HUTCH HINT: Soured Sink

I'm not quite sure if I missed the course on "housekeeping" that addresses dishwashing/sink care or if everyone just sort of bumbles their way through it but I have been on a mission to solve the dilemma of the "soured sink". Chances are this issue has plagued your kitchen as well. Picture it, you have just finished a sink load of dishes and the time has come to wipe down the counters, the table and the sink basins. You grab your "tool" of choice, be it a sponge, a dish rag, or wash cloth and commence scrubbing when you catch a whiff of a horrendously offensive odor. You check the trash, the compost bin, the drain trap in the sink, you may even check the bottom of your shoe and the nearest baby... When all at once, to your horror, you realize it's the rag in your hand! Not only does it reek beyond belief, now your hand does as well and you have successfully smeared whatever terrifying bacteria lurks inside all over your countertops and precious table!! Have you been there? I have more times than I can count! When I was growing up we were a sponge family. My mom bought the cute colorful ones at the grocery store and we rotated them out whenever they began to fall apart. I remember my grandmother bought, and still buys, dainty little sponges with a green scrubber on the back. Apparently I come from a long line of sponge dishwashers. Yet somehow I felt compelled to rebel against my heritage. Surely if something smells that questionable it's not actually cleaning anything. So about 6 months ago I began to hunt for a better way to clean my kitchen/dishes. And after implementing a new system over 5 months ago, I can finally say I have found a solution!! Yay!! First comes the dilemma of scrubbing pots, pans and dishes. When I was growing up we would often buy those plastic round loofahs, but those can retain water and anything that will hold water will hold bacteria! Through some searching, I found these amazing silicone scrubbers on Amazon.

I bought a two pack for $5.88. I have been using one for over 5 months and it's just as good as new. The beauty is, they are silicone so nothing sticks to them! That means if you are scouring a pan that has cheese and gunk in it you don't then have to spend time picking that gunk off of your scrubber! They rinse clean with hot water, and in that they're flat they don't hold any water which means, you guessed it, they stay clean!! No old nasty water, no old nasty odor!!  In addition to my cute silicone scrubbers, I also bought a 10 pack of microfiber dish cloths. (10 cloths for $11.35 at Amazon.)

These are what I use to wipe down my counters, my table and my kitchen sink. Now I know what you're thinking, a dish rag is a dish rag so won't it start to get that funky smell?! Why yes, yes it will... That is why I change them out EVERY SINGLE DAY! At night, before I go to bed, when all the dishes are done and my sink is shining back at me, I take that day's dishcloth and put it away and grab a new one so that it will be waiting there "fragrance-free" in the morning. Now you're wondering, what do I do with the retired dishcloth? Remember all that valuable space we freed up under our kitchen sink with my previous Hutch hint? Well I bought a lovely red bucket whose sole purpose is to house dirty dish cloths and dish towels until I have enough to wash a load. So at night I drape the dirty dish cloth over the bucket's edge so it can dry, and in the morning I just push it over the edge and out of sight! Problem solved! No more soured sink and stinky hands! If you have experienced the dish dilemma I hope this helps.

haley for the hutch crew