"A Few of My Favorite Things": A Dishwashing Brush and Solid Soap

On to another of my favorite gifts this Christmas, things that some folks may be curious about.

A dishwashing brush and bar of dishwashing soap

This is another one of those things I wanted to try but didn't want to spend the initial investment on, a dishwashing brush with bar dish soap. 

For a while now, I've wanted to get away from the plastic waste of bottled dish soap (the kind for hand washing dishes, pots, and pans). I really wish that the bulk section of stores would carry non-food liquids, such as dish soap, shampoo, cleaning solutions. Years ago, we had a co-op near us that did carry some of these non-food essentials. You would bring your own container in to the store, the clerk would weigh the empty container and give it a tare weight, marking the bottom of the continuer. Then after filling your container and doing your shopping, you'd take it to the register and the clerk would be able to deduct the tare weight from the total weight and calculate the price based solely on the product you bought. This store didn't last long in our area, sadly. Perhaps closer to the city, the same co-op chain's stores do better.

Even with not adding to plastic waste, shipping diluted liquids adds to the fuel consumption part of transporting items to market. A better solution, in my opinion, might be to use more dry or highly concentrated ingredients or cleaners.

In addition to the soap bar, I also wanted a brush that was made of natural materials and had a replaceable brush head. Surprisingly, there are dish brushes that don't have replaceable heads. So when the head wears out, you throw the whole brush away. This was something I wanted to avoid. And honestly, I think vegetable cleaning brushes should be made the same way. Our current vegetable cleaning brush is one plastic piece plus individual bristles. When bristles give out, I'll have to throw the whole brush away. For my next vegetable cleaning brush, I'll buy something like this dish brush that has replaceable heads.

To wash dishes, pots, or pans with a bar of soap, you need specific dish soap or all-purpose soap, not bath soap. You also need a brush, a sponge, or a rag. And you need a water-holding dish or container to keep the soap bar and brush between uses, preferably something without a lid, so the soap can dry out

How I wash dishes with a brush and bar soap

I do a quick rinse of the individual items to be washed, just before wiping with a soapy brush. I wet the brush head under the tap, then brush the head across the bar of soap a couple of times. I drip about 2 to 3 teaspoons of tap water onto the specific dish, pot, or pan, then clean it with the soapy brush. I stack the soapy items in the sink until the sink is about full. then I rinse it all quickly and place the items in a dish drainer.

It doesn't take much soap to clean most items. If a particular pot or pan is especially greasy, instead of loading a lot of soap onto the brush to begin, I will wash it with a small amount of soap, quick rinse, then rewash with a bit more soap. In addition, some pots or pans need additional scrubbing with a scrubby sponge to remove cooked on bits. The brush can "miss" cooked on spots on these pieces. Also, the brush head doesn't fit inside slim juice glasses. I still need to ash those out with a sponge or rag.

With silverware, we place all of the pieces in the dishpan with about 1 inch of water. We allow them to soak until enough accumulate to wash with the bar soap and brush in one go. Rinsing a handful of silverware at a time wastes less water than rinsing each fork and spoon separately.

It's important to allow the soap bar to dry well between washings. If the soap stays wet it will get soggy and too much soap will be applied onto the brush, wasting the soap. I keep the soap bar on a small plate next to the sink, with the brush lying to the side on the plate and not on the soap bar itself. When soapy water has puddled on the plate, I've used that liquid like I would conventional liquid dish soap, pouring a little of it off into a large skillet, mixing bowl, or pot for washing.

Some folks wash with bar soap differently that I do. They fill a sink or dish pan with hot water, briskly wave the bar soap through the hot water until the water looks a bit cloudy and is slightly bubbly. Then they wash dishes as one would usually do with liquid dish soap. This seems to work for them very well. For me, I prefer being able to wash a couple of dishes at a time as we use them and not fill the dish pan with soapy water. It also means my hands have less contact with the soapy water, which dries my skin. I still need to find some good cleaning gloves that won't irritate my skin (latex allergy).

Besides all of the above, here's a difference between bar soap and liquid soap. Liquid soap has been made to be gentle on hands and often contains moisturizers. These bar soaps clean really, really well, leaving plates squeaky clean. However, they can be a little bit drying to skin. It seems like I'm using more moisturizers on my hands these days. As I said, I need to find some gloves.

