The Strucket Bucket List

When you think of a bucket, what comes to mind?

Probably not much.

The truth is buckets are not really a top of mind concern until you are in the exact situation where you don’t have one…

Imagine this…

It is 2 am in the middle of July when you hear Miss 5 yelling out. As you jump out of bed your limbs are jerked awake as your bare feet hit the cold tiles on the way into your darling daughters’ room causing you to curse her sweet cotton socks with expletives that would make a drunken sailor blush. As you fling the door open you are greeted with tears (which immediately melt your heart and make you feel guilty for ever cursing her sweet cotton socks) and vomit. Lots and lots and lots of vomit… It is in her hair, plastered over her pyjamas, it’s lying in chunks mixing through her sheets – god it’s even on the floor and about to be squished into the carpet… NO MUMMY WILL COME TO YOU! Now very much awake even though your bones are dog tired, you find yourself stripping Miss 5 and throwing her in a warm shower as you soothe her tears and become slightly worried because that really was a lot of vomit for such a small girl, oh and she has a bad temp too!

Come 2.30 am and Miss 5 is clean and redressed in her warmest PJ’s. You send her to your bed to sleep with the Dad (who is still snoring) while you return to the scene of the crime (we can all agree midnight vomiting is a crime) and strip the sheets. Five minutes into stripping the sheets you think you must be hallucinating when you hear murmurs from the room next door. Nope, it seems you are perfectly sane and now Master 2 is crying… loudly crying. So, here you are, covered in vomit, with only half the bed sorted and the carpet still resembling a mashed apple pie…. But as the cries get louder you can’t do anything but surrender to the screams and go see what is wrong (it better be good)! You drop your load of sheets and scramble into your son’s room to bear witness to the biggest “poo-nami” you have ever seen! There is poo everywhere, up his front, down his back, wiped across the cot and the wall! Taking a deep breath as you silently curse the miracle of babies, you grab Master 2 and head back to the bathroom, deciding that the shower is again the fastest path to sanity (and cleanliness), without thought, you strip both of you off and jump in the shower!

Once clean and calm you pop a fresh nappy onto his oh-so-cute-now-it-is-poo-free bare bottom and put him in bed with Dad and Miss 5…. Because now you need to do what all mothers dream of and finish cleaning up the spew and the poo… Stripping every inch of bedding, cleaning the stained carpets and gathering the soiled clothes and nappies, you drudge your way into the laundry. It is now nearing 3.30 am and all you want right now in life is to throw all this mess in a bucket to soak so you can get back to bed! You fill the bucket with water and detergent and push the soiled mess of sheets and clothes into the warm water and you bail for bed…. Not thinking about it again…

…. Until the next day when you realise that the spew-y, poo-y mess is not over, because now you have to get the clean items out of that bucket… and that means you have to put your hand into that festering, unhygienic, toxic mess! Feeling defeated you look at the bucket and decide that no, not today, you might come back tomorrow (or weigh up the cost of new sheets) but today you are just going to have a wine….

Buckets are not glamorous, and they won’t make you thin or young or rich, but they will be your saving grace when the shit hits the fan (literally). The trusty bucket lets you soak your soiled items and walk away… the problem is and always has been the situation you face when you return! Most people wouldn’t put their hand into a dirty toilet and yet depending on what you have soaking, the toxic mess at the bottom of your bucket is just as unhygienic if not worse, until now!

The Strucket is just like a regular bucket but better. Combining the functionality of a strainer with a laundry-grade bucket, the Strucket now lets you soak, separate and drain without ever having to touch any yucky, toxic, grimy, dirty, chemical-filled water again! The Strucket doesn’t make soaking enjoyable or fun – let’s be honest laundry is not a choice it is a chore – but it might just relieve you of the fear you feel when you forget about the soaking for a day or three and realise you have to get “those items” out of the water! And do you know what? When we looked around the house we realised that we actually soak way more than we think and beyond that, the ingenious design of the Strucket is useful for so many other things too! So, for you the busy mum here is our list of all the items that you can now soak, clean, sanitise and prepare without ever having to touch the dirty water again…

Laundry Use

1. Sanitising Modern Cloth Nappies
2. Dry Pailing Modern Cloth Nappies
3. Soaking traditional cloth nappies
4. Soaking reusable baby wipes
5. Wet/Stained underpants from toilet training
6. Anything with Vomit
7. Anything with Poo
8. Baby Clothes
9. Bibs & muslins
10. Anything with blood on it
11. Anything that needs to be disinfected
12. Anything needing soaking for stain removal
13. Whites – towels, sheets, shirts, pants
14. Socks – grass stains and sporting grime
15. Soak sports/gym clothes
16. Clean and sanitise pet bedding & pet clothes
17. Soak tea towels
18. Fishing clothes
19. Fish Tank filters
20. All the toys
21. Lego (it is its own beast)
22. Rinse, clean and disinfect dishes/cutlery
23. Hand washing delicates either silks or embellished garments
24. Hand washing swimwear
25. Hand washing lingerie
26. Disinfecting head lice equipment
27. Soaking Mop heads and cleaning cloths
28. Soaking Baking trays
29. BBQ utensils
30. Chemical use whether laundry or garage

Food Use

1. Fruit & Veg – pesticides are a problem
2. Peeling vegetables
3. Defrosting seafood & cleaning seafood
4. Marinating meat, poultry, seafood
5. Making Cocktails
6. Draining pasta, noodles & more
7. Soaking/drying nuts
8. Cleaning, scaling & gutting caught fish
9. Live Bait
10. Composting scraps

Outside, Sport & Other Uses

1. Cleaning golf balls
2. Soak sports/gym gear
3. Clean and sanitise pet toys
4. Fishing nets
5. Clean bike chains and parts
6. Makes a great camping sink & washing machine
7. Cleaning engine parts
8. Soaking bonsai or other small potted plants
9. Car washing, the grit is caught beneath the strainer
10. Drinks & Ice holder
11. Cleaning paintbrushes
12. Cleaning makeup brushes

With endless ways to use your Strucket, this may just be one of the world’s most versatile products. Let us know how you use your Strucket and we’ll include it on the list!

See our Strucket range here