Cleaning up equipments!

[Johnray]

How do you clean up after soap making? I get lumps and chunks in the measuring cups after i pour it into the mould. Do i just flush them down the drain? I'm afraid that it is going to choke the pipes.

Or am i doing something wrong that is causing it to have a mash potato texture?

 

[Dawni]

Is it CP? I wait a day or two until it becomes soap and then I scrape the soap of with a spatula, and hand wash in warm water.

Oh wait, what do you mean by mashed potatoes?

 

[Johnray]

Is it CP? I wait a day or two until it becomes soap and then I scrape the soap of with a spatula, and hand wash in warm water.

Oh wait, what do you mean by mashed potatoes?

Yes it is CP soap.

I went on to read more and realized the accelerated hardening might be caused by adding in the fragrance oil and then using the processor. Instead the oils should just be whisked or stirred in.

Oh wells, just on my second loaf. Lots more to learn.

 

[earlene]

How do you clean up after soap making? I get lumps and chunks in the measuring cups after i pour it into the mould. Do i just flush them down the drain? I'm afraid that it is going to choke the pipes.

Or am i doing something wrong that is causing it to have a mash potato texture?

For clean-up of CP soap left in the bowls & so forth, I do this (or a combination of the following):

1. wipe out as much residue as possible (first using a silicone spatula to get most into my soap molds) and then
2. with a paper towel which then goes into the trash (I don't always need to do this, depending on how well I do #1)
3. allow bowls, utensils, etc. to sit overnight or longer to dry out completely - soap completes saponification
4. soak bowls, etc. in hot water, which becomes soapy with the dried soap, and wash as usual

No plumbing clogging occurs when I do this.

ETA: I should point out that I use a pretty low SF; usually about 2%. When my SF was higher (5%), I had to wipe down with paper towels to help get rid of oily residue. Spraying alcohol on the soap dishes after that and then wiping down again, also helped with the oily residue on my dishes.

 

[dibbles]

I do the same as earlene ^^^ I scrape the bowls as clean as I can and wipe everything (bowls, stick blender, spatulas) with a paper towel. Let it sit and hand wash. I always use Dawn dishwashing liquid as it seems best to cut through the oil. Spraying alcohol does remove any oily residue, but I don't often find it to be necessary.

 

[Obsidian]

I don't like to waste paper towels so I just let the bowls and stuff sit for a few days then I soak and wash.
I have a rubbermaid tub on my porch I put the dirty dishes in so they aren't in my way and are safe while saponifying.

 

[Candybee]

I typically do CP and not CPOP.

For CP I wipe down all my bowls and utensils with paper towels before washing. That way I don't have a bunch of oily soap batter going down the drain. I don't want my drains to get clogged so I am very careful to clean off as much as as possible. Paper towels work perfect for this.

For CPOP I also wipe down what utensils and bowls and the crockpot that I can wipe down with paper towels. Prior to wiping down thou I use a rubbermaid spatula to clean out as much soap batter as I can. Then I do my wipe down with paper towels. My crockpot tends to have smallish chunks of soap left on the surface so I just wash off what I can scrape off or wipe down. With the crockpot the leftovers are already cooked so I don't worry about it too much as it should continue down the drain and out to the sewer without sticking to my pipes.

I go through a buttload of paper towels and buy them by the truckload. LOL

 

[KiwiMoose]

I do CP and I wash up immediately. I soap in my kitchen so can't leave dishes out.
I scrape all I can out of the bowls of the soap batter - they are usually pretty clean anyway, I like to mold up ALL my soap even the end bits, so the jugs, etc are pretty clean, just oily.
I wash them out with hot water and dishwashing liquid, then put them in the dishwasher.

 

[Johnray]

Thank you for all your responses. The forum has really been a lot of help although I am only at my second loaf.

I am doing a summary too on what I have learned and what are my observations. Hopefully, then someone could correct me or point me in the right direction to get better-looking soaps!

 

[Marilyn Norgart]

I have my maid do it for me!! oh...…….wait, I just dreamt that--- grrrrr. I do pretty much what everybody else does--I used to throw stuff in the dishwasher but some micas don't play nice and will hang on everything so you wind up scrubbing everything by hand anyways. I have two sinks full of soapy dishes waiting for me when I get home again. I cant make soap until I get them done so its got some incentive to it. I usually keep up on it better but wanted to get as much done as I could before I left for a few days

 

[Johnray]

I have my maid do it for me!! oh...…….wait, I just dreamt that--- grrrrr. I do pretty much what everybody else does--I used to throw stuff in the dishwasher but some micas don't play nice and will hang on everything so you wind up scrubbing everything by hand anyways. I have two sinks full of soapy dishes waiting for me when I get home again. I cant make soap until I get them done so its got some incentive to it. I usually keep up on it better but wanted to get as much done as I could before I left for a few days

I saw on some website saying that you shouldn't dump it into the dishwasher though. Is there a reason for that? Like will it damage the dish washer?

