I Put a Salad Spinner in My Bathroom, and It Was Brilliant

A few years ago, I scored a free salad spinner from my local Buy Nothing Facebook group. I was excited to start eating more package-free lettuce — but admittedly, my follow-through on the greens front hasn’t been great. So when I saw an Apartment Therapy story about using a salad spinner in the bathroom, my ears perked up. Not only did it sound like a helpful hack, but it also felt like an eco-friendly way to give an underused kitchen tool a second life. So, I took my salad spinner for a spin in the bathroom.

According to the original article, a salad spinner (like this one from IKEA) in the bathroom can help quickly remove excess water from things like clothing, loofahs, and washcloths. This can cut down on how long they stay damp and potentially help with mildew in a humid bathroom. 

A salad spinner basically acts like a mini spin cycle: It whirls items around so that water is pulled away and collected in the bottom bowl. That simple motion is what makes it surprisingly effective beyond the kitchen.

Whenever I take a bath, I use a few washcloths under my head as a pillow, and am left with heavy, sopping-wet towels. I took one of my dripping washcloths and placed it in the salad spinner. After spinning for about 30 seconds (not a bad arm workout!), I was shocked at how much water had collected in the bottom of the bowl.

I poured the water out and spun the cloth again, which pulled out even more. By the end, the washcloth felt much lighter and completely stopped dripping. I hung it over a towel bar to finish drying, and compared to wringing it out by hand, the salad spinner method felt both easier and noticeably more.

Another use for the salad spinner? It works as a mini washing machine. Sometimes I need to wash one or two small or delicate items, but I don’t want to waste electricity by running the washing machine for such a tiny load. I’m also not a huge fan of handwashing clothing in the sink (my hands are prone to dry skin), so I was eager to see if my salad spinner could work as a DIY washing machine.

I started with one of my reusable microfiber makeup remover pads, which had been sitting with makeup stains on it for several days. I tossed the pad in the spinner with about an inch of water and a squirt of Dr. Bronner’s Castile soap, then spun it for about 30 seconds. When I took the lid off, the water was incredibly sudsy.

Leaving the pad in the strainer basket, I added clean water to the bowl from the bathroom sink and spun again to rinse. The water turned slightly murky, which told me the makeup was coming off — and I loved that my hands stayed completely dry during the whole process. I poured out the dirty water, rinsed the pad in the basket again, and gave it one final spin. The spinner pulled out a good amount of water, and the stains looked noticeably lighter. The pad was still a bit wetter than I’d hoped after the last spin, but it was clean enough to hang up and air-dry.

I’ll definitely keep using my salad spinner for things like makeup pads and washcloths, and next I’m planning to try it on delicate clothing, like mesh socks. Honestly, I wish I had thought of this trick back when I didn’t have my own washing machine — it could have saved me from so much handwashing.