These are A Few of My Favorite Things, an on-going, once-a-month series that sheds some light on, well, my favorite items throughout my home. (To read through all posts in the series, click here.)
In this Cleaning Supplies Edition, I'll be looking at five different tools that are necessities in my cleaning routine. Not that I love cleaning, because I don't. But these make the task at hand easier, which means that I can then get on to doing the things that I really enjoy!
1. Mop with washable covers
: Okay, truth be told: I do not enjoy mopping. At all. I'm fine wielding a broom and sweeping things into a dustpan. But a mop? Not my cup of tea. That being said, it is still something that has to be done. Given that reality, I like this mop that we got for a wedding present because it doesn't involve hauling a huge bucket of water; we just fill a spray bottle with a water-vinegar mixture. Also, you use washable terry-cloth covers so that you're not pushing dirt atop dirt, which makes the task a bit more bearable!
2. Baby-bottle cleaner
: Such a handy tool to have around, especially since we now have to hand-wash everything. It is great for getting into the nooks and crannies of all our water bottles, glasses and skinny-mouth jars. The one shown here is fancier than mine, but I picked mine up at a dollar store and it's worked just fine!
3. Pail for food scraps: This is a tip that I picked up from a former co-worker: Stash your perishable food scraps in a lined bucket (good way to reuse those produce bags from the grocery store) that you keep in the fridge until it's full and you can toss it in an outdoor trash can. If you're anything like us, our kitchen trash can fills up pretty slowly, and I don't want foodstuffs rotting indoors, getting smelly, or attracting bugs. (Ick.) We use a pail that we had lying around, but this one from Urban Outfitters is way cuter.
4. Copper sponge: There's been a lot of study regarding all of the germs that live on generic sponges, which convinced me to give ours up. But a copper sponge avoids being a breeding ground for bacteria, plus I love that unlike steel wool, it doesn't rust or disintegrate. I've been using mine (Chore Boy brand) for about 6 months (!!), and it does a great job of scrubbing any glass, our bone-china dishware or stainless steel surface with any stuck-on food residue.
5. Bon Ami
: I was looking for a good way to clean some of the gunk that had burned on to one of my pans, and came across a recommendation for Bon Ami. The best part about it is that it is safer to use than other cleaners because it doesn't contain any chlorine, perfumes or dyes. I found it at Publix for 89 cents and figured I might as well give it a try. This has now become a staple that I use for all my deep cleaning, whether it's on stained pans, dishes or even my bathroom floor.
Related Posts
A Few of My Favorite Things: Cooking & Baking Edition
A Few of My Favorite Things: Kitchen Tools & Gadgets
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In this Cleaning Supplies Edition, I'll be looking at five different tools that are necessities in my cleaning routine. Not that I love cleaning, because I don't. But these make the task at hand easier, which means that I can then get on to doing the things that I really enjoy!
1. Mop with washable covers
: Okay, truth be told: I do not enjoy mopping. At all. I'm fine wielding a broom and sweeping things into a dustpan. But a mop? Not my cup of tea. That being said, it is still something that has to be done. Given that reality, I like this mop that we got for a wedding present because it doesn't involve hauling a huge bucket of water; we just fill a spray bottle with a water-vinegar mixture. Also, you use washable terry-cloth covers so that you're not pushing dirt atop dirt, which makes the task a bit more bearable!2. Baby-bottle cleaner
: Such a handy tool to have around, especially since we now have to hand-wash everything. It is great for getting into the nooks and crannies of all our water bottles, glasses and skinny-mouth jars. The one shown here is fancier than mine, but I picked mine up at a dollar store and it's worked just fine! 3. Pail for food scraps: This is a tip that I picked up from a former co-worker: Stash your perishable food scraps in a lined bucket (good way to reuse those produce bags from the grocery store) that you keep in the fridge until it's full and you can toss it in an outdoor trash can. If you're anything like us, our kitchen trash can fills up pretty slowly, and I don't want foodstuffs rotting indoors, getting smelly, or attracting bugs. (Ick.) We use a pail that we had lying around, but this one from Urban Outfitters is way cuter.
