PaperlessKitchen Blog

Paperless Kitchen Tested: SKOY Green Cleaning Cloths Review

I am always eager to try the latest paper towel alternatives, so when I had the opportunity to try out the branded Paperless Kitchen SKOY cloths I was pretty excited. SKOY advertises that you can use one of its green cleaning cloths so many times that each one has the cleaning power of 15 rolls of paper towels. My kitchen assistant and I decided to put that to the test by using one of the cloths to tackle two jobs that I formerly used paper towels for before I switched to a paperless kitchen.

The Basics 

SKOY cloths are made from a blend of cotton and cellulose and are completely biodegradable. Unlike a paper towel, a fresh SKOY cloth is stiff and flat. I like this feature because the cloths easily stand up against the side wall of my cabinets, meaning I don't have to take up space on my counter top with a paper towel holder. The cloths are also much thicker than paper towels.

The Spill 

If you've checked out my other reviews, you'll know that I'm fond of the spill test. When I used paper towels, I almost always reached for them to handle liquid spills, so it always seems natural to put paper towel alternatives to a spill test. For this one, I used iced tea and placed a dry, fresh SKOY cloth on the edge of the spill. The towel began to absorb on contact and actually pulled the liquid off of the counter into its fibers. Even though I placed the cloth just on the edge of the mess, most of it was absorbed within one minute. Then, I moved the cloth and placed it over the remaining mess. The liquid was gone without any wiping at all, and my counter top didn't feel sticky.

The Rinse

After the spill was managed, I rinsed the SKOY cloth under cold water. The majority of the iced tea ran right off of the towel. Once I rang out the cloth and rinsed it again, there was some faint staining, but the cloth was clean and ready to be used again.

The Toaster 

In my former life as a paper towel user, I always used a wet towel to clean my toaster. I loved the convenience of being able to pick up the crumbs and then toss the cloth away. My kitchen assistant and I started with what I thought was a clean toaster (keep reading to find out about my big surprise!) and made ourselves 4 pieces of golden brown delicious toast. I wiped out the inside of the toaster with the SKOY cloth after we ate. Not only did the crumbs easily cling to the fibers, but the SKOY green cleaning cloth removed carbon and dirt that I didn't even realize was in the toaster!

The Takeaway

After using the SKOY cloth, I do believe that the green cleaning cloths are the equivalent to 15 rolls of paper towels. To clean up my iced tea spill, I easily would have used three to four paper towel squares, and my toaster cleaning used as many as 10. After our kitchen test, the SKOY cloth barely seemed used and could certainly be reached for again and again.

Introducing Paperless Kitchen Kits! Making it Easier to Go Paperless in Your Home!

At Paperless Kitchen, we're always looking for ways to make it easier to go green and eliminate paper from our kitchens. During our own attempts to decrease our eco footprints, we've tried out the products that we carry and have realized that many of them work together. That gave us the idea to offer a simple way to set up a paperless kitchen--Paperless Kitchen kits.

Paperless Kitchen kits contain sustainable kitchen products and paper towel alternatives grouped together and sold at a discounted price. To start, we've introduced three Paperless Kitchen kits:

- Paperless Kitchen Starter Kit - Designed as an introductory package for those just beginning to add paper towel alternatives to their kitchens, this kit contains 5 SKOY towels, one PeopleTowels Reusable Hand Towel and one roll of the Bambooee Bamboo Towels. Priced at just $24, the kit is 30 percent off the price of purchasing the products separately.

- Paperless Kitchen Go Paperless Kit - This kit brings together 5 SKOY Cloths, a 6-pack of Full Circle Cellulose Cleaning Cloths and a Twist Loofah Sponge. Priced at just $34, this set is excellent for expanding your green cleaning products beyond basic paper towel replacements.

- Paperless Kitchen Party Kit - With this set, you'll get everything you need to set a green table for a party of eight and wipe it up when the party's over. Available for the low price of just $46, the kit includes the PeopleTowels 3 Day Supply, 8 Bambu Bamboo Veneerware Plates and the Bambu Veneerware Utensils Pack.

You’ll also enjoy free shipping when you purchase any of our kits or any of our other green cleaning products, sustainable kitchen products and paper towel alternatives.

Greening Plastics: Part Two, Meet Bonterra

To continue our series about greening plastics, I'd like you to meet Bonterra, an innovative plastic product created by Full Circle, a green cleaning company.

When you ask people why they're cutting back on the use of plastic in their homes, most will say that they're concerned about the chemicals that plastic contains or that they prefer to use biodegradable alternatives that break down in landfills. Most people don't realize that 10 percent of the petroleum used in the United States ends up in plastic. This means that every time a piece of plastic is made, we're using up some of the nonrenewable oil reserves of the world.

Instead of being fashioned from blends of petroleum and other chemicals, Bonterra is made from cellulose. Nearly all starchy plants can be used to produce cellulose, making Bonterra production incredibly sustainable. Bonterra is also biodegradable and free of BPA and other toxic additives found in traditional plastic.

