Teach Soap

Am I being paranoid about cleaning up after using lye? I am going through about a half gallon of vinegar...that's right. Half gallon every time. I wash and scrub and wipe down counters and faucets and nearly everything with vinegar. It's a real pain. What do you do for clean up?

I have vinegar at the ready, but just as long as I clean everything with plenty of water, I have no problems.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I keep a bucket filled with hot water and Dawn dish soap and place all of my oily utensils in it and let them soak while I wipe up any soap drips, etc. I do keep vinegar handy in case of a lye spill, but other than that, I just use Dawn soap and water to clean the counters, etc.

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

I can relate to the paranoia... or over caution. I keep the vinegar handy and when I wash up I pour two 'glugs' into my clean up water. The only thing I do not wash in or with this water is my lye container.

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

Your lye container doesn't need anything else besides a good rinsing with water. It shouldn't be used for anything else. If you wash it with soap, even with rinsing, next time you make some lye water in it you will get some floaties on the surface of the lye water. They are not dangerous, but you want to make sure that all of your lye has dissolved. The floaties make this more difficult.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Thanks all! I did have some floaties last time. I was wondering if it was oil somehow. Guess I will tone it down a bit. It's tiring cleaning up and makes it a bit less fun. By tommorow I should know if I have my first really good batch of soap. Whoot!