If there’s one thing that COVID-19 has taught us (though there are plenty), it’s that maintaining cleanliness and hygiene, and sanitizing everything and anything in sight is a must! Sanitizers, face masks, and shields are now irreplaceable accessories that must be a part of your everyday carry. Forget your phone, but not your little bottle of hand sanitizer! A perk of this newly developed mandatory habit is that the innovation of cleaning products and gadgets are at an all-time high! There’s a cleaning product for almost every need and situation, whether it’s a case for your mask that also sanitizes it, or self disinfecting bedsheets that automatically clean themselves! It’s sanitary heaven for all the cleanliness neat freaks, Monica Gellars, and Marie Kondos out there! And we’ve curated the best and most efficient of these appliances to ensure that your home, your surroundings and you can be as clean and clear as possible!
The humble vacuum cleaner is now considered commonplace within our homes, as it is seen as a necessity as opposed to a luxury. However, this doesn’t stop it from carrying a rather unimaginative and uninspiring form. Until now that is – the Drip handheld vacuum cleaner puts aesthetics first. Drip flaunts a sculptural form that oozes sophistication, from the bold, powerful stance that the form creates, through to the distinctive finish that elegantly conceals the electronic nature of the product, making it more of a piece of art than a domestic appliance. The absence of a handle not only allows for a clean, sleek design but also alters how the product is used, adding to its uniqueness and bringing a sense of intrigue. This is certainly a device that you will want to leave out, as opposed to shoving it into the drawer!
Milan-based Salvo Lo Cascio designed the SaniCase as a response to a common problem he saw with people who wore masks. During brief intervals when they took their mask off to eat or drink, they’d often end up putting their masks on tables, armrests, or back in their pockets along with their phone and keys. Designed to give people a place to safely store their masks when not in use, the SaniCase comes with a cylindrical compartment lined with UV-C lights on the inside. When you don’t need the mask, just slip it into its protective casing and it’ll get sanitized too. Speaking of which, the base of the SaniCase even has a push-to-deploy hand-sanitizer bottle on it, allowing you to periodically clean your hands too. By helping disinfect your hands as well as your face-mask, the SaniCase covers all the critical areas to prevent germs from accidentally entering your system.
Meet the Christianshavn, a bedsheet that tackles this problem on a molecular level. Even though its name sounds like the kind of bedsheet that would put the fear of god into bacteria, it is, in fact, the unique material developed for and used by the bedsheet that helps it self-clean by automatically killing the microorganisms on it and preventing the spread of odors… so your bedsheet remains cleaner for longer, and doesn’t need changing so often. Nordifakt’s Christianshavn bedding is made in 100% organic cotton, which means it feels just as comfortable as your current bedsheets. However, it comes treated with Polygiene®, a fabric treatment that uses low concentrations of silver chloride that has anti-microbial properties. The Polygiene within the bedsheet acts like a natural disinfectant, using silver ions to break down germs that make their way into the bedsheet. These ions can break down VOCs or volatile organic compounds too, stopping the growth of molds and even keeping your bedsheets smelling fresh. The Polygiene treatment lasts practically forever because silver chloride isn’t water-soluble… which means washing the bedsheet doesn’t diminish its self-cleaning power.
You can easily sanitize your knives and cutting surfaces, embrace your inner quarantine chef with germ-free cooking thanks to Chopbox’s built-in disinfecting UVC light – see I told you, this board is lit and literally! We clean our knives but do we ever think about the germs in knife blocks or the crevices of our cutting boards? With Chopbox all you have to do place your knife in between the two cutting surfaces and activate the small but powerful 254nm UVC light that can sanitize up to 3 knives at once as well as both the cutting surfaces. “Just one minute of UVC light exposure is guaranteed to kill 99.99% of germs and bacteria. The 254nm UVC light used in the ChopBox is small and has a limited angle with only a small gap in the boards when in use. It is 100% safe for all humans to be around and near this light. The UVC light will automatically switch off when you separate the two boards or you can press the second button on the control panel to turn it off. You will receive no negative side effects from this UVC light,” says the team.
