If you go online and read websites or posts in Facebook groups, you’ll find a plethora of suggestions on how to clean and prepare your eggs for writing pysanky.  Some scrub with baking soda, other soak in vinegar, yet other have their own complicated routines. 

As for me, I do what I learned from Helen Badulak’s book: I wash my eggs with warm water (room temperature) using Ivory dish soap. She recommends the original scent version.  In my travels I have used other dish soaps, including Fairy liquid, with good results.

Scrub off any dirt with a Scotch-Brite or similar non-scratch scrubber/sponge. 

This will usually get off most stains.  I have been told that stubborn stains can be scrubbed with some baking soda paste, but I haven’t had much luck with that.

If there are stamps on the eggs placed their by the egg company, those are more of a problem.  Soap will not remove them.  What will remove them, I have been assured, is a Mr. Clean magic eraser (or similar cleaning sponge):

Once the eggs have been washed and rinsed, pat the eggs dry gently, lay them out on a dish towel or other absorbent surface, and let them dry off.

NEVER store wet eggs in such a way that they stay wet–in a bowl with water on the bottom (as in the photo below), on a surface which keeps them wet rather than wicking away the water.  The cuticle will get waterlogged, and the wet areas of the egg will absorb the dye poorly.

Definitely NOT the way to store or dry your eggs!

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