I got the burnt bottom off a good saucepan with steel wool. I also got the finish off.

Six things a wire mesh cloth gets right that forty years of steel wool got wrong, written down by a customer, not a manufacturer.

Nancy Brooks · Customer · Melbourne, VIC · 5 min read

It was a stainless saucepan I had owned for about fifteen years, and I had left rice in it on a low heat and forgotten. So I did what my mother did and what I have always done: I filled it, left it overnight, and then went at it with steel wool.

The burnt rice came off. So did the shine, in a spiral of fine grey scratches across the bottom that I can still see today. And standing at the sink holding that pan I finally had the thought that should have occurred to me thirty years earlier — steel wool works because it is harder than the burnt-on food. It is also harder than the pan.

What I use now is a wire mesh cloth from Cute Home, a small Melbourne outfit. They arrive ten to a packet and I have been through most of a winter with them. Six things they get right.

Steel wool is a solid mass of hard fibres. When you push it across a pan, the whole mass stays rigid and drags every one of those fibres over the finish — which is exactly why it takes the burnt bits off and exactly why it leaves those grey swirls behind. These are woven instead. Fine wire strands knitted into an open mesh over a soft backing, so the loops flex and give as you press. They fold into the shape of whatever you are scrubbing and catch on the deposit rather than gouging the surface underneath it. Same aggression on the mess. Nothing like it on the pan.

"I ruined two pans with steel wool before I found these. No scratches at all, and the burnt bits still come off."

This is the part I did not expect from something that looks like a dishcloth. The mesh catches on dried-on food the way sandpaper catches on a splinter, so you are not pressing hard, you are just moving it. Last Sunday's roasting dish took about forty seconds and no soaking. I have stopped filling pans and leaving them overnight, which after four decades of doing it is a strange habit to break.

"My husband does the pots now, which tells you how much easier they made it."

Warm water, or water and a drop of dish soap. That is it. I had a shelf under the sink with about six different bottles on it — one for the stovetop, one for glass, one that promised to do everything and did not — and I have thrown most of them out. Not because I have become particularly virtuous about chemicals, but because I stopped reaching for them and they were taking up the shelf.

"I have stopped buying stovetop spray entirely. That is about forty dollars a year on its own."

I was sceptical about this one, because anything with wire in it going near a mirror sounds like a bad idea. But the mesh sits over a soft backing, and used damp on glass it lifts the film off and leaves nothing behind — no smears, no lint, none of that cloudy haze you get from a tea towel. The shower screen is the test in our house and it has passed it every week since March.

"No lint and no streaks on glass, which I did not believe until I tried it."

I bought them for the kitchen sink. They are now on the dining table for the sticky ring the honey jar leaves, in the bathroom for the taps, and one lives in the laundry for the outside furniture. My son took two for his car. I did not expect a packet of dish cloths to migrate through the house like this, but they have, and I have stopped trying to keep track of them.

"Bought them for the kitchen and they are now in three rooms. My daughter took some for her flat."

Here is the practical arithmetic. A sponge goes slimy in a fortnight and steel wool rusts into an orange mess in the soap dish within a week. These do neither — they do not hold water, so they rinse out and dry hard rather than staying damp, and when one does get properly grim it goes in the machine with the tea towels and comes out fine. Ten in a packet means there is always a clean one, which is the actual reason the sponge under my sink is gone.

"No rust, no smell, and they wash. My steel wool used to leave orange rings on the sink."

One honest note before the price

It is still wire. It has been fine on my stainless pans, the ceramic stovetop, glass, tiles and sealed benchtops, and I have not marked anything. But I would not take it to a non-stick frypan, and I would not use it on a soft acrylic bath or anything with a polished or painted finish. Test a corner first if you are unsure. Everywhere steel wool would have gone, this goes and behaves better. Places steel wool would never have gone, be sensible.

Wire mesh cloths, against what is already under your sink

I have used all of the alternatives for about forty years. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.

About the price

I will be straightforward, because the price is what made me hesitate. A packet of ten is $39.90, down from $80. That is about four dollars a cloth, which sounds like a lot until you work out what you actually spend.

Mine went roughly like this: a multipack of sponges every six weeks, steel wool most months, and three or four spray bottles a year. I have not bought any of it since March. And there is a bundle running where two packets are $44.90 and three are $49.90, which is where I ended up, because I gave one to my sister and one to my son for his first flat.

If there is a pan in your cupboard with grey swirls on the bottom of it, you already know what I am talking about.

— Nancy

SHINEWIPES DISHWASHING CLOTHS · 10 PACK

★★★★★ 4.9 out of 5 from 2,354 reviews

$80.00$39.90

• Woven wire mesh that lifts baked-on grease without scratching
• Works on water alone, or water and a drop of dish soap
• Does not hold water — rinses clean, dries hard, no smell
• Machine washable and reusable, over and over
• Pans, stovetops, sinks, glass, tiles and benchtops
• Ten cloths per packet · 2 packs $44.90 · 3 packs $49.90
• Free Australia-wide delivery · 30-day money back guarantee

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About the writer. Nancy Brooks lives in Melbourne, VIC. She writes occasionally about the small things she has actually kept using. She is not affiliated with Cute Home beyond being a customer.

This page is an advertisement for Cute Home. Nancy's letter is shared with her permission. Cute Home · An Australian start-up from Melbourne · Free Australia-wide delivery · 30-day money back guarantee.