My girlfriend and I have found that if you drink the salt water when it is ice cold, it goes down quite a bit easier. I agree with some of the other posts that suggest that each day of the cleanse, it does get easier to get and keep the salt water down.
Also, I made the mistake of putting 2 tsp. of the salt into a 20 oz. bottle. I had already put the other tsp into another 20 oz bottle so I had to drink it with both teaspoons in it. The effect was still the same, if not greater in intensity. Just a note to the person that might try the salt first and then chase it with the water. It might work as my experience suggests that more salt in a lower concentration of water produced a similar if not greater effect.