december clean-o-gram

'Tis the season to be thankful. And we are pretty darn thankful. This time last year, our UK office was the Caffé Nero in Clapham. Now, we not only have a roof over our heads but even a homey Christmas tree (photo at the end of this email).

Our biggest thanks go to you, of course, the nice people who have discovered method and are making the world a cleaner place, one countertop and bath tile at a time.

In this month’s clean-o-gram, we have sticky dishes, a dirty little secret, and a sudsy blast from the past.

the dish on dish

The kitchen, more than any other room, is the heart of the home. You could argue that the kitchen is the new living room, particularly with a hot pudding in the oven and some stuffing to nab when no one’s looking.

But, they don’t call it Sticky Toffee Pudding for nothing. So we have recently added some festive bottles of washing up liquid to bring a little cheer to your sink top. Since your suds do run downstream, you’ll be glad to know these are designed to fully biodegrade to keep you on Santa’s nice list.

(Santa's dirty little secret: he likes pink and purple every bit as much as red and green.  Find them here.) 

dirty little secret of the month

We want everyone to rethink what makes a healthy home, so we like to share dirty little secrets (but only if we can also share a few tips on how to overcome them).

One of our favorite things about this time of year is the varied recipes of turkey and cranberry leftover sandwiches that appear after Christmas. We actually think the leftovers are every bit as good as the original meal.

But before you pop the mashed potatoes in the microwave, give a quick thought to how you microwave.  This is a bit scary, but microwaving some types of plastic with food means that you are essentially radiating a petroleum product that can leach chemicals onto your food. We think plastic makes a poor substitute for Branston pickle. Here’s the full story.

deck the halls with washing up liquid

We’re always tinkering with our designs. Earlier in this clean-o-gram, we introduced our sassy new bottles of washing-up liquid.

Well, while cleaning out our proverbial attic, we just stumbled across a couple boxes of washing-up liquid we stopped making a few years ago (next to Phil’s baby pictures and David’s winning volcano for the science project). How these bottles wound up here, we’re not quite sure. We used some for Christmas decorations (as modeled by our Nicole), but we still have a few remaining vintage samples if you’d like a collector’s item.

We’ll post a free bottle signed by us to everyone who emails us at talkclean@methodproducts.co.uk by Thursday this week with a brief description of their quirkiest Christmas tradition. To get you started, our Louise actually lights real candles on the tree and circles it holding hands with her family singing Danish carols fueled by Schnapps and pickled herring. So, top that.

who got the bag?

Last month, we polled you for clever suggestions for our sassy plastic bag rehab bag. We received quite a few clever answers, you crafty readers you. Some of our favorites are posted here, including this one:

"I will lay it on the floor in the bed room with a little bit of cat nip in the bottom. My cat 'Her ladyship Tibbles van der Snugglebug' will come out from under the bed in a much calmer fashion then normal (ie being poked at with a feather duster until she gives up). I will gather up the bag, tickle her head and then deposit her on the sofa (where she lives when the 'two legs' go out"

all I want for Christmas

We are all busy writing our lists to Father Christmas -- and negotiating our kids' lists too.  We received this picture of lovely Georgia, age 5, from Twickenham while scouting out a John Lewis to prep for her letter to Father Christmas.