I bought a scale for weight gumpaste for my figures from aine2's tutorials then I turned it into a multipurpose use by weighing out my shortening. I stick the container on the scale - zero it out and pull out the weight of one cup shortening. No more greasy measuring cups. I HATE cleaning in general so the disaster after cake I hate too. So by weighing ingredients I can just measure from the containers right into my mixing bowl. Lot's less mess. Totally worth the 50 bucks I spent on the scale. I got the tip to measure ingredients from here. Love disposable bags. I do reuse them from time to time it just depends on how motivated I am when I clean.
Judi
higginspeg.....I do the same thing 
It seems to make the clean up easier. I don't make that many cakes, but this weekend I had 2 cakes, a bunch of cookies, a sick baby and a 3 year old who turned my mixer on full blast with powdered sugar in it. Needless to say my kitchen is getting a full scrub down as we speak(I'm taking a little break) But I find if you clean as you go it's not AS bad. My DH always offer to clean up, but never seems to get around to it. And when I'm done cleaning he will say "I was going to do that in a minute" 
His timing is impeccable
higginspeg.....I do the same thing
It seems to make the clean up easier. I don't make that many cakes, but this weekend I had 2 cakes, a bunch of cookies, a sick baby and a 3 year old who turned my mixer on full blast with powdered sugar in it. Needless to say my kitchen is getting a full scrub down as we speak(I'm taking a little break) But I find if you clean as you go it's not AS bad. My DH always offer to clean up, but never seems to get around to it. And when I'm done cleaning he will say "I was going to do that in a minute" His timing is impeccable
dear nickshalfpint - LOL -- It does go better if you clean as you go. As for sick babies and 3-year-olds, thank goodness that is behind me, but I have three big dogs, two of which wait on the sidelines until something hits the floor and I don't look at it, then they come clean it up and go back where they were, thinking I never saw a thing! As for DH's who clean, mine doesn't realize that when we eat dinner and I take my dishes to the kitchen, they don't jsut disappear on their own I actually put them in the dishwasher! Someday, life will be perfect, but I dont know what I'll do then!
Clean up is the most tiring for me...... and it's worst if I can't get all the clean up done before I deliver the cake......I hate that.... but a stop at Starbucks on the way home and I'm good to go.....
I try and clean as I go but that doesn't alway happen.
I scrape bowls, beaters, knives, etc as clean as possible of icing and use hot.. hot soapy water for everything.....Dawn seems to work the best for me and my hands don't dry out to bad... (No dish washer)
If only a little cleaning fairy would show up once in a while.
"I believe" "I believe".....do you think it will work?
- parchment, wax or newspaper on the counters to catch the spills and mess. When done, wad up the paper and over half the clean up is gone. The 18x26 parchment sheets are great for this.
- I also put parchment under the cake's cooling racks to catch the crumbs and the pool of water that forms from the steam from the cake.
- paper plates or 12x12 sheets of wax paper (Sam's Club) are great to lay crisco coated measuring cups, spoons, beaters, etc, instead of laying them directly on the counter. Wad up the paper the clean up is done.
- keep a wet cloth handy AT ALL TIMES! Wipe down after EVERYTHING you do. Put sugar in the mixer? Wipe the counter. Adding a little more sugar? Wipe the counter. Dribbled some egg white and missed the 12x12 sheet of wax paper you had laid out? Wipe the counter.
- Disposable bags all the way! They are SO cheap and I only use 2-5 a day.... or less.
- Keep a trash can next to your counter. I have a commercial kitchen so the trash can can slide right underneath the stainless steel table and I just push everything over the edge of the table, right into the trash can! Pure Heaven!!!
- Bench Scraper: Ever wonder how it got it's name? Because you use it to scrape your "workbench" (i.e. counters) area clean! Use that baby to scrape everything into one pile, shove it over the edge into your trash can, then wipe the counter with wet cloth. Quick, simple and easy.
- Mix the icing ahead of time and have it all it a big container that can be resealed. At the end of a cake, I dont' have a mixer to clean up, and I just put the lid on the leftover icing and set it aside .... no cleaning to do there!
- Using various colors in your cake? Mix the colored icings in disposable cups or bowls, using plastic spoons to mix. (Since I'm a caterer, I always have TONS of this stuff around, so it's easy for me.) When done, there is zero clean up ... it alll goes in the trash.
- For those concerned with the landfill and "green" aspect of all of my disposables .... consider the cost of the plumber when all of that icing and butter and shortening starts to build up in your drain, unless you have a grease trap (and still, there's a cost to clean that out periodically). I put as much of the "garbage" in the trash as possible, and that including bags, bowls, and spoons. I even take a paper towel and wipe down the rubber scrapers, mixer beater, etc before washing them.
- Tips: I spray the heck out of them with my sprayer and lots of hot water. (commercial, high powered sprayer)
- Saw one tip on here some time ago that I liked ..... have your dishwasher empty so when you hand-wash the dishes, you can put them in the dishwasher racks to dry .... saves you counter and sink space as you're working.
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