4. Copper sponge: There's been a lot of study regarding all of the germs that live on generic sponges, which convinced me to give ours up. But a copper sponge avoids being a breeding ground for bacteria, plus I love that unlike steel wool, it doesn't rust or disintegrate. I've been using mine (Chore Boy brand) for about 6 months (!!), and it does a great job of scrubbing any glass, our bone-china dishware or stainless steel surface with any stuck-on food residue.
5. Bon Ami
: I was looking for a good way to clean some of the gunk that had burned on to one of my pans, and came across a recommendation for Bon Ami. The best part about it is that it is safer to use than other cleaners because it doesn't contain any chlorine, perfumes or dyes. I found it at Publix for 89 cents and figured I might as well give it a try. This has now become a staple that I use for all my deep cleaning, whether it's on stained pans, dishes or even my bathroom floor.Related Posts
A Few of My Favorite Things: Cooking & Baking Edition
A Few of My Favorite Things: Kitchen Tools & Gadgets
: I already mentioned 
, 
and 
. These three are the heavy-hitters in my kitchen nowadays and make slicing and dicing a breeze!
: I put off buying a scale for awhile but now I use it quite often, especially when I'm altering recipes or even just wanting to mail a package and know how much it weighs! This one is handy because you can also put a dish on it and zero out the dish's weight so that you're only weighing the food you put into it.
: I wanted to get away from using aerosol spray cooking oils, and discovered the Misto, which is a manual, natural alternative. Basically, you pour whatever oils you want into the container, and then pump the top up and down to build air pressure in the canister, which then allows you to spray the oil evenly. I use this whenever I'm sauteeing or even to coat the inside of my bread pan. (Try it if you decide to make my 
: We originally got a large plastic cutting board, but I found that having a smaller one has been so much handier and less of a chore to clean. I just keep it on my countertop all the time, for easy access, and then chip-chop away! (Note that this is similar to my cutting board, but mine is a no-name brand. It's roughly the same size, which is what matters most to me!)
: Ah, finally having a funnel. Before buying this handy convertible funnel, I ended up crafting ones out of leftover cereal boxes or sheets of paper. Needless to say, this is quite the improvement! Plus, I love that all three pieces fit together, depending on how large or small of a funnel-mouth you need to use. I was hoping to find a funnel that was metal rather than plastic, but I never had any luck. 
: It took me awhile to give cast iron a try, but now that I have, I will never go back! This is pretty much the only skillet I use, so much so that it stays on the stove-top all the time. (Although part of that is also likely due to the fact that it's pretty big and doesn't really fit anywhere else!) I also love it because it's so simple to clean up; no soap needed! 
: Sometimes I try to multitask a bit too much, resulting in dishes that end up extra-crispy (or worse). So a timer quickly became essential. (This one also allows you to take the temperature of your food, but we don't use that option very often.) I like that this one has strong magnets on the back (our previous timer met an early death by falling off the fridge) and a loud beep that you can't ignore.
: This book has been a standby in my kitchen, because invariably I have a recipe I want to try, only to discover I have run out of eggs or don't have allspice in my spice collection. Detailed with specific substitutions, this book has the well-researched answers with thorough recommendations of how and when to make certain substitutions. You'll be surprised at some of the easy swaps you can make!
: This is the gadget that I, surprisingly, use the most in the kitchen. I love being able to whip up bread in just a couple of hours, without having to run to the grocery store. I'm still doing a lot of experimenting, but I have nailed down some homemade standbys, including pizza dough, hamburger buns and bagels. The version I've linked to here isn't the exact same one I use, although it's the same brand. Mine is one my mom has had for years (likely a decade) and has kindly let me experiment with for the past year! Given that it's lasted for so long, I feel like I can really recommend this brand! Plus, it's pretty affordable, too.
: I received this as a wedding present, and while at the time I didn't do much baking to speak of at all, I now find that I use this baking stone at least once a week, for everything from pizzas to cookies. So much so that it's now covered in gnarly black and brown stains that it proudly wears like battle wounds, because as they say, "The worse it looks, the better it cooks." (
