(Please note: As an Amazon Affiliate, I (Christa) earn from qualifying purchases. Our hope and dream is that any income earned can help build this business and eventually, once we are in the clear, fulfill the dream of being able to provide “a bit o’ clean” to people that cannot normally afford it.)
THIS IS THE LAUNDRY BASKET METHOD! For a full description of this method, please click on this link!
IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A TALL LAUNDRY BASKET, YOU WILL NEED ONE to three, depending on the size of your mountain of dishes.
Number One: You Need a Good Quality Dish Soap. The following is what we continue to use to save time and money.
Ginger Lily Farms Fragrance Free Foaming/Spray Dish Soap – I found this product while staying at a B&B that was very well managed. (Thanks, Kai!) It has been a game changer for me. Cuts down grease quickly, saves time and energy on scrubbing and is cost-effective by using a reusable spray bottle you save on plastic waste from Individual purchase of traditional dish soaps.
I pair this in my kitchen with the Norwex pump dish soap Forever Refillable BioZyme™ Set with Dispenser
as well as the Blueland dishwasher tablets
and Blueland Powder Dish Soap.
Number Two: You need a Quality Spray Bottle for the Ginger Lily Farms Dish Spray Now if you have something like a Meyers soap spray bottle or some other bottle that you’ve used for soap in the past, you can just rinse that out and use that, but I will tell you there is nothing that I hate more than going to the grocery store picking up a spray bottle and it breaking less than a week later. I have gone through so many cheap spray bottles and I’ve had a few of them purchased that never even actually worked, so I do recommend a quality spray bottle that’s not going to break within the first 3 months. I like the Blueland spray bottles. And so sometimes when I do an order for Blueland I’ll just pick up a couple extra of those spray bottles and then just use masking tape to write on there whatever spray I’m actually using.
Number Three: You need a few quality Scrub Brushes. I love these from Mr. Siga!
They are stiff and long handled and very durable. I used them for prepping and pre-scrubbing dirty pots and pans. They come in a two pack which I find handy. I actually just keep both of them hanging and then if somebody else in the family needs to be using one to clean one pan while I’m cleaning another we have them both accessible. While technically they will work as a bottle brush, they are very stiff so they will only fit in bottles that are that wide. If you have a lot of bottles of various sizes, you’ll want a few different bottle brushes and something with some softer bristles.
Number Five: You need some Durable Sponges.
We have two favorites.
My first favorite is the Blueland Dual sided Loofah sponge. Environmentally and globally conscious I find it the most used sponge in my kitchen. I love that it fits in my hand just perfectly and the scrubbing side is quite powerful, yet gentle and durable. I also love that this particular sponge can be tossed into the dishwasher in one of the little closed side containers. About every two weeks I toss it in the dishwasher for a thorough washing. As much as we do dishes around here, one sponge lasts me about 6 to 8 weeks. (The typical sponges that you buy in a three pack in the store last me usually 1 to 2 weeks before they get gross and start falling apart.) The other thing I absolutely love about this sponge is the fact that they’re hand sewn. I am a firm believer in meaningful work and the fact that we’ve taken that away from society ever since the age of manufacturing without thinking of putting limits on stripping meaningful work from people frustrates me. Anything we can do to return meaningful work to society in my eyes is a gain.
My second favorite sponge is the Norwex EnviroSponge.
This one works well on pots and pans, non-stick items, glasses, pretty much everything as well.
The one thing I like about it most is the fact that they have a “BacLock®*” built into many of their products. From their site: “The dual-sided, multipurpose EnviroSponge quickly wipes up spills and easily tackles even the most stubborn, sticky messes without scratching. The EnviroCloth® microfiber with BacLock®* on one side and special scrubby microfiber on the other ensure that kitchen messes are handled quickly and easily – without harmful chemicals!
*BacLock is an antimicrobial agent solely intended to protect and self-clean the cloth by inhibiting growth of odor-causing bacteria, mold and mildew. BacLock does not protect people from disease-causing pathogens.”
This is really helpful if you have kids or family members that have a habit of not rinsing the sponge out thoroughly. I have a pretty bad allergic reaction to mold and mildew and I went through quite a number of years of just being so frustrated because people would leave sponges out and they would get mildewed (the sponges, not the people…) and I would get a little bit sick picking them up and having to throw them away. I went through so many sponges. So I like the Norwex EnviroSponge. I keep both of these sponges on hand and I use them both throughout my week.
You need Rubber Gloves for Dishwashing.
Do you have a favorite brand of rubber gloves? Share with us if so!
I have not yet found a quality set of rubber gloves that I’ve been happy with. No matter what rubber gloves I get, how expensive they are or how cheap they are, I put holes in them within 1 to 2 weeks. Now that we have an electric dishwasher, (instead of the human dishwasher..) it’s not such a big deal because I’m not doing so much hand washing. But if you are doing a thorough kitchen clean up, you are going to want some heavy rubber gloves because we want that water hot and you don’t want to burn your hands. So get quality rubber gloves, nothing too thin or cheap. If you do not have them, then just watch the temperature on your water, but it cleans faster if it’s hot.
That is pretty much is it for this project. And this is also how we keep our kitchen clean. We have a few other products we use for our business for cleaning other people’s homes that we will share at a later time. But these products will help you save time and money in your kitchen routines and when you’re playing your mountain of dishes! Whatever message you use.