Great idea. Do you just run the wash without soap? I'd throw a tide pod in there with mine but the damn kids ate them all.
Naw, I prop it up in the silverware rack so the big end is up where the wash water falls down from the top tray. And run it with the normal daily dishes and pans. It takes time (you can stop the wash, pull it out and rinse it out in the sink). Like on the dishes themselves. I'll pull it out after the wash (as it drains the wash and fills the rinse) if I'm around and anxious to use it. A rinse in the sink, shake/wipe out the water that's easy to get and let the heat of the next session finish the drying. The wash cycle is like 15-20 minutes, I can usually amuse myself that long doing other useful things.......
I do other stuff this way. Some stems and MPs (like the QQ from Divine Tribe) go right over a 'peg' on the lower rack. Solo stems and little bubblers (which I'm fond of) get a small plastic funnel coupled with a short piece of tube to catch more wash water to flush through.
And it's detergent, not soap. And hot. Much more effective than soap or dish detergent like Dawn (it can be much more aggressive since you don't stick your hands in it? Dishwasher detergent is made to fight just the sort of hydrocarbon junk we foul our gear with. PBW is an example of an extreme of this idea. And it includes buffers and chelation agents to combat the hardest of waters and random 'junk' that otherwise might escape attention. And 'clean rinse' agents to prevent 'soap scum' inside things. Good stuff.
Not sure what to say about the kids. Time was you could occasionally get a sucker to lick a fence post in the dead of winter, or pee on the electric fence, one time. Had to be done in person over time. Al Gore changed that with the internet. Now stupidity can spread at the speed of light.