Review : Washing Up with Joseph Joseph

I’ve spoken in a previous post about how much I hate ironing, but how, with the right equipment, the task can be made a lot more bearable. Generally, if I’m going to spend a lot of money on something for my home I have always chosen to spend it on pretty, decorative items that will look nice and I’ve never really been one to spend a lot on the more functional household items. I suppose because I don’t get much enjoyment from these items, it seemed a bit of a waste of money. But I have recently come to the conclusion that it is well worth spending a decent amount on these ‘boring’ but essential items, after all we normally tend to use them pretty much daily and having quality items without doubt enhances the experience.

Joseph Joseph is a brand that I have been aware of for many years now, every since my parents bought us a set of Index chopping boards with knives. I have always thought that the items were very expensive and perhaps more suited to someone who actually enjoys household chores such as cooking and cleaning…so not me. However, when Joseph Joseph got in touch to see if I would like to give some of their products a test drive, I thought it would be a good opportunity to see if having quality, well designed cleaning products would actually make the task less deplorable. This was particularly appealing in the run up to Christmas. My husband loves to cook and at Christmas time he spends hours in the kitchen cooking up some of his (and now my) favourite dishes from his home country of Poland. This is wonderful for me as I hate to cook but it does mean that I have a lot of washing up to do and I’m not really a fan of that either. So I had a look on the Joseph Joseph site to see what products they have in their range that might help to enhance the experience.

I eventually decided on the Extend™ expandable dishrack with draining plug, the Wash&Drain™ dishwashing bowl with straining plug, the Flip™ double-sided draining board and the Caddy™ sink tidy. The products look absolutely great and I was sure that they would look really fabulous in my kitchen and really improve the look and appeal of my sink area. They are available in a number of colours but I opted for the white version.

Above is how my sink area looked before. The dish rack that we had was really quite small and with no dedicated area for glasses and cups we had to put them directly on the draining board and they would often retain water which would leave a scummy line inside the rim of the vessels.  We also had nowhere to store the washing up liquid, sponge, cloth or scourer so they often ended up on the window ledge.

And here above is our sink area featuring the Joseph Joseph products. Doesn’t it look so much better now?

I love the expandable dishrack. When it is not extended it is really compact and perfect for when you only have a few bits and bobs that need washing up. But then it can be extended to almost twice its size, perfect for washing up after family meals. The additional draining space is also perfect for cups and glassware. The cutlery drainer is moveable making the draining space more flexible and the steel rack can be removed for when you want to clean the rack.

My favourite feature though has to be the integrated spout that helps to drain away any excess water. It means we no longer get the scummy ring inside our cups and glasses where stagnant water has been trapped. And what is even more clever is that the spout can be rotated away and closed allowing you to trap the water inside for draining later. Why would you want to do this? Well it allows you to move the dishrack and create draining space almost anywhere. Perfect if you have loads of dishes, like at Christmas, as you can use your sink’s integrated draining board as well.

And if that doesn’t give you enough draining space then the Flip double sided draining board is the perfect accompaniment to the other products. I store mine out of the way when I don’t need it but if we have a lot of dishes I can set it up on the other side of the sink. This means no need to dry up the dishes before I can finish washing up.

Depending on which way you use the Flip, the water will either drain off directly into the sink (as seen in the picture below) or it can be retained to empty later (as seen above). So, like the Extend it can be used anywhere.

I’ve really enjoyed using the Joseph Joseph Wash&Drain dishwashing bowl. It’s compact size did worry me a little at first as I wasn’t sure our square plates would fit into it but we have had no problem with the size of it. The handles are really useful and make it extremely easy to transport the bowl elsewhere, for example over to the hob when I need to give that a good clean. The integrated plug is so handy as it means you can drain away the water without having to lift the bowl up out of the sink, and with a simple turn the plug can be set to strain the water for food particles. These can then be disposed of without blocking the sink.

And did I mention that it looks great? I was also a little worried about it being white and whether it will get discoloured if, for example, you wash up dishes that have had spaghetti bolognese or other tomato based dishes on them. But so far so good. The tomato residue can be wiped off and has not left the bowl tinged red.

Finally, the Caddy sink tidy does exactly as the name implies and helps to keep the sink area nice and tidy. I have the large version which has a space on both sides of the draining plate base for wet sponges or scourers. The is clever because the concealed reservoir beneath the unit collects any drained water ready for disposal. The Caddy can also house an average-sized washing up liquid bottle and a brush, while the integrated rail provides hanging and drying space for damp dishcloths.

This had made so much difference to our sink area as the window ledge is now no longer damp and nasty and we don’t need to drape the dish cloth over the tap. It looks so much nicer now.

I know this might sound like a ridiculously exaggerated thing to say, but I actually don’t mind washing up anymore. Since having Milly, washing up had taken a bit of a back seat and was tending to really build up over the course of a day, meaning I was dreading the massive pile that was left for me once both the girls were asleep. Now, though, I do the dishes multiple times a day and it’s much more manageable and it’s all because my new Joseph Joseph equipment makes the task much more bearable. It’s sad I know, and maybe in time the novelty will wear off. But for now I’m not hating washing up anymore!!

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Disclosure: This is a collaborative post. We have not been paid to write this post. However, Joseph Joseph did kindly supply the products for the purpose of this review on the understanding that if we did not like them we would return them and wouldn’t feature them on the blog. All the opinions in this review are our own and we stress that we only collaborate with brands and companies that we genuinely like and believe that our readers will like too.