Washing Dishes on the Trail?

[JW_Parker]

How is the best way to wash dishes with limited water supply? I always seem to have a problem. I need help.

[ArmySGT.]

Hmmmmmm depends on the amount of necessities one hauls.

1. You could wipe them down with bread for a the little bits then scrub them with hot water and pine needles or rough grass.

2. Three shallow buckets soap, rinse, sanitize.

3. Let the dog lick them clean.

[Shamrock1121]

I'd practice the same thing I do at home. I regularly do dishes in less than a gallon of water - when I'm really generous - but for a few dishes, I use this method.

1. Remove as much food as possible.

2. I "wash" them with a gadget that looks like a sponge on the end of a plastic tube.

Here's one version of them:
http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1275898

They are designed to hold the dish soap, but I put a drop or two of dish soap in the tube and fill it with hot water. It makes quick work of the dishes with only a few ounces of water.

3. A quick rinse and you're done.

I bet you could pack a small zip-lock bag of soap inside the tube since it takes so little soap to do the dishes.

You can find some of these gadgets with a scotch-bright type scrubber on them, which would work well for tough stuff...

I also add a few drops of grapefruit seed extract to the wash water. This will sanitize the sponge (sponges are a great place to grow bacteria). I always carry a 0.3 fl. oz. bottle of NutriBiotic - Traveler's Friend in my purse, so having it while on the trail would be one of those things in that zip-lock bag in one of my cargo pants pockets. Great stuff!

I'd also take some sheets of Reynolds Wrap Release (non-stick) foil for lining those pans that would get "icky". Light-weight. You can quickly wipe or wash it off and reuse it and maintain a clean pan. You can actually use it AS the pan. Cooking in foil is a great way to cook. http://sne.tripod.com/foil.htm

I'll be interested to see how others manage. I just hate to waste any more water doing dishes than is absolutely necessary.

-Karen

[leera]

When we go camping,I take a small tub,soap and a dish cloth with me.

On the campfire or camp stove I heat enough water to wash the dishes(heat it to the hottest point you can handle without burning yourself),and then rinse them in cold water.If you wipe the dishes of food before you wash them,it takes very little water(less than 1 gallon to wash dishes from two people).

I use a dish cloth rather than a sponge because it's easier to dry it out,and I can take one or a few and they don't take up much space.You can throw them in the washer with your laundry when you get home too.

You can also get travel size squeeze bottles to put soap and other liquids in,it's easier than hauling a full sized bottle of dish soap around.

[rockymtngirl]

I usually follow the 1 gal or less rule = hot water in the dish pan (I'd say about 1/2 gal). I usually just bring a SOS pad and wrap in a piece of foil so it doesn't rust. Wash in 1/2 gal hot and then rinse with warm/hot water from the kettle (this is a big old tea kettle - probably holds close to a gal of water). I like the SOS since it already has soap - one will usually last almost a week and it will scrub off anything. I do remove all visible food before washing - scrape into the fire usually.

[leera]

I forgot to do the dishes one night,and just left everything sit out on the table.......got woke up a few hours into the night by a large black bear who was having a grand old time tossing the dishes all over the camp site......

[rockymtngirl]

Yikes Leera! At least he didn't toss you! LOL

[cinok]

lesson I learn in scouts and still do till this day get off all the food you can wash them in warm water then rinse in hot water or better yet boiling water with a little bit of bleach to sanitize we had no running pluming at our place for almost a year so we had 2 old canning kettles one wash the wash the other was the rinse we used a dunk bag to rinse. No one ever got sick we reused the water a couple of times and keep lids on them

[leera]

YIKES is right!....didn't get much sleep that night!

I won't ever leave the dishes undone after supper though,EVER AGAIN!

[kberg]

Good info! Would you change anything in a survival situation?

[bookwormom]

we had to camp while we built our house and hauled water from a neighbor in milk jugs. I did my cooking in a WOK, one pot dishes mostly, as I had to cook over an open fire. so, scrape out the wok as clean as possible, add water and a dab of soap, put back on the fire, wipe the dishes with a sponge so they are almost clean, squeeze out sponge then wash the dishes in the wok, rinse , last wash the wok, discard water, rinse and dry.

[Gwynyvyr]

I lived in a tent for five months.
My usual dish washing routine went:
Scrap any food residue off dishes.
Put food residue on stump across creek for neighbors (raccoons)
Scrub pots and pans with sand (yes, SAND)
Brush out sand
Get water from creek, boil, wash off dishes with a smidge of soap (I used lye soap for this--and everything else!)
Rinse dishes in boiling water
Dry and put back in basket in tent.