10 Things in My Finnish Home That Just Make Sense 

The cupboard for drying dishes was a revelation to me when I first visited Finland. Such a good idea!

Swede here! I use both brush and sponge, depending on what I am cleaning. pots and pans and rougher stains require a brush but sponges are better at getting grease off of things, and are softer on the glass item so you don't scratch them.

I love the little sprayer in the bathroom! That would have been so handy when my kids were little.

A thing I realised I didn't appreciate enough before: completely tiled and well waterproofed bathrooms you could just hose down to clean. A carpeted bathroom with a tiny closed shower stall I saw still gives me the willies. And bathrooms with no tilted floors so the water would just go up to the goddamn door. Everything in Finland is so thoughtfully built and efficient, I love it.

The dish drying in the cabinet idea just blew my mind. I never have anywhere to properly dry my dishes without dust and germs everywhere... this is something I can make happen. So glad you included this!

Portuguese here and my grandma also used to do that with old sheets and pillow covers, got a lot of them that I use for cleaning purposes too at my house :) I think the sponge/brush is a personal preference here, but usually we use the sponge more. Maybe brush if we need to do some deeper cleaning on pots, woks, etc.

I am married to a Finn and lived in Finland for years. We are now in Newfoundland where I am from and I still miss the dish drying cupboard. Best invention ever! Love Finland. Beautiful, wonderful country and people.

I want a Finnish home - so wonderfully practical. I love the 'astiankuivauskaappi' and brought one back to England after living in Finland. 💙🇫🇮💙

In my opinion, your bonny smile is the best part of this video!👍👍

The drying dishes cabinet is brilliant! So no need to put them away after washing as they are stored away!

My Finnish friend gave me this cheese slicer after I was complaining about the useless ones I could buy downunder. Mine is identical to the one you’re using & 35 years later it’s still giving excellent cuts of cheese.

I am in the UK and use both a brush and a sponge to wash dishes. Also have the cheese slicer - it is a great to use when making sandwiches and when I need thin slices of cheese in cooking. I always put matching folded sheets, extra pillow cases and duvet cover in one of the pillow cases. So when changing the bed can take out a whole set at once.

I’m from North Carolina, Southeastern US, and grew up with a lot of “creature comforts,” one being a cheese slicer. I didn’t realize it was a particularly Scandinavian concept. I enjoyed slicing blocks of cheddar. But ours I think had a more rounded edge.

Aah, the drying cupboard above the kitchen sink is a brilliant idea. I will copy that in my own kitchen. For dishwashing, I use a brush (that I see you can suspend above the kitchen sink, hanging from the drying cupboard). Leaves a neat and empty kitchen counter. And also I use a sponge with a scrubbing side (Scotch Brite) when you need the scrubbing function (stains, limestone traces on cooking pots). You could film certain details just a bit longer, for better viewing and comprehension. Thanks