We've been using the soap bar and brush for about 1 week now. My verdict -- I really like this set-up. We are all more likely to wash up our own dishes throughout the day instead of leaving a huge pile for the end of the day. The process feels simpler, too. Wet, swish against soap bar, swish on dish, rinse. And the dishes feel really clean.

Will I continue when the bar soap is gone? That depends on how long a soap bar lasts us and how important it is to me that we reduce plastic waste. So, we shall see. What I do know is that there are less expensive bar soaps that work for dishwashing, such as castille soap bars and olive oil soap bars. The bar soap that I received was made locally by a small business. I like that this purchase supported someone running a business out of her home. So that's another consideration for me -- less plastic waste, less fuel used in transport to store, and on top of all of that, supporting a small, local home-based business.

Eventually I will need to replace the brush head. That's a simple job. There's a metal band just below the base of the brush head. I used a flathead screwdriver to move the band to just above the wood handle. This allowed the prongs to loosen enough to take the head out. Easy-peasy.

Those tan flat things in the top photo were also part of the gift. These are natural cellulose sponges that have been compressed. When you get one wet for the first time, it expands to regular sponge size and stays that way. I think they would make a fun housecleaning/housewarming gift, with or without a bar of dish soap and/or brush.

A side aspect of this gift that I learned -- this old dog can learn a new trick or two.

"These Are a Few of My Favorite Things": Christmas Gift Edition

Happy New Year, Friends!🥳

Sometimes the gifts we receive are wonderful and just what we needed, but don't have a lot of appeal as a conversation topic. Other times, the gifts have a bit of novelty to many of us. We find ourselves with a natural curiosity about these gifts that others receive. 

So this week (and next if I'm slow), I'll post a little about some of the gifts I received that may have interest to some of you.

A shiitake mushroom growing kit

For a couple of decades, I have wanted to try growing mushrooms indoors. I could never justify the cost of the kit as part of my grocery budget. Earlier this fall, I thought perhaps I might mention this sort of kit to my family members as a gift possibility. My family seemed to think this would be a perfect gift for me, as I'm constantly trying to grow more varied foods for my family.

My son and daughter-in-law bought this at a local farmer's market the weekend before Christmas and kept it in their fridge (to keep it from starting) until Christmas Day. It came packaged in a large plastic bag with a ventilation patch (like sometimes found on fresh produce bags). 

I started the kit on Tuesday. I  removed the block with spores from the plastic bag and rinsed it as recommended, then sprayed it all over using spring water (no chlorine). I set the block on a make-shift rack of canning jar lids (one of the recommendations from the kit company) set on a large plastic bin lid as a tray. The rack ensures good ventilation all around.

I placed a large plastic bag loosely over the top and have been spraying once per day since. (The kit company suggested either a large plastic bag or a cardboard box.) The company suggested to place the covered kit in bright, but indirect light. I put it about 8-10 feet away from a large window in one of the sunniest rooms in the house. Just note, a sunny room in the maritime NW in a house surrounded by tall evergreens is really not all that sunny for very long each day.

Above is what the kit looked like the first day, with one mushroom protruding from a side and lots of small white bumps all over.

And here's what it looked like Thursday afternoon. Until today, I didn't realize those white bumps were beginning mushrooms. But now I can see that's what these are. I should have a lunch sack full of shiitake mushrooms in a week or two.

Whoa! I guess I underestimated the growth speed of these little jewels. Here's Saturday's photo! I'll be harvesting a bunch in just a couple of days. The company recommends storing the harvested mushrooms in a paper bag in the fridge. The paper allows a good balance of moisture retention while minimizing mold growth. Stored this way, the mushrooms will keep for up to 2 weeks.

The kit company has a website which offered info on starting it, when to harvest the mushrooms, how to store harvested ones, and how to get the kit to produce additional flushes. The website was very informative and helped give me the confidence to get the kit started. I was a little nervous that I would botch the kit. Evidently, those mushrooms were ready and waiting, just needing a bit of moisture and room temperatures.

While my son and daughter-in-law bought this kit from a local company, mushroom growing kits are also available online to be shipped. I've seen indoor home consumer kits priced for as little as $13 on Amazon. I don't know if growing mushrooms indoors is a bargain or not compared to buying mushrooms from the store. However, the outdoor kits, also sold online, will recolonize and last for many, many years and may be a better "deal" for growing mushrooms than indoor kits. I specifically wanted an indoor kit, though, so I could grow mushrooms for our meals this winter. But I'll be thinking on the possibility of starting an outdoor colony someplace near my vegetable garden.

This is one very tasty Christmas gift!