The money you could save by growing a kitchen garden makes food taste all the sweeter, but it does have one drawback: the mess that some vegetables leave in your sink after you wash them.
But thankfully, there's a better way, as demonstrated by food gardening influencer Amy (@chicksandveg) on Instagram.
The scoop
The Reel begins with a shot of an old metal trash can, on top of which Amy has affixed a wire grid. The grid behaves like a colander, which carries a harvest of carrots freshly picked from the ground.
To clean the soil off the carrots, Amy rinses them with her garden hose. All the spare water is collected in the trash can below.
Amy then recycles that muddy water to hydrate her vegetable patch.
"Still one of the best and most used things I've made," she wrote in a caption.
How it's helping
Rather than messing up her kitchen, Amy's hack helps gardeners spend less time cleaning and more time enjoying the fruits (and veggies) of their labor.
She'll also save money on water. In the UK, where Amy is based, the average water bill could increase by as much as 40% over the next ten years, forcing some household bills from an average of $573 per year to $865.
Water companies are pushing that increase to help manage the country's ongoing sewage crisis and the effects of the changing climate.
What everyone's saying
Instagram users have been applauding Amy's mess-preventing hack.
"Genius idea," one commented. "I harvested some of my carrots yesterday. (I'm super new to gardening) and got in a right state cleaning them."
"I'm definitely going to be making myself one of these today," another wrote. "I am rather fed up of mess in the kitchen sink at home."
"Great idea and great way to save our most precious resource," another agreed.
And one Instagram user pointed out another benefit to cleaning vegetables outside: "Also it's collecting rainwater," they wrote.
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