CONTRIBUTED BY KANDY
Military life is filled with bittersweet moments. Making great new friends at each location means saying goodbye to those friends when PCS time arrives. Our lovable “To Live” editor, Lan, has reached the end of her tour here on the Island. She graciously introduced me to the OkinawaHai editors and creator who allowed me to take the “To Live” category reigns as of today. I am excited to be a part of this wonderful blog, alongside these amazing women.
Now on to my first post ever! I decided to start with something simple.
Living overseas means learning to adapt to the little things that may not be standard in the United States. If you live off-base, you may have had to adapt to the sink basket which catches the blob food scraps when washing the dishes. I’ve discovered that many of my off-base friends weren’t familiar with the disposable nets that can be placed inside the basket and thrown out with ease.
The nets are sold in packages at grocery stores, such as Kanehide CO-OP, Jusco and San-A, pharmacy stores and also the 100 Yen Stores. If you’ve scraped the slimy garbage out of your kitchen stink sink one too many times, this simple convenience can help make this everyday chore a little more tolerable.
Hi, all! I use those drain basket(?) liners everyday, but once a week I clean the actual drain basket with soap and water. I use a stiff brush to scrub and press through the tiny holes – you can use old toothbrush or any stiff scrubbing brush from the 100Yen stores. Then after I rinse the basket, I spray it with Lysol (with bleach). You can also just use bleach/water solution.
OMG! Brilliant!
Now I’m running out the door tomorrow and buying some of these, I’m up for anything to ease the chore of the kitchen sink at the end of the day.
I keep forgetting to say THANK YOU for this post. I read it well before arriving here and then once we decided to live off base, I ound myself with the basket in the drain and I immediately went out and found some of these handy items. They really are a fantastic invention and make clean up much more tolerable. Thanks for passing on the good word!
Welcome and thanks for taking over, Kandy! Really enjoyed your first post ever and can’t wait to see your future ones. Love those net things. I stock up whenever I go to the 100 yen stores b/c I can’t bear the thought of cleaning out my drain w/out one. yuck.
Thanks, everyone, for your kind words. will certainly miss okihai, but will be blurking from afar on a daily basis, i’m sure!
You mean I can actually stop banging the drain thingie over an open trash can against a wood block my daughter produced in wood shop class?
Genius!
Take care Lan and good travels.
Daniela
If anyone is looking for proof as to why you might need these I’d be happy to show you what one of those drains looks like after three years without using one of those fan-dangled nets! Grody, my friends.
Kandy, thanks for joining us! Lan, we’ll miss you…
This is amazing! Thanks for the info. I often peruse the 100 yen store for things I didn’t know I needed, but failed to find this! Thanks for the info and I am so happy to see your writing (and at the same time sad to see Lan go … Lan, please don’t make me cry thinking back at Johnathan’s and Maddy’s preschool days!!)
Kat: You can find the sink net bags in various shapes and sizes, but most common are round ones and triangular shaped ones. I dont recall having ever seen a rectangle shaped one, but thats not to say they dont exist. As they tend to be very stretchy perhaps you could use a round one and stretch it to fit?
Awesome! Do they make them in different sizes? Our sink drain and basket aren’t round like that, but rather longish and rectangle-y.
The sink nets ARE great.
kellerace posted a comment about them Feb 6 and I have used them ever since. NEVER would have known such an item even existed otherwise. Just ONE of the many wonderful tips to glean from this site.
Oh I hated those things in Korea! I wish someone would have told me about that when we lived there. Nice post!!
fantastic, Kandy! I cannot believe that nobody has blogged this amazing simple trick yet. So smart – and I should’ve thought of it because many who stop by my house are amazed and happy to see this solution. 100¥ store sells a package of 24 or 30 of those nets – gotta go to the one in Ginowan. Great paying it forward! 🙂 And welcome, Kandy – you’re fabulous and we’re happy to have you here.
Genius! I have even seen these nets at 100Y and didn’t give them a second glance at why *I* might need them. Learn something new everyday. Thanks Kandy!