Rena’s aim was to create an innovative bottle that could be a bank for all the cleaning liquids we needed. It has a reservoir tank and replaceable cartridge that holds concentrated chemicals that are mixed and diluted in specific ratios to clean different surfaces or dispense for laundry. It takes the guesswork out so that your surfaces and clothes are protected from your chemical calculations (let’s be real, ‘one cap’ is not a measurement). The bottle has an ergonomic design and using it is simple – insert the cartridge, fill in the water, select the surface you intend to clean on your Rena mobile app, and via Bluetooth the bottle will collect that data configure a detergent mix based on it. Then all you do is press the trigger and the bottle will dispense the concoction.
The 0° Clean concept offers a new way to make sure your face-mask is fresh, dry, and sanitized between uses. Created by Jungkwang Hwang as a fan-made concept for Samsung, the 0° Clean is a nifty flat-bed UV-C sanitizer that uses a combination of ultraviolet light and dry air to cleanse and blow-dry your mask. It comes with a detachable cylindrical battery-unit (with a built-in display) that you can easily snap onto the sanitizing flat-bed to power it. The bed’s space is big enough for almost any flat surgical or cloth mask. Just place the mask in, shut the lid, and switch it on using a button on the side. The UV-C lights neutralize any microorganisms, and the hot air (which blows from the bottom and the sides) dries off any perspiration on the mask, so you can wear it after a few hours knowing that it’s dry and sterile.
Designed as this all-encompassing floor cleaning tool, the Duet lets you sweep, mop (both wet and dry), collect and discard all your dust and dirt with one single cleaning instrument. The Duet’s broom comes with a dual-sided design, featuring a microfiber mop on one edge for collecting dust particles, and bristles on another side, allowing you to simply turn the broom around to sweep/maneuver larger pieces of debris into Duet’s dust-collecting tray. The tray’s highlight is its self-cleaning chamber that automatically cleans the mop head, pulling stubborn stuff like hairballs off the mop, effectively cleaning it without you needing to get your hands dirty. Duet’s all-in-one design aims at tackling the need to buy/own/use multiple cleaning tools to get the job done. Designed to work like a broom, a wet mop, dry mop, and even a polishing cloth, Duet’s interchangeable heads are easy to swap, allowing you to effectively use one tool to sweep, mop, and buff your floor.
Pet Paws is a high-tech sanitizing mat used to clean, disinfect, and dry the legs of our pets as well as the soles of our shoes. The efficient product design is a simple roll-up mat that is easy to carry and store. The team worked on elevating an existing prototype by adding improved functionality and simplifying it further – the redesigned version is now just a one-piece product, unlike the original one which had four parts. It has two areas on its surface – the first section of the mat has a multi-directional cleaning texture which bends and cleans inside the paws in a friendly manner, and the second section of the mat has a cushioned texture which helps to dry the paws as the pet walks over the microfiber sleeve. Both parts have a texture that has been cleverly selected to maximize the efficiency of the process by making sure it can clean inside the paws without any discomfort or complex steps.
Traditional laundry machine cycles can potentially damage clothes (how many of us even know the right settings for our loads?) and ever since the pandemic took over our lives we are doing laundry more often to stay safe – this is bound to wear them out 5x faster than usual. The Samsung AirDresser is here to save the day! Its sleek build is similar to a tall, thin fridge and can seamlessly blend in any room. The AirDresser uses a combination of steaming and heat-pump powered drying, and you won’t even have to plumb it in says Samsung. “That’s because, rather than a water connection like a traditional washer would require, the AirDresser relies on a refillable water tank at the bottom of the cabinet. It means it can be installed pretty much anywhere with a regular 120V outlet,” explains the team.
Usually, people dispose of their toilet brushes every 2-3 months, and given that most of them are plastic, it leads to a lot of environmental damage. This redesigned toilet brush lets you switch out brushes while reusing the main body which reduces a lot of toxic waste. BrushPro is extremely convenient to use compared to its forerunners. The extendable handle allows you to reach narrow spaces without having to perform advanced yoga poses on the floor and minimizes your direct contact with the dirty brush. The handle also has slits that give the brush head some flexibility while cleaning – a great universal design that takes into account the experience of the differently-abled demographic as well. The brush head includes rubber as well as fiber for more efficient cleaning. Another brilliant detail is the slot for the detergent bottle, so you can simply refill and reuse the detergent bottle instead of buying more plastic spray bottles – it also frees up your hand as it combines both cleaning products in one!
