Organization and clean-up

It’s interesting you brought this up. I have a food waste container under my kitchen sink but whenever I emptied out a teapot (or strainer), it would make a bit of a mess. Leaves would end up not in the bag or fly around a bit. Hubby suggested having something like an old empty coffee cup on the countertop and emptying my leaves in that. It’s been working out great but I don’t like the cheap ugly disposable coffee cup on my countertop so I’ve been looking for something different.

My infusers are all from Davids Tea, and have straight sides. I tip it into my compost bin (small one under the sink). I bang it on the edge a couple times to loosen things and if there is too much left I use a dirty utensil or my finger to scoop them out. I actually hate doing it and think it’s really gross. Then I rinse everything and make new tea, forgetting the grossness.

I let a small amount of debris go down the drain but I live rural and also worry about clogging my pipes. The last thing I want is a backup, so I do what I have to to get them in the compost. Another idea is to use a bit of napkin or paper towel to wipe it out, that gets stuff out well with less grossness. But then I’m wasting stuff and I hate creating more waste.

I have a fine mesh sink insert that I got at the druggist. It catches all the leaves and sink gunk, so I can just rinse stuff directly into the sink, then empty the insert into the bin.

I dump my infuser out into the trash, and bang it on the edge a few times to get most of the leaf out. I have multiple infusers, so sometimes I’ll just let them dry out overnight, so that the used leaf falls out cleanly.

I also have a fine mesh insert for my sink, which keeps all but the tiniest debris from going down the drain.

I run water through the infuser when it’s upside down to get most of the bits out. Then I put the infuser into a mug, fill it with water, swish it around and dump the whole thing quickly, which gets the last of the remaining particles out.

I have a large porcelain lined metal bowl that I use to hold used leaf until it goes to the compost. I dump what comes loose easily then leave the rest until it dries in the teapot, press, or infuser basket. Once dry the rest comes out easily. Usually just a quick rinse and its good to go.

I keep a small container on the countertop to compost my used leaves.

I also have a little mesh thing in my sink as well and will rinse of any remaining leaves .. It catches them for me. I leave it in my sink all the time to catch anything that might try to get through.

Thanks everyone! I hadn’t thought of letting it dry, thought it’d stick. But I do have a strainer in the sink, but it’s not a very good one and a lot gathers around edges and ends up down the drain.

I have a fine mesh strainer on the sink too. But for most of the time I also have a fine mesh strainer on a handle that I use when I have to empty tea leaves out of my infusers. I swirl some water around the infuser, and catch it in the strainer. I can then bang that against the side of the trash can. The strainer is all metal, so I don’t mind being a little rougher with it compared to my gravity steepers. Sometimes I let the leaves hang out in the strainer over a bowl over night to dry out a bit so I’m not dumping so much moist stuff in the trash. For basket type infusers I stick the whole thing in a bowl of water and squish it around to get the leaves out into the water, and then that tea leaf water goes through the strainer. I do find that dry leaves get stuck in fine mesh more easily than wet leaves, which is why I do it this way.

I use the fine basket type strainers (unless using a yixing) and i tap it against the side of the compost bucket and use a scrap of paper towel to get the rest out and put the towel in the compost as well. I use little pieces of the paper towel and get about 20 uses out one towel. Or – I let it dry and falls right out.