Presoaking will help get out most of the wax/polish that are still inside the pad. Just use a high concentration of the car soap or even dish soap so that it will breakdown the wax. After though you have to dry the pad, i usually try to fold them then you could throw them in the washer. With my old applicator pads, I would just toss them in the washer/dryer and if they didn't look great, Id just go buy new ones. I used the cheapo ones from K-mart so it didn't cost much at all.