Barkly Basics: the sink corner, finally worth looking at

Spring in the Mount announces itself at the kitchen window first. The light comes in flatter and earlier in the morning, and it lands squarely on the one corner of the house nobody has ever styled: the sink, with its yellow sponge, its grey-going-on-green cloth and a ring of water under all of it.

Everything else in a kitchen gets considered. The tapware is chosen, the tiles are agonised over, the bowl on the bench is the right bowl. Then the cleaning gear arrives from the supermarket in primary colours and undoes the lot.

A scientist, and a better sponge

Barkly Basics began in Melbourne with Dr Natasha Malkov, a molecular biologist who could not find a dish sponge she was willing to leave on display. She designed one. The range grew from there into cloths, towels, gloves and sink accessories, all held to a black, white and grey palette, and her background shows up in how the materials perform rather than in anything written on the packet.

It is a small, unglamorous category done properly, which is exactly why it suits a house where the rest of the decisions have already been made carefully.

Start where the mess collects

The single change that does the most is the least interesting to describe. The silicone decor tray, $25 in black or grey, gathers the dish wash, the hand wash and the sponge into one deliberate group and catches what drips off them. A wet bench becomes a contained thing. It is waterproof, heat proof and dishwasher safe, so it survives being used properly rather than being admired.

Put the sponge on it and the corner reads as arranged instead of accumulated.

The sponge you will actually leave out

Three to choose between, depending on what you are scrubbing.

The Black and White Scourer Sponge, $13 for two, is the everyday one: a soft white cellulose base with a black non-scratch scourer face, safe on dinnerware, cutlery and glassware. The Chevron Scourer Sponge, also $13 for two, does the same job with a pattern to it, and is the one to reach for when there is baked-on dinner involved.

If you want nothing at all to look at, the All White Cellulose Sponge is $9 for three. No dye, no logo, no branding, made from wood pulp and cotton fibres. It is the plainest thing in the range and probably the most used.

The black compressed cellulose sponges, $15 for four, are between shipments at the moment. Worth a back-in-stock note if the black is what you are after.

Cloths, and the lint problem

A microfibre cloth earns its place on glass and stainless steel, where a cotton one leaves a haze behind. The grey microfibre cloths, $19 for two, are machine washable and hold a good amount of liquid, so they handle a spill rather than spreading it. Keep one for benches and one for mirrors and tapware, and do not let them meet.

Tea towels that earn the rail

The tea towel is the piece of cleaning gear most likely to be seen by somebody other than you, which is an argument for owning ones you do not mind hanging. All three are waffle microfibre, 50 x 70cm, lint free on plates and streak free on glassware.

White at $19 is the quiet default and sits well against timber and stone. Black, also $19, is the one for a kitchen with dark tapware or a black tap rail, and hides its working life better. The grey sits between them and is on its way back in. Wash them with like colours, as they are not colour fast.

The bathroom crossover

The grey microfibre hand towels, $29 for three, are the same waffle construction scaled for hands. They dry fast, which is the whole argument for microfibre in a bathroom that does not get much sun, and three means one is always on the rail while the others are in the wash.

Looking after your hands while you do it

Kitchen gloves have historically been a compromise between protecting your hands and looking at something bright yellow. The grey kitchen gloves, $16 a pair, are cotton lined and cut slim enough to feel what you are holding, with grip on the fingertips and palm.

And at the end of it, the Mandarin and Lime body wash at $9 for 500ml is the same brand logic applied to the shower: SLS free, vegan, and a bottle you are happy to leave out.

The short of it

Barkly Basics is a Melbourne range of kitchen and cleaning essentials in a black, white and grey palette, created by Dr Natasha Malkov. At Flux Boutique the current range covers cellulose and scourer sponges from $9, microfibre cloths and tea towels at $19, waffle hand towels, cotton lined kitchen gloves, a silicone sink tray and a body wash. The point of all of it is the same: the sink corner is part of the room, and it can be dealt with for the price of a takeaway coffee round. Browse the full Barkly Basics collection or the wider Cleaning and Laundry range.