Clean anything doughy with cold water.  Or let your sponges, scourers, and brushes dry then scrape off the dough.

I stay away from sponges. They are just too tough to clean. I use a plastic scrubber that is made of a heavy duty netting for getting the heavy stuff off. I rinse out my bowls, Danish dough hook, scrapers, etc. in cold water, then they go into a hot soapy water soak. I know that a lot of people claim cold water is the key, but for me, hot soapy water is a faster clean up.

One thing I forgot to mention was that my Oxo silicone sink strainer makes getting all that goopy dough into the trash a cinch.

I try to avoid water in the clean up until the very last.  Scrape everything down with a spatula, plastic dough tool, metal tool or paint scraper depending on how dry things are. I don't use much cloth but cover mainly with oiled plastic wrap. 

Stuck on dried starter really needs a good soak.

Liz