I’m guessing that 98 percent of my time is spent cleaning. Even when I don’t have a scrub brush in my hand, I’m thinking about what needs cleaning. So, it drives me crazy when I pull wine bottles out of the dishwasher, and they are covered in spots, grime and food. I can’t crawl in there myself and scrub, so I look for “bottle brushes.” A good, solid wine bottle brush is nowhere to be found. They are both too short, and too weak. Too short to make it down the bottle, and too weak to swirl around to reach the sides without bending.
To get clean, those bottles need friction! Where can you get that down a skinny-neck bottle?
This drives me crazy. Because wine bottles make awesome pantry storage, and are the prettiest and best way to make ginger bug sodas.
My son shared an infomercial on YouTube with me about a magnetic bottle scrubber. I was intrigued… but not with the price tag. And I wondered if it would really work… and I could see room for improvement on this bottle scrubber.
So I set out to make my own version. I took a
- rubber band
- a plastic mesh bag from produce (my favorite, hands-down scrubber by far)
- a magnet small enough to fit through the opening of the wine bottle
- A strong powerful magnet to do the work. (I used a childproof lock magnet, which you can find at Loew’s or Home Depot).
I cut off a swatch of the mesh bag, and wrapped it around the small magnet several times to ensure the magnet couldn’t get out through the little holes.
Secured it with a rubber band and dropped it into the bottle.
Add your favorite bottle scrubbing concoction — I prefer soap and water, or baking soda and peroxide, and go to work!
Clean, clean, clean bottles!