Something I realized while testing some of my 72 hours gear. How many of us remember that we have to do dishes? I decided to put in a Scotch Bite Never Rust scrubbing pad in. It has the soap and all built in. Just something I observed that may be overlooked by people.

Charles

I use little bottles of Dr Bronners peppermint soap. Multi-purpose. I can bathe with it or do dishes. The good thing is that if I don't get out all the soap, I know I'm not going to get sick or worse get the runs. <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

Now I have a new idea for yet another PSK container - a plastic "wash tub". Unless you're packing Barbie dishes, an Altoids tin just ain't gunna cut it. But a plastic wash tub (think cat litter pan - for those of you who have a cat or two laying around the house) could perform at least triple duty: PSK container, doing the dishes and keeping the cat in his element (can't bug out without the cat). It could be waterproof and is fairly light weight yet strong. Lids may be optional, or included. And they'll hold a ton of sh...tuff.

I'm sorry. My stupid sense of humor just got in the way again. But you're right. I had completely overlooked the idea of having to do any dishes in a survival scenario. I'm not sure what I'd haul along for the chore. I will be thinking about it, though.

In spite of our recent record rainfall, I still live in a state known for drought and in a longterm drying phase. If I'm in a 72 hour situation my table manners, such as they are will consist of licking any utensil clean of food <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> water may be to precious for washing anyway and clean sand makes a fine cleaner. I saw this atitude as a little boy in Arizona, and saw it repeated in a Tony Hillerman novel. A Dine' acquaintance made coffee, drank it, poured water in to clean the cup, and drank that. " water is precious, sometimes more precious than gold"- B.Travern, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Bonners is great stuff too <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I think a sliver of soap or a small bottle of Dr. Bronners would be great comfort gear -- maybe not for a PSK, but for anything bigger.

(This attitude presupposes a supply of handy-wipes or a bottle of methanol. I pack both items, and use them for sanitation, i.e. cleaning my hands before preparing food. Otherwise, soap of some kind becomes mandatory for protracted hiking, bugging out, or staying in.)

When camping, I've adopted a diet of foods that can be "cooked" by boiling water and adding it to a zip-lock bag.

http://www.freewebs.com/freezerbagcooking/index.htm

When cooking in a pot, I ladle spoonsful of my coffee or tea into the pot, rub vigorously with thumb or fingers, and drink the result. Mmmmmm, yummy. :-0

Bear

That's one of the reasons I like MRE's or homemade MRE's for my kit...no dishes. But over a several day period if you are heating things up..I can see the need. I would think some 000 steel wool would probably do the trick as well...and double as fire starter...if memory serves.

I usually wash the dishes in the cooking pot, if available. If I were in a situation with just my Altoids tin, well....

sue

For those living in an area (like I do) where Yucca is plentiful. It makes for great natural soap assuming that water and a way to sanitize it is readily available. For any other situation, I'm with Chris. Lick it clean, rub with sand, signal for rescue.

Since we have the choice - do not use soap to wash dishes. Use detergent - it's NOT the same. Soap MUST be rinsed off; any residue causes severe GI distress. Detergent in the modest amounts used to wash dishes is pretty benign - I've just wiped it off on occasion when water was scarce. In fact, a close perusal of ingredients for most toothpastes...

Used to be that scouring pads had soap in them. I'd check your package just to be sure.

I rarely carry detergent when afoot. It simply isn't needed. Cutting grease is about the most useful thing that a surficant like soap or detergent does - simple scrubbing and wiping handles everything else well enough. To that end, I usually have a small scrap of green scrubby in the kit - it has other mild abrasive uses as well. On a recent backpacking trip we tried out those detergent-impregnated scrubbies that most of the dish detergent brands seem to have out (Dawn & Palmolive come to mind). They worked very well. Just like traditional scouring pads, we found that they release a LOT of detergent when first used - actually too much for the amount of washing needed - and after a few uses got down to a more reasonable amount of residual detergent.

You could do the same for yourself by cutting a scrap of green scrubbie and dripping 2 - 3 drops of dish detergent into it. Let it dry (may take several days or a trip thru the food dryer) and you're set. If you''re really into it, you can pick up a bottle of that snazzy stuff sold in backpacking stores - wash dishes, bodies, hair, and teeth all with the same stuff. I have used that and it seems to work fine.

As for the steel wool suggestion - eeew! Steel wool is oiled to keep it from rusting. When it's used to scrub pots and pans, lots of steel fibers break off and can be a real pitn to get out of the pan (the finer the steel wool the worse the problem). After you wash something with it, it's chock full of food residue that's imposible to get out and it turns into a lump of fibrous rust almost overnight. That's been my experience, anyway (I had to resort to steel wool a few times - I'll lug home dirty stuff rather than do that again).

HTH

Tom

Reminds me of the joke where a couple of good old boys Out West had the Fussy Aunts from Back East coming to visit. The first night, they had a wonderful dinner, and as they finished, one of the Fussy Aunts asked why the plates were nailed to the table.
"That's to help with the clean-up," one good old boy said, wherepun he opened the front door and whistled loudly. Two hound dogs came bounding in, leaped on the table and proceeded to lick the plates clean, to the shocked amazement of the Fussy Aunts. They left the next morning.
Relating the tale to his buddies at the feed store, he said, "It took a long time to train them dogs to do that, and even longer to break 'em of it, but it sure was worth it!" <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />