The Best Housewarming Gift I Ever Got Was This $10 Sink Strainer
When I moved back to my New Jersey hometown eight years ago, I wasn’t expecting to get any housewarming gifts. My husband, Sean, and I had both grown up there, but the only folks we knew who still lived nearby were my extended in-laws. And I’d already promised them that the only present I really wanted was for them to help us shlep our stuff into our new home.
So a couple of days later, when Sean’s cousin John handed us a small gift bag, I was confused.
“Oh, I give this to everyone when they move into a new place,” John told me. I started to protest, saying I felt bad, that there was no need for gifts. John interrupted me. “It’s fine; it’s cheap,” he assured me.
It was an OXO Silicone Sink Strainer, a flexible catchall designed to accommodate most kitchen sink drains and replace the metal strainers that come with many of them. In my eight years of experience using this device, I’ve found it’s superior to a basic metal strainer in every way.
This $10 doodad has, in fact, become the most prized housewarming gift I’ve ever received.
The way it works is simple. Pop out your old, metal strainer (but don’t throw it away; more on that later), and then place the OXO strainer into the mouth of your drain. Its ¾-inch stainless steel rim resists rust (no matter what material the surface of your sink basin is made of) and allows it to fit a wide range of drains.
The strainer’s flexible silicone basket has holes that are about ⅛ inch thick. The holes are not as fine as those in a mesh strainer, however, they’re sized just right to allow water to flow down the drain, even when the strainer’s basket is chock-full of food bits. And I can tell you that in eight years of owning this gizmo, I have never dealt with a clogged kitchen sink.
The best thing about the OXO strainer is that it takes the worst part of dealing with a kitchen sink — namely, the moment you have to empty its gross contents into your trash or compost — and magically turns it into a much less grody task.
The basket has a little knob-like handle that the company calls a center post. To empty the basket, you can tap the strainer a few times against the side of your waste receptacle (which you’d likely do with any metal strainer, and which probably gets most of the gunk out). For the bits that don’t seem to want to budge, simply hold the strainer upside down over your trash, and then gently pull the center post to invert the basket. The rest of the stuck-on gunk usually flings right off.
The strainer is also dishwasher-safe, so there’s no need to scrub it by hand. (Bless.)
The one thing that the OXO Silicone Sink Strainer can’t do is work as a stopper when you want to fill your sink basin with water. That’s why I keep my old metal strainer stashed in the cabinet below my sink. OXO does sell a 2-in-1 Silicone Sink Strainer with Stopper, which I have never tried. It purportedly works by twisting the center post clockwise to stop up the drain; turning it counterclockwise then allows water to flow through again.
However, Amazon reviews on the 2-in-1 Strainer with Stopper are worse than for the Silicone Sink Strainer: The Silicone Sink Strainer boasts 4.7 out of 5 stars, while the 2-in-1 averages 4.1 out of 5 stars. One of the more common customer complaints seems to be that the 2-in-1 isn’t as durable and long-lasting, and some reviews note that the silicone ripped after a few months or a couple of years. (This makes sense, since silicone is not indestructible and can probably withstand only so many twists and turns.)
As a kitchen helper, the Silicone Sink Strainer is incredibly reliable and really pleasant to use (again, even though what you’re using it for is a rather unpleasant task). As a gift, I like it even more. I love gifts that solve problems and make life a little easier for their recipients.
I especially love this as a housewarming gift because here’s the thing: When you move into a new place, particularly if it’s a home purchase, you’ve got big concerns on your plate. There may be heating and cooling systems to repair or upgrade, whole rooms to furnish, or swaths of lawn to keep manicured. The little problems usually just have to wait. Except for this one — the problems of a janky metal sink strainer that may do the job but won’t make that job any easier for you.
The housewarming gift I asked for — the gift of moving help — made that arduous day of packing and unpacking much more bearable. The housewarming gift I never saw coming is the one that has made every day a little better since.
This article was edited by Megan Beauchamp and Maxine Builder.
