The $8 Find That Makes Washing Dishes in My Rental Kitchen a Million Times Better
You may remember that I already said that this inexpensive faucet attachment is the best thing in my entire rental kitchen. And it still is. There’s now a close runner-up, though, and when combined together, these two things make hand-washing dishes pretty darn delightful. I’m talking about my OXO Silicone Sink Strainer. What could possibly be so great about it? Well, if you have one, you probably already understand. If not, allow me to explain.
My apartment came with a stainless steel sink strainer and the holes were so large that rice bits of ground beef, and who-knows-what-else could slip right through. No matter how careful I was, food was getting into my drain and my sink backed up on a regular basis. Although my Super is wonderful (hi, Adriano!), I couldn’t keep asking him to come to snake my drain for me.
Then I got one of these. At first, I was worried that the holes weren’t much smaller than the ones on the strainer I had, but they are perfectly sized. The strainer is also shaped better (this one is more like a bowl, whereas the one I started with had a flat bottom for some reason?), so it’s easier for the water to go down, and harder for the food bits to make their way.
Perhaps the coolest feature of this strainer is how easy it is to empty it. I just bring it over my trash can, and pull out the nub (or push the silicone cup from the underside) and the majority of the caught food flies right off. The pop of the silicone is enough! No need to bang the thing against the side of the trash can! When the strainer gets extra gunky, I like to wash it with a bit of dish soap, but as long as you empty it regularly, that’s really not even necessary.
So between this $8 guy and the $13 faucet attachment, my rental sink is almost as good as if I had installed it all myself.