Cleaning Up After A Darkroom Session - What do you do?

[Steve Roberts]

The only time I use soap is for the fixer tray, which gets a build-up of a grey deposit over a printing session. A little soap and a non-stick pan type scouring pad seem to be the most effective way of shifting this.
Steve

[ozphoto]

I use water to rinse off my trays, and every so often break out a great product called Gumption, to clean stains that build up over time. Smear some on a Chux superwipe (specifically used in the darkroom for this), and then rinse off. Great stuff! If you want to clean the kitchen pots and pans with this (or even that grotty steering wheel and knobs on that old car you're restoring) it works wonders - actually it's primary use *is* cleaning pots and pans.

I rinse my developing jugs as I go - easily done, whilst developing and fixing, so clean up takes me about 10 mins all up for film processing, and maybe a little longer for print processing - I make sure to clean the bench-top very well. Stains don't sit well with me, so I'd rather take a little extra time and be sure they're clean and chemical free.

[Jeff Kubach]

I use a bulldozer to clean my darkroom!

Jeff

[Monito]

The only time I use soap is for the fixer tray, which gets a build-up of a grey deposit over a printing session. A little soap and a non-stick pan type scouring pad seem to be the most effective way of shifting this.
Steve

I don't think fixer leaves gray deposits unless it is exhausted or is left in the tray for a very long time (weeks?). I get silver deposits in the developer tray (after many many uses), but never the fixer tray. My fixer trays are white and stay white. I don't scrub anything, except with a soft cloth and rarely that. Never soap for photographic water solutions.

Probably the soap film and the scouring pad have something to do with the grey deposit.

[Steve Roberts]

I don't think fixer leaves gray deposits unless it is exhausted or is left in the tray for a very long time (weeks?). Probably the soap film and the scouring pad have something to do with the grey deposit.

Neither of the first two apply. The scouring pad is the type that's kind to non-stick pans and so doesn't roughen the surface of the dish. It could be the particular combination of process and chemicals and maybe even the type of plastic the dish is made of. Either way, it's no more than a minor irritation in the run of things!

[BetterSense]

Since I have a dedicated darkroom all I have to do is pour the chemicals from the trays back in to the jugs, rinse them out, and leave them in the sink. I might put the negatives away, but since it's pretty low-dust in there, I often just leave them out. It's a great thing having a dedicated darkroom.

[Vaughn]

I don't have my own darkroom. I have been using the university's for the past 35 years. I haul all my stuff out of my office, print all night, and then at 6 or 7am clean everything and put it back in my office before the 8am classes. Takes about an hour to clean up. PITA

[Ronald Moravec]

Rinse and drain trays, clean up spills, wash out bottles, turn off all electricity. Good housekeeping is best done when I am fresh later.

Plain water and set thing so they drain off.