What's big enough to sterilise bottles in?

[The Cardinal]

I've got 40+ empty bottles that a mate of mine gave me (following a party). I filled up the bath with hot water, bleach and baby-bath and left 'em in there to soak off the labels and hopefully clean 'em all out. Then I rinsed 'em all out (only to find some dirty b****** had stuffed the remains of a chicken drumstick in one of them, and they've been sat in my garage for about 3 months!). Thing is, when I come to bottle up my brew in them, I'm gonna have to sterilise them and go through a lengthy cleaning rigarmarole (is that how you spell it?) once again. It's a bit of a pain using the bath, as my evening brewing routine tends to clash with the little'uns bed time, and my missus doesn't fancy letting her bathe in a bleach filled bath bobbing with empty bottles What do other people use to clean/soak/sterilise this amount of bottles?

And one more thing, whilst I'm here. So long as the bottles are sterilised properly, does it matter if they've still got a few stains and bits of gunk in them?

[oxford brewer]

I aquired a new 70litre bin which easily holds 48 grolsch bottles...no longer use it as i only bottle now and again(and only 16 bottles at a time)
I wash the bottles in the sink,then rinse and dry.Then the bottles have a little diluted betadine poured into each one,sealed up,shaken about and drained after being shaken a few times and then rinsed with some water that has been boiled and cooled.Much easier than leaving to soak for 30 minutes and rinsing,rinsing and rinsing again

[mysterio]

I clean them in the bath tub, usually I squirt a tiny bit of bleach in each one then fill them with the hot water tap and let them stand.

Much easier is to stick them in the oven at 110 C for half an hour or so, this will adequetly sanitise your bottles. Hotter temperatures for longer will even sterilise them if you want. Don't try this with Grolsch bottles though, as the stoppers are plastic and will MELT

You can do either ahead of time and cover the tops with sanitised tin foil until you're ready to bottle.

[Frothy]

I clean ahead of time & store in boxes, the use of a bottle brush & holding the bottles up to the light is good for checking they are clean on the inside.

@ bottling time a quick rinse & a squirt of sanitizing soln' (Sod Met or Betadine.) Sod met lasts for a long time. If you remove the down tube from one of these cheap squirt bottles it works great with bottles if you hold it upside down.
http://www.gssdist.com/SB910.gif

Bottle trees are pretty darn handy
http://www.homebrewery.com/images/bottletrees.jpg

Frothy