 

[Marilyn Norgart]

I saw on some website saying that you shouldn't dump it into the dishwasher though. Is there a reason for that? Like will it damage the dish washer?

I think it meant before it is saponified (you aren't supposed to put much down the drains before sponification either) plus regular soap in the dishwasher causes too many suds and it comes out the door. but if there is a little bit of soap on stuff it doesn't cause problems. the mica on the other hand is horrible to get off of stuff --the heat makes it stick pretty good

 

[earlene]

For those who have limited space or soap in the kitchen and don't want soap dishes lying around in your sink or elsewhere visibly for a day:

With limited space, it's tough, but here are some thoughts:

One of my brother puts dirty dishes in a wash tub under his kitchen sink & pulls the tub out to wash the dishes when he is ready to wash dishes. I remember Fly Lady used to suggest this (back when Fly Lady was a thing.) A closet or other kitchen cupboard if there is space, would also work for this purpose. Even a corner of the garage could work for a temporary place to sit overnight in a portable wash tub.

A spare bathroom with a spare shower is handy, when you have one and don't use it in the traditional sense. I have such a shower in the small bathroom down the very short hallway from my kitchen and that is where I put my soap dishes overnight to wash the next day (or two). A laundry room with a stationary tub would also work well for this, unless the washing machine drains into the tub and you have to do laundry before the soap saponifies sufficiently.

I read of another soaper who put all her wipe-out the soap-bowls into a bucket and let them dry out for a few days (thus not wasting paper, as she didn't like using paper towels). Then washed all together in her washing machine. I use an HE washer and high suds washing is discouraged in HE washers, so have not gone that route.

Just some thoughts of alternatives to leaving your soap dishes out and visible.

 

[cmzaha]

I hate any type of dirty dishes or soaping equipment sitting around. So I do as Erelene and clean out all I can get out with a scraper, then I take old rags from a batch I keep just for wiping out my bucket and measuring cups I use for soap. I then toss the rags in a bucket for a few days, until they are now soapy not oily.

Being so paranoid about dirty dishes I even wash everything in between batches, which could up to seven batches on a good day. But not many of those days anymore. I soap in hdpe buckets so I fill them with hot water, Dawn and some additional degreaser, which is where I wash all the utensils, by then the bucket is clean and the water is tossed over my bank, and over the roses when aphids are bad. It keeps the whiteflies and aphids at bay, so a win win. I have to much plumbing problems to put the water down the drain, even when all is wiped clean. Sometimes I tell myself I will not take as long making my batches and not wash in between , but nope, that does not happen. When and if my buckets feel a bit oily even after a good washing I spray them with alcohol.

Forgot to add I never never put my soaping equipment in my dishwasher. It just does not take much to leave a film in the dishwasher. Soap itself can also clog drains.

 

[steffamarie]

I do the scrape well, let saponify, and soak before hand-washing method of cleaning up. After I've hand washed them, though, I DO put most of them in the dishwasher if there's still an oily film. The only difference is that I add a small amount of tetrasodium EDTA powder to my dishwashing powder to help chelate any extra stuff that's in there and that seems to help prevent my dishwasher from scumming up. I use the EDTA in my soap for chelation but it's not concentrated enough to help an entire dishwasher load. If I don't use the EDTA, I often find lots of soap scum type residue on my plastic buckets/spatulas.

 

[MGM]

Since we turned our basement apartment into my soap kitchen, I now have a dedicated dishwasher! I put in some dishes that I'd left until they turned into soap. But I also had a number of very oily jars, so I thought maybe i should put a small amount of detergent in. Oopie!

 

[earlene]

Since we turned our basement apartment into my soap kitchen, I now have a dedicated dishwasher! I put in some dishes that I'd left until they turned into soap. But I also had a number of very oily jars, so I thought maybe i should put a small amount of detergent in. Oopie!

Oh my gosh, what a sudsy mess! I had that happen once, but it wasn't even soaping dishes. A very clean floor, but OH WHAT A MESS to clean up!

 

[MGM]

Oh my gosh, what a sudsy mess! I had that happen once, but it wasn't even soaping dishes. A very clean floor, but OH WHAT A MESS to clean up!

Luckily I caught it pretty quickly... I had gone down to the basement to get the dog towels out of the dryer and found this. So, clean dog towels just went onto the floor to mop up. However, had I not noticed until the cycle finished, or the next day.....