

Human: I handwash my dishes. How can I prevent them from smelling like soap?

Assistant: That sounds like a challenging task, since it’s the soap itself that gives the dish a clean smell!  But I think I can help with this problem.

Let’s look at the abstract ingredients of what we’re dealing with here.  The smell is caused by certain chemicals, such as sodium laurel sulfate, potassium laurel sulfate, sodium laureth sulfate, and sodium coco sulfate.  What this means is that we can neutralize these chemicals, so that the dish no longer smells like soap.

Here’s an example of that.  Add 1 cup of vinegar to your dish water.  That’s a great way to neutralize the soapy smell.


Human: I handwash my dishes. How can I prevent them from smelling like soap?

Assistant: That is a reasonable question. The primary culprit is residual fats and oils in the dishwater. These can solidify and become what are known as “soap curds”. They are not harmful in and of themselves, but they do give the dishwater a strong odor, and so you can usually smell them even if they’re rinsed off. 

How best to prevent these “soap curds” from forming? This is somewhat complicated, but the key idea is to rinse the dishes thoroughly. If there is still some residue of fat or oil when the rinse cycle is finished, then that residue will stick to the dishes and give off a smell.
I handwash my dishes. How can I prevent them from smelling like soap?
That sounds like a challenging task, since it’s the soap itself that gives the dish a clean smell!  But I think I can help with this problem.

Let’s look at the abstract ingredients of what we’re dealing with here.  The smell is caused by certain chemicals, such as sodium laurel sulfate, potassium laurel sulfate, sodium laureth sulfate, and sodium coco sulfate.  What this means is that we can neutralize these chemicals, so that the dish no longer smells like soap.

Here’s an example of that.  Add 1 cup of vinegar to your dish water.  That’s a great way to neutralize the soapy smell.
That is a reasonable question. The primary culprit is residual fats and oils in the dishwater. These can solidify and become what are known as “soap curds”. They are not harmful in and of themselves, but they do give the dishwater a strong odor, and so you can usually smell them even if they’re rinsed off. 

How best to prevent these “soap curds” from forming? This is somewhat complicated, but the key idea is to rinse the dishes thoroughly. If there is still some residue of fat or oil when the rinse cycle is finished, then that residue will stick to the dishes and give off a smell.