Those of us who shower our chains with a daily dose of grit from our lengthy gravel driveway trips often have lurid fantasies of belt drives...
Anyway -- If one has access to shop air, a good [non-OSHA style] blast of compressed air is helpful at removing the bulk of the grit & grime from the chain, the sprockets, and especially the inside surfaces of the front sprocket cover, facilitating a pre-solvent cleaning process, if you will.
Some aluminum turkey baking pans from the supermarket are handy for catching the liquid fall out. Some newspapers under the pans will help.
And now a word from the little old lady fire paranoia beast who lives in my brain: Know that once paper and rags are doused with a flammable liquid, they can indeed very easily burst into flame via spontaneous combustion.
http://www.bartleby.com/65/sp/spontane.html
The flash point of kero is around 100 F, and often much lower with flammable cleaners and solvents*. The paper and rags infuse the flammable substance with oxygen, and makes them very much like a kerosene lantern wick.
The solution? - dilution.
Place the oily newspapers and rags into a water tight container filled with enough water to cover the paper and rags, then cap the can for disposal. A large coffee can could work, although state law may prohibit disposal in this manner.
* F'rinstance, the flash point of gasoline is minus 50 F. Ouch.
