The Poddy is an everyday tool. Treat it like one.

Everyone develops their own preferences, but the simple rule is: look inside. If the walls look clean after emptying, close the lid and it's ready for the next walk. If you can see any material on the container walls and you're not in a hurry, a quick rinse is worth doing. A rinse is not the same as a soak, and a soak is not the same as a deep clean — each step serves a different purpose and takes more or less time accordingly.

After a walk with firm, well-formed waste, the inside often looks nearly clean. After a messier walk, a rinse will serve you well. Over time you'll develop a feel for your own dog's patterns and what level of cleanup each walk calls for.

There's no fixed schedule — it depends on your dog's diet, the consistency of their waste, and your own standards. The lid being closed is what contains odor, not the cleanliness of the interior. Many users go several walks between rinses without any issues. The Poddy was designed around real-world use — not laboratory conditions. A closed Poddy with some interior residue is not a health risk or an odor problem.

When the lid is closed, odor is effectively contained inside the container. The exterior won't smell. If you open the lid, you'll notice what's inside — the same way you'd notice if you opened any container that's been used. Close it and it's contained. The key habit is simple: always close the lid after use. That's the whole system.

When you see material on the interior walls after emptying and you have sixty seconds. That's really the whole answer. Once you've done it a few times and muscle memory kicks in, it's closer to thirty. There's no timer, no mandatory frequency. The rinse is a maintenance step, not an emergency procedure. Think of it the way you'd think about rinsing a reusable water bottle — you do it when it makes sense, not on a rigid schedule.

Hold the Poddy under the faucet and run water down the inside walls while slowly rotating the container. The water loosens and carries away surface residue as it flows. Leave enough water inside that when you close the lid, the claw is submerged — it soaks clean alongside the rest of the interior. Set the Poddy aside and come back to it at your next bathroom visit. Empty the rinse water into the toilet and flush. Never pour the rinse water down the sink.

That's the passive soak — the Poddy cleans itself while you go about your day. No scrubbing, no standing over the sink. Set it and forget it.

Never pour the rinse water down the sink. It contains biological waste and belongs in the toilet, where the wastewater system is designed to handle it. This is the one non-negotiable in the rinse process. Everything else is flexible — this isn't.

Every few weeks is a reasonable target for most users — more often if your dog's waste tends toward the looser end, less often if you're consistently getting clean pickups. A deep clean is a rinse, followed by a soak, followed by another rinse if needed. Once the interior walls are clear of surface material, a soak in diluted bleach water finishes the job. A utility sink is ideal for this — but a bucket works perfectly well. The goal is a fresh, sanitized interior that's ready for the next stretch of daily use.

Diluted bleach water is effective and safe for the materials in the Poddy — it sanitizes thoroughly and rinses clean. Per CDC guidance, mix 4 teaspoons of regular unscented household bleach (5–9% sodium hypochlorite) per quart of room temperature water. A mild dish soap works well for the routine rinse. Avoid harsh abrasive cleaners or anything with strong chemical solvents that could degrade the resin over time. Always rinse thoroughly with water after any cleaning agent before the next walk. Mix only what you need — diluted bleach solution loses effectiveness after 24 hours.

We don't recommend it — not because the Poddy can't handle the heat, but because of what it's been used for. Emptying the Poddy into the toilet and rinsing it in the sink keeps biological waste out of your dishwasher and away from dishes and food surfaces. The manual rinse and soak method is quick, effective, and keeps everything where it belongs.

The Poddy is made from durable, antimicrobial recycled resin built to last. Signs that it's time to replace: visible cracks or damage to the container body, a lid that no longer closes securely, or significant degradation of the scooper mechanism. With normal use and proper care, the Poddy should last many years — and many thousands of walks. That's the point. One device, one dog, one less bag — every single walk.