as I have.