Full Circle uses Bonterra in the heads of their bamboo scrub brushes and bamboo dish sponges. The plastic is every bit as flexible and sturdy as petroleum-based plastic. In fact, it's hard to tell that the plastic is a greener alternative just by touching it. Bonterra means "good Earth," and it's a fitting name; the plastic alternative is proof that by using the best of what the Earth has to offer, we can enjoy conveniences in our kitchens while still protecting the world outside of them.

The Ultimate Kitchen Road Test

In previous blog posts, my helpful kitchen assistant and I have put three different Twist products to the test. During our most recent trial, my assistant said he was surprised that there were so many green cleaning options for the kitchen. After explaining that different types of green scrubbers and eco-friendly sponges were good for specific tasks, I found myself wondering how the three Twist products would work to handle one big kitchen mess.

And so without further ado, I give you the Ultimate Kitchen Road Test!

For this kitchen road test, I brought back the large Twist Naked Sponge, the Twist Dish Dumpling Scrubber and the Twist Ravioli Scrubber and used them to take on my least favorite cleaning task--the oven.

I make a good effort to keep my oven clean, but as you can see, it did have a few spots of baked on gunk on the racks and at the bottom of the oven. The inside of the oven door was also greasy and needed a good wipe-down. My kitchen assistant and I used all three of the Twist products on the racks, oven bottom and walls and on the doors, and we were surprised by the results.

 Twist Dish Dumpling

The Dish Dumpling wasn't able to effectively lift away the baked-on grime on the oven bottom or walls, and it didn't seem to have much of an effect on the grease on the doors; however, the Dish Dumpling was the clear winner when it came to the racks. The shape and the layout of the fibers on the scubber made it easy to wrap it around the slats in the racks. We were able to remove dirt that I couldn't even see.

Twist Naked Sponge 

I found it awkward to navigate the Naked Sponge between the small spaces in the racks, but I think the smaller sponge may have been up for this job. For the walls and bottom of the oven, the Naked Sponge was able to remove one spot without any soap, but the other two major baked-on spots were too tough for it. The sponge was perfect for cleaning the door. Its surface lifted away the grease and left the doors looking spotless.

Twist Ravioli Scrubber

We used the Ravioli Scrubber last and were both astonished when the two difficult burn marks on the bottom of my oven were instantly lifted away. With some elbow grease, I removed all of the burned-on food without any soap at all. The shape of the scrubber made it less well suited to the rack, and the section of the door that I tried to clean became streaked from the scrubber.

The Takeaway

All three Twist products that I tried in the Ultimate Kitchen Road Test performed well for one particular task. For everyday dishwashing and cleaning, the three products have proved to be equally effective, but for big jobs, green cleaning teamwork is necessary.

Introducing Toockies - A Move Towards a Cleaner Planet and an Empowered Population

                                                                     

Paperless Kitchen Tested: A Bambooee Towels Review

After hearing so much about Bambooee bamboo towels, I was anxious to try them out for myself. In particular, I was curious to see if it really was possible for one roll of 20 towels to be the equivalent of 60 rolls of ordinary paper towels. With the help of a trusty assistant, I decided to kitchen test the towels, and I'm pleased to say that Bambooee towels really do deliver on their promises.

The Basics 

One thing about paper towels that's hard to give up is how easy they are to reach for and use in a pinch. I love that Bambooee towels come in a roll with perforated sheets just like paper towels. They fit right onto my paper towel holder, and they're really easy to tear.

Although they look like paper towels on the roll, you can tell Bambooee towels are different from ordinary paper just by touching them. The feel of the bamboo is soft and silky. It almost feels like fabric to the touch.

The Spill 

I find that paper towels are the first things I reach for when someone spills something, so I had to do a spill test to see how Bambooee stacked up against paper. I spilled a full 6-ounce glass of cranberry juice on my counter and then placed the towel on it. Immediately, the bamboo fibers began absorbing the spill. I let the towel stay in place for a couple of minutes and when I lifted up the edge, there was hardly any juice on the counter. The towel was so absorbent that it didn't drip when I lifted it, and all I had to do was fold the edge over and wipe once and that was the end of my mess. I went to the sink and rinsed the towel, and to my amazement, the juice just started to wash away. After just one rinse, the towel was almost completely clean, and it now has only a very faint hint of a pink stain.

Dirt and Window Film 

I typically clean with a reusable cloth, but I know many people reach for paper towels to do dusting, so I wanted to see how well worked on messes. I used it wet to clean up potting soil and also to wash the glass on one of my pictures. In both cases, I used only water to wet the towel. With the soil, the particles were immediately attracted to the towel, so it was really easy to wipe them away. On the window, my assistant was able to get a streak free finish with just water. He didn't have to do any vigorous scrubbing either. Just gently wiping was all it took to eliminate the dirt.

The Wash 

One of the features of Bambooee towels that I found hardest to believe was that you could wash them in a washing machine, and so I decided that laundering should be my final test. I washed my towel in cold water with no fabric softener and then hung it up to dry as suggested by the manufacturer. My towel came out wrinkled, but otherwise as good as new.

