Cleanup

[Neve]

It's killing me. Stuff says in the sink for days whilst I try to soak all the oils/wax/soap off. Husband won't let me put the soaping stuff in the dishwasher anymore, even on its own. Our water doesn't come out of the tap particularly hot and the flow is pretty low as well. I don't really want to use the food scrubbing brush either (although it's pretty old I guess I could get a new one for food).

Is there an easy way? I want a tidy kitchen!

 

[Ruthie]

Have you tried wiping them out first? Like with paper towels or an old towel which can go in the washer? I find that cuts my cleaning a lot.

 

[Lidyax]

I wash the equipment after 24 hours. Then I soak them in water for a few minutes before washing. The oils have turned into soap and therefore easier to clean. Sometimes I don't even use dishwasher liquid! Just the residue that has turned into soap.


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[eyeroll]

I usually wipe everything out with rags, then just throw the rags in the washer the next day (without laundry detergent - bonus!) with sheets or towels. It does help a lot with cleaning up my soap pots and pans.

This weekend I used judymoody's tip and scraped all my drips of soap batter into my stove drip pans and used that as a soft scrub cleaner. It worked really well.


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[Neve]

What about when it's just oils? Like measuring jugs etc. and lotion bar mixes. I broke a beaker tonight in the sink

I found the soap bowl hard to clean too. I'm using Palmolive and it doesn't work.


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[la-rene]

What about when it's just oils? Like measuring jugs etc. and lotion bar mixes. I broke a beaker tonight in the sink

I found the soap bowl hard to clean too. I'm using Palmolive and it doesn't work.


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We use Ajax. It works pretty good. Though the best is a liquid soap mistake that I made a while ago. It's crazy harsh and even cleans out fragrance oil bottles on the first try. Palmolive is marketed to be really nice on hands, so it might not be enough to clean your oils off.

 

[lsg]

I wipe off my equipment, containers and utensils first with paper towels. I then fill my soap making container with hot water/my homemade dish detergent and wash off everything else in that, rinse and dry.

 

[neeners]

I leave things until the next day or two when the oils have turned into soap. then put a kettle on. while waiting for water to boil, i'll scrape the leftover soap from the containers and squish them into a clump of soap for the kitchen. when kettle whistles, i pour hot water into the soap container, and stick blend. that way my stick blender and containers get clean. if they need more cleaning, then i'll just wash them out like a regular dishes.

oh, with the oil containers, I use the leftover hot water from the soaping container to wash the others out....I try not to waste as much soap as I can.

 

[moonbeam]

I use my spatula to get as much as possible scraped out, then I follow that up with paper towels, those thick blue ones they have in the automotive section, then cleaning is pretty easy

 

[shunt2011]

I just wipe everyting out and then wash as usual with Dawn dishwashing detergent and a sponge.

 

[Saswede]

Soap is a terrible drain clogger, and a water pollutant - so I agree with everyone who said that they wipe everything off with spatula and/or paper towels before washing up. The less soap that goes down the drain unnecessarily, the better! Both for our plumbing and for the environment.


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[dixiedragon]

I use a silicone spatula to squeegee out all the oils into the soap pot, then the soap pot into the molds. Wipe everything down thoroughly with paper towels. I use Dawn. Never got while PalmOlive is gentle on hands. Isn't that why we have dish-washing gloves? I like to use the dishwasher detergent (we use a powder) as a scouring agent for really tough things.

After I wipe things down with paper towels, I wash them in a sink of HOT HOT water, sometimes more than once. THEN I will run them through the dishwasher.

I'm wondering if your not-very-hot water may be part of the problem? You may want to look into turning up the temp on your water heater, or even just boiling some water on the stove.

At my parents' lakehouse, the water heater is small and not very powerful, so you can't fill a bathtub with hot water. I got a cheapo old plug-in coffee pot at a thrift store. I fill it with water and plug it in, then empty it into the tub when it's hot.

 

[Neve]

Thanks for the tips! I bought the blue paper towels this morning and a three pack of cheap plastic spatulas. I needed new stirrers anyway.

I've had to boil water to soak off beeswax so maybe I should to that to fill the sink too after scraping and wiping.

I just ordered a bunch of supplies - some local women are putting in $20 ea for a basket of goodies to test. Win win- I get my stuff paid for, I get to keep soaping and I get feedback. So I'll be messing up the kitchen a lot!


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[dixiedragon]

Beeswax - I save a can (not a soda can, a food can), wash it, and use some pliers to bend a spout into it. I put my beeswax in the can, then put the can in a pot of water, so it's a double boiler. I grip the can with tongs and pour the wax from the can into the soap pot. This way, I don't have to try to melt or scrub off beeswax!

I use the same method when making lip balm.

 

[lsg]

Same here, I melt beeswax in a clean can.