Clean Dishes/Pots Without Soap

This is very important. During my dry run at Bear Ridge I quickly realized that some important items had been forgotten. Notably dish soap and toilet paper. For now lets leave the toilet paper alone and talk about the dish soap. Even if I had remembered the soap it is a finite supply so more would need purchasing or I would have to make it myself. Neither of these options appealed to me so I did some research and came up with a way to clean dishes without soap. This works and conserves water.

How to Clean Dishes Without Soap

1. Find some sandy gravely dirt, with no bugs or organic matter.
   
   
2. Toss a handful into your dishes and scrub vigorously, using it as an abrasive.
   
   
3. Wipe them thoroughly clean. If all the food matter is gone, there won't be much for bacteria to cling to. If you do have a nearby stream, rinse them and dry them thoroughly. Don't use stagnant water, it is more likely to contain parasites.
   
   
4. Remember that the next time you cook, heat the dishes up to sterilize them either before or during the cooking.

How to Clean Greasy Pots Without Soap

1. Remove any chunks of solid matter from the greasy pots. Leave a small amount of grease.
   
   
2. Toss a good handful of clean wood ashes into the pots, and pour in some hot water. Stir it thoroughly and let it sit for a few minutes. While it's sitting, the hot water is dissolving Potassium Carbonate (K2CO3) from the ashes. This makes a strong alkali solution. The alkali water then reacts with the fatty acids in the grease to make soap.
   
   
3. Scrub the pot. The ashes act as an abrasive. If you need more abrasive, add some dirt.
   
   
4. Rinse the pot, and your hands in clean water. You don't want to leave soap or alkali water on your pots or hands.

I will need some time to recover from the trauma before I can talk about forgetting the toilet paper.