There are legions of small tools in my home that represent an ongoing quest: to find the most efficient and comfortable version of a necessary thing that suits how I want to live: well-made, sustainable, low maintenance.
The latest that has given me pleasure for months: Swedish dishcloths. They are like a super thin, plyable sponge with the texture of a thickish cloth I’ve always preferred for washing dishes and counters. They dry so quickly, it takes them a long time to need washing, which can be done in a machine and then thrown into the dryer. At first I went for brightly colored and patterned ones which, like other dishcloths throughout my life, got unpleasantly stained and dingy. Then I found BLACK ones, which show…nothing and are have a totally neutral presence in the kitchen.
Not long after I found them I stumbled on an Instagram video that made me realize that I’d been hanging sweaters and other stretchy clothes wrong for decades (but somehow never thought to research a better way). Gone are shoulders with hanger marks and creases in the wrong places.
As helpful as this little video has been, I do not follow the instagram feed it came from: it is so full of brilliant but manically-presented ideas for improving everyday things that it would consume way too much bandwidth to even watch them…
Artist Robert Montgomery’s brilliant work “All Palaces” is a reminder that puts all this homekeeping stuff in perspective. You can buy an archival print through mtart agency.
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