Lye for cleanup

[Catscankim]

I know you all might shiver at this. I mean, you use lye aka drano to clean out gunk from your drains all the time right?

Had a really tough cleanup ahead of me with the salt soap. The leftover bits of batter were so hard on everything....the wisk, SB, bowls etc. it was really caked on bad and i kept renewing the water with fresh hot water. Wasting a lot of water.

i put my soap gear on lol, and poured some lye in the sink. No explosions happened lol (probably because of the water:lye ratio = just a bit). Everything was almost melted off and all squeaky clean, almost, in about 10 minutes. I was ready to throw stuff away lol.

i might do this from now on. unless i hear any solid objections. Is all soap equipment, and i cleansered out the sink after. We all use drano in our sinks

 

[DeeAnna]

Yeah, I'm sure the lye works. Be careful though -- it can be hard on the sink and also on the metal fitting that connects the sink to the actual drain (don't know what that fitting is called.)

But a big squirt of Dawn dish detergent works too along with using hot water (as opposed to lukewarm or cool water). I put the Dawn directly on my scrub pad or cloth so the detergent stays concentrated when scrubbing the utensils and containers. I don't think I run a lot of water when cleaning -- only enough to rinse the detergent off.

I've tried regular "real" soap for this type of cleaning, and I don't think it works as good as Dawn for this purpose.

 

[TheGecko]

Bad idea...bad, bad, bad.

MUCH better idea...go to Amazon and buy yourself a dozen microfiber towels; 2 dozen for $16.00 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B010N0N7PQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1). Use the towels to wipe off all the batter from your equipment as soon as your put your soap to bed, don't let the soap dry. You can use the towels wet or dry. If you want to wash your equipment right away, you can spray them with some 'orange degreaser' from the Dollar, rinse then wash, or you can set them aside in a tub to wash the next day

 

[Obsidian]

I always leave my soaping equipment sit for a day or two before washing so the remnants saponify and is safer to handle.
Of course this makes the left overs rock hard but giving it plenty of time to soak will soften it right up.
I put the all the utensils in the soaping bowl and fill with hot water. In a couple hours everything is dissolved and easy to clean.

 

[Kamahido]

I always leave my soaping equipment sit for a day or two before washing so the remnants saponify and is safer to handle.
Of course this makes the left overs rock hard but giving it plenty of time to soak will soften it right up.
I put the all the utensils in the soaping bowl and fill with hot water. In a couple hours everything is dissolved and easy to clean.

I too let my tools harden for a day or so before putting them into a sink of hot water. I don't want unsaponified oils gunking up my pipes. Already had major plumbing issues from that.

 

[Jersey Girl]

when I first started soaping I was having issues getting everything squeaky clean as well. I have since developed a routine using a combination of ideas I have learned from this amazing community that works great. I prefer to clean up after soaping. I tried the method of letting things saponify and doing it the next day but still had a greasy coating it seemed. What I do is fill my kitchen sink with hot water and dawn dish detergent when I first start soaping. Things that aren’t greasy get tossed in as I use them. Like @TheGecko, the batter bowls and anything with greasy batter or oil on it I wipe out 99% with old washcloths and toss them in the soapy water as well. After soaking about an hour, I drain the water and use a sponge with a generous amount of detergent and wash everything in hot water. Everything comes out squeaky clean. Then the washcloths get tossed in a bag and sit in my laundry room until I have enough to do a load. I toss them in with the saponified soap on them (no laundry detergent). They come out clean and smelling great.

 

[IrishLass]

There's not much soap batter left to clean up when I'm done soaping. Whatever batter is left over in my pot or other mixing vessels & utensils gets scraped into a guest-sized MilkyWay mold with my handy silicone spatula (I have a really good one that scrapes/squeegees practically every last drop out/off with ease). When done scraping/squeegeeing, I spray everything down with a mixture of Dawn/vinegar that I keep on hand under the sink in a reclaimed Lysol Bathroom Cleaner spray bottle (1 part Dawn to 2 parts white vinegar), which gets everything squeaky clean in no time.


IrishLass

 

[Catscankim]

Thanks for all your ideas. The lye cleaned it up so nice and quick, but because of Geckos stern warning to not do that, i wont lol.

so i bought some dawn and microfiber cloths like a few ppl suggested, and its working wonderfully.

thanks again. I was at the point of quitting just because of the dishes lol.