5 Things Every Clean Kitchen Needs
The recipe for a clean kitchen is simple: Stick to a regular (and realistic) routine, and be prepared with the right set of tools. It’s super important to create a cleaning system that actually works for you and to use items that’ll make the whole (sometimes tedious) process a little easier. Below, we’ve done the shopping for you and picked out the very best cleaning tools for the kitchen.
The Best Kitchen Cleaning Tools
- Sponge: Skura Style Skrubby Sponges
- Dish Brush: Scotch-Brite Non-Scratch Dishwand
- Bottle Brush: OXO Water Bottle Cleaning Set
- Dish Drying Rack: simplehuman Steel Frame Dishrack
- Trash Can: simplehuman Dual Compartment Rectangular Step Can
What Makes Up This Category of Winners
Here are the winners of Apartment Therapy’s 2025 Cleaning Awards — specifically the best cleaning tools to use for the kitchen. This category includes the tools you’ll need to get your dishes squeaky clean, scrub every surface, and throw out the trash with ease.
How We Picked the Winners of the Cleaning Awards This Year
When your home gets messy, it’s time to get cleaning. Each year, Apartment Therapy spotlights the very best cleaning tools to help you get the job done with our Cleaning Awards. We vacuumed, scrubbed, and tackled messes big and small until we discovered which cleaning tools truly shine — and sweep the competition. We selected 30 cleaning essentials across five categories that have all been tested and vetted by our editors.
Want to see more winners? See here for the full list of winners for the 2025 Cleaning Awards.
All prices were accurate at the time of publishing, but may have changed since then.