The Summary

My assistant and I agreed that you could use Bambooee towels for everything that you use paper towels for and more. The towels are absorbent and great to use both wet and dry for cleaning. They're easy to rinse and definitely can be machine-washed. I would highly recommend them as paper towel alternatives.  I can easily see how using these towels again and again would take the place of multiple rolls of paper towels. In short, Bambooee towels live up to their promises. 

Paperless Kitchen Tested: Twist Ravioli Scrubby Review

For part two of our Paperless Kitchen Twist product tests, I decided to give the Twist Ravioli Scrubby a whirl. Twist reports that the scrubber was made to clean the toughest baked-on messes like lasagna and pasta, so I decided to put it to work on one of my biggest kitchen messes. Typically, I let the baking dish from this particular recipe soak for 30 minutes in hot water and then still spend as much as 5 minutes scrubbing it with a cloth or a metal scrubber. My mission was to see if the Ravioli Scrubby could make cleaning up from this kitchen nightmare quicker and easier.

The Basics 

The Twist Ravioli Scrubby is shaped just like the pasta from which it gets its name. Like a little pillow, the scrubber has a raised, padded center with a thinner perimeter. The natural hemp burlap casing gives the scrubber a rough texture, but it's finer than that of a metal scouring pad. 

Warning: just reading about this dish may put you into calorie overload. The messy masterpiece that I chose to make for this test is a recipe that my butter-loving, Polish grandmother (who was affectionately known as Babcia) loved to make: pirohi casserole. The dish consists of layers of lasagna noodles, mashed potatoes, bacon, mushrooms and cheese, which are baked until golden and delicious. To make the casserole bake evenly, I use Babcia's baking dish, which I was lucky enough to inherit, but its cranberry glass surface is very hard to get looking spotless. I was certain that if the Ravioli Scrubby could handle this mess, it could stand up to virtually any difficult pot or pan.

The Wash 

To really see what the Ravioli Scrubby could do, I decided to just clean the dish right away without any soaking. I filled the sink with hot water, added my regular green dish soap, plopped the dish in and hoped for the best. The minute I started scrubbing, I turned to my kitchen assistant and exclaimed, "It's coming RIGHT off!" And it was--the hemp fibers lifted away the baked on cheese with very little effort, and the shape made it easy to even get the tough stuff in the corners.

I lifted out the dish and rinsed both it and the Scrubby and then ran the scrubber over the dish again out of the water. That and a second rinse were all it took to get the traces of grease off the sides and leave the pan picture perfect. I also used it to clean my Teflon spatula, and it didn't leave a single scratch on its surface.

The Takeaway

Babcia's pirohi casserole didn't stand a chance against the ravioli scrubby. Once I dried the casserole dish, I got on my phone and started looking for where I could recycle my metal scrubber. I'm quite sure I won't be needing its help any more.

Paperless Kitchen Tested: Twist Naked Sponge

We recently introduced an expanded line of Twist eco-cleaning products, so I thought it was time we gave some of them a test spin to see just how they compared with other kitchen cleaning tools. Because of its slightly risqué name and its green design, I thought the Twist Naked Sponge would be a great place to get started. Normally, I don't use a sponge to clean my home, as I've never been happy with how well synthetic sponges work, so I was curious to see if I liked using the natural sponge any better.

The Twist Naked Sponge is made from 100 percent cellulose rather than synthetic fibers, and you can see right away that it's free of dyes from its pure white color. When I unwrapped the sponge from its cover, I noticed that it had a slightly slippery or greasy surface. In comparison to most sponges, which are light and foamy, the Naked Sponge feels much more dense and heavy.

To get things started, my kitchen assistant and I spilled some strawberry-kiwi juice on my counter top. Before cleaning, I placed the sponge in the corner of the mess and watched at it instantly lifted the juice from the counter. The sponge proved to be very absorbent; after just 2 minutes, it had sucked up most of the juice, so it required only two wipes to get the counter clean. When the mess was gone, I rinsed the sponge, and it was as good as new without any staining. I did notice that the sponge produced foam when I squeezed it, even though I hadn't put any soap on it. I assume this is from the natural oils in the cellulose, which also gave the sponge that slippery texture.

The Car 

My assistant had just been telling me that he wanted to get his car detailed, so we decided to head out of the kitchen and give the Naked Sponge a try on his dashboard. We started with the sponge just slightly damp and were amazed at how much invisible dirt the sponge picked up with just one wipe. We were able to easily clean the entire dashboard without having to rinse the sponge, and again, it came clean easily when the job was finished.

The Takeaway

 In my opinion, the Twist Naked sponge is definitely better at cleaning that synthetic sponges. None of the sponges I've tried at home in the past could have cleaned up a spill so quickly, and my assistant was so pleased with how it worked on his dashboard that he asked if he could take the second sponge in the set home with him. All in all, the Twist Naked Sponge earns the Paperless Kitchen seal of approval!