Saturday, August 11, 2012

DIY: Plastic Kitchen Scrubber! Goodbye, Metal!

I hate metal kitchen scrubbers.  I mean, I really hate them.

I probably wouldn't be quite so vocal about this if I used cast-iron pots and pans, but who wants to carry something that heavy?

Not me. I have thin, metal pots and pans that were very well designed.  Heat is very evenly distributed throughout their surface, which gives me a very enjoyable cooking experience.  Not only that, but they're absolutely beautiful, in all of their glistening silver splendor.

::cue the evil kitchen scrubber of doom::

scrubber of doom


Metal kitchen scrubbers scratch my pots like crazy.  The perfect mirror reflection on the bottoms of my pans are practically gone, due to this tendency.  Scratches also work against you to hold food onto the pans.

Ugh!

But I figured out how to do away with these monstrous scrubbers, while reusing something that would normally just go to waste.

See, we have this habit in our family that's not particularly friendly to the environment.  We eat a lot of those long plastic wrapped popsicles. I should fill my own popsicle molds, yes, but I take the easy way out with this most of the time, even now.

I know... I'm contributing to the problem when I buy these.  I really need to do a complete switchover.  Even if I ignore that they're horribly unhealthy and filled with sugar, I also have to take into account that I'm helping place a lot of non-biodegradable plastic into the landfill.  It's far better to find a reuse for plastic, as I did with the soda bottles and the plastic grocery bags.

Popsicles in a plastic net bag


Fortunately, While I may be throwing out tons of plastic every time my daughter eats a popsicle, I've at least figured out a way to reuse the plastic net bagging that holds the popsicles.

I decided to make a plastic kitchen scrubber!

It's pretty easy, but does take some time, mainly because you need two of these bags to make a scrubber that's big enough to fit comfortably in your hand.  Alternately, you can use any plastic net bag that would otherwise make a one way trip to the great landfill in the sky.  Orange and onion bags are two examples that come to mind.

So what do you do?

Well, first you're going to need your supplies:

- scissors
- 2 plastic net bags

Pretty simple, right?  No extra string or strange tools.  Just the bags and a pair of scissors.

1.  Cut the top off of the bag.  That goes straight into the trash, of course.

2.  Now cut the bag into three equal sections, lengthwise.

3.  Now braid the plastic strips together.  I placed a small, heavy rock on the very top of the pieces in the beginning, just to be sure that they were easy to work with.

4. Tie a knot at the end of each side.

Braid made from a plastic net bag
The braid doesn't have to be perfect, as you can see.

5.  Repeat steps 1-4 with the second plastic net bag.

6.  Once both braids are completed, just spiral them around each other, loosely.  Tie a simple knot to keep them together.  Don't tie the knot too tight.

7.  Thread the remaining ends into this knot, being careful to make the design look clean.  Try to do this in a manner that holds a more circular shape.

No more knots are necessary.  The nice thing about plastic net bags is that they cling to what's around them - especially after they've been cut.

My result?

DIY plastic kitchen scrubber


Personally, I think the plastic scrubber looks much better than the metal one.

This photo was taken after I had already used it twice, and it held together just fine.  

I couldn't very well post about something like this without testing it first, right?

Not only that, but it took off all of the baked on grit that covered the bottoms of my pans... with no scratching.

Another bonus?  The plastic won't rust.  I know companies say that their metal scrubbers won't rust, but I've never found that to be true.  The metal scrubber in this picture already has a slight amount of it, and it hasn't been used much, at all.

While I know that scrubbers don't cost very much, having one that's free is way better.  The plastic scrubber also gave my popsicle bags a second life.  Upcycling, if you will.

Now if only I can figure out a way to reuse all of those clear-plastic popsicle tubes...

Any ideas?




5 comments:

  1. Awesome article...It's really a nice idea. Plastic nets are much better than the metal scrub. Plastic nets are light in weight and washed the utensils very well.

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    1. Thanks! And I didn't even think to mention it, but you're absolutely right - they are very lightweight as opposed to their metallic counterparts!

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  2. The clear-plastic popsicle tubes? Make more popsicles! (Then my kids aren't eating sugar water with food dye, either.) We wash them out and refill them with leftover juice, pureed fruit, even the last bit of milk in the fridge, or yogurt, even the last little bit of jam leftover. What's great is that you can easily make striped/multi-colored popsicles by freezing just 1/3 or 1/4 of it at a time, and you can even pop in "surprises" like a blueberry or raspberry (again, whatever you have on hand at the time).

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    1. You. Are. Brilliant! I don't know why I never thought of this! The striped popsicle idea is absolutely perfect. My daughter loves yogurt, so I could use vanilla yogurt, then add a strawberry/yogurt mixture, and even a carrot/yogurt/strawberry mix to that, producing a blend of orange pink and white. Way better than the standard food coloring monstrosities that she usually devours! Better for the environment, yummy, and wonderful to look at. Thank you so much!!!

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  3. It appears that there is an expanding interest for metal reusing and waste compartments - however why? Maple Ridge Chain link Fencing

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