For what it's worth, Gerry, this is what I do to minimise debris around the kitchen and to get the soda bread ingredients from mixing to oven as quickly as possible:
1. All the dry ingredients (except the dried fruit and nuts, if used) get weighed or measured directly into a large plastic bowl and are thoroughly mixed together, principally to distribute the salt and bicarbonate of soda as evenly as possible.
2. The fruit and nuts are then added and mixed with the other dry ingredients.
3. The milk (non-dairy in my case) and the acid (currently white wine vinegar for me) get measured into a graduated small plastic jug and mixed together.
4. The 'milk' and acid mixture is then poured into the large plastic bowl containing all the dry ingredients and everything is mixed together with a table spoon until the ingredients look to be evenly distributed. This usually takes about 30 seconds to perhaps one minute maximum.
5. The mixture is spooned into a loaf tin pre-lined with non-stick baking paper and gently pressed down with the back of the spoon to roughly fill the corners of the tin. I roughen the surface of the mixture so that I get some crunchy brown bits on top of the loaf after baking.
6. Baking time!
As you can see, I don't dust with flour and don't put ingredients or the mixture on a work surface.
Washing up? A large plastic bowl, a small graduated jug and a spoon. The baking tin is protected by the baking paper. If you've got a non- stick loaf tin you probably don't need non-stick baking paper.
I hope this helps.
Colin