I wish I'd seen this before I bought a fancy so-called pot brush with a rounded end, which I found was way too large and the bristles were too stiff to get into the corners of even the larger pots. I'm off to buy a paint brush (or raid my DH's collection)!

I use a paint brush like yours for cleaning my pots and it works excellent

has been a discovery by chance 3 years ago;

Hmm, I've just been spraying them with "flat" or "jet" streams from a hose sprayer, and scrubbing with a green nylon scrubber wrapped around a finger. Your idea sounds better.

Often, after I get all the visible soil and salts off a lot of pots and trays, I'll do one dishwasher run for all of them.

With the racks stuffed full and plenty of dishwasher detergent, , I'll let it run for 2-3 minutes. Then I take out the soapy ones and stuff the racks again with the next batch of hose-cleaned pots and trays. Run that for 2-3 minutes. Repeat.

My dishwasher has three stages (pre-wash, wash and rinse). I make sure there is detergent in it for each phase, including rinse. I can get at least 5 batches washed that way with one dishwasher"run". I think the caustic soap is good for knocking out soil diseases and whatever.

Meanwhile I let the ones I took out "soak" in the detergent, like in a big plastic bag.

When they've ALL been through the dishwasher, I take the bag outside and rinse them with the hose sprayer on "Flat" and "Mist". Someone suggested making a chicken-wire "corral" so I could blast them all at once without them getting away. That sounds smart, but I haven't had a chance to test it yet. \

Peter, I found it by accident too. I was washing my trays and I couldn't get into the corners, ends and the little ridges with my scrub brush and yes Rick I had already sprayed them too. When I went looking for something I saw this paint brush and thought I'd try it and it was great. So then I started on my pots and six packs. I loved it! It saved a lot of time and frustration. It also works great for cleaning off cantaloupe and gourds from my garden.

Rick, I put my small enough pots and six packs in a 5 gallon pail of hot soapy water and let them soak and then clean the insides (with the brush) and then stick them in a 5 gallon bucket of clean water to rinse. The trays I rinse with a hose sprayer. Of course I have the pails in front of me while I'm SITTING on a canvas chair. on the patio.

June, I think you'll like it!

Until you got to the SITTING part, I was going to agree with you and say that I've broken my back that way, too.

But yes, the 5 gallon bucket is a good accessory.

Do you find the brush is stiff enough to scour off things that won't come off with water spray?

I don't think the spray get's off as much as the brush but then again If the spray is on strong enough to do any good I haven't learned how to secure a plastic pot or six pack and not get about as much spray in my face and the rest of me as on pot! So maybe if you didn't mind getting that wet, it would. Nah.

>> I haven't learned how to secure a plastic pot or six pack and not get about as much spray in my face and the rest of me as on pot!

Yup, a good strong soil-blasting spray is a little like taking a shower. I usually sandwich pots between two web trays to keep them in place. Propagation trays are easier and you can do many at the same time, laying them all down flat and spraying mostly from above, but at enough angle that you don;t get soaked by back-spray.

To reduce the amount of water I use, I spray them a bit, then scrub them a bit, then spray them again.

I usually spray the trays, scrub them with my brush then spray again too. It isn't my favorite gardening job but on a nice day it's actually kind of relaxing to be out. You don't have to pay that much attention to what you're doing so you can listen to the birds and the other critters that are out and about and enjoy the fresh air.

Amen!

One mistake I made once was to leave the massive clean-up job until I wasn't busy. So I tried to do the spray-cleaning in cold weather.

MISTAKE!

Ooooh! Not fun. It's hard to find time in the summer when there's so much going on but sometimes it's worth it to let something else slide. I've put it off and then had snow come and have to clean them in the laundry room. Then I have to carry the water up stairs and out because I don't want all that stuff in our septic. So now I make a real effort to do it before it gets cold!!