Being new at this....what is the best way to clean or wash items e.i. tips, bags...etc. Everything I use seems to leave a residue.

Dawn is the only thing I use - oh and disposable bags!

I think some people boil water with dawn in it and soak their tools... I've never tried it though.

Very hot water and soap. I usually will fill a bowl with hot water and soap, throw in my tips and bags. Then go about doing the rest of the cleaning while they soak. When everything else is done, cleaning those is pretty much a matter of rinsing the frosting off.

Dawn & Hot Water is the perfect solution, I always fill one of the sinks with that and throw in tools, bowls and etc...as I go.

For my tips and couplers I have a white mesh little zippered laundry bag (similar to the Wilton one you can buy at Michaels but mine came from the the Dollar Tree for a whole lot less). I let them soak in a bowl of hot soapy water to get the frosting off and then I toss them in the bag, zip it up, and throw it in the dishwasher. I have put some the plastic Wilton bags in the dishwasher point down with a spoon inside holding it up in the silverware holder of the dishwasher (after letting them soak in hot soapy water too and rinsing off any frosting). It didn't seem to mess them up but the ones I put in were kind of old and starting to get little slits on the part that sits on the coupler so I didn't really care if it did mess them up since I was replacing them anyway. Not sure if it would decrease the lenght of usability if you put new bags in the dishwasher. For everything else (bowls, beaters, etc) I just soak it all in hot soapy water and then toss whatever I can in the dishwasher and hand-wash anything else with regular dish detergent (sometimes takes a few washings to get all the greasiness off.) HTH

Dawn works great, but 1 time I thought I'd throw them into the dishwasher and that made the nice finish on them turn funny as I forgot and proceeded putting lemon shine in the dishwasher to as always big mistake Live and learn..
I'm just back to hot soapy water soak and then wash again in hot soapy water.

"Very hot water and soap. I usually will fill a bowl with hot water and soap, throw in my tips and bags. Then go about doing the rest of the cleaning while they soak. When everything else is done, cleaning those is pretty much a matter of rinsing the frosting off."

I do this as well with Dawn. I put all my tips and couplers in a glass of hot water with dawn. I let that sit and soak while I clean up everything else. Then I use a bottle brush to get down into the tips.

dawn all the way,.

I use dawn and water for tips and couplers, throw them in a bowl with the water level covering the tips by at least half an inch, and microwave for 5 minutes. I use disposable bags for small icing bags, and a larger "cloth" bag (with the icer tip for fast icing) which is much easier to wash than the plastic/vinyl ones that Wilton sells. After rinsing them out, I turn them inside out and throw them in the dishwasher on the top shelf. You can also use one of those baskets they sell for baby bottles/nipples in the dishwasher for the tips and small items.

Dawn and hot water.....

Seconding the Dawn and hot water. I do my tips like mentioned above in the microwave, works like a charm on those tiny star tips and drop flower tips that are a PITA to clean, even with that dumb little brush Wilton sells.

I turn my bags inside out and scrub them in Dawn and hot water too, gets grease out really well.

I actually don't buy any dish soap other than Dawn. That's what they use to get oil spill crud off wildlife, and it works well even to get grease spots off clothes or vaseline out of children's hair. (Or the cat.)

dawn is really harsh on my skin so i stopped using it and swiched to method. their dish soap is awesome. and smells good. plus cleans just as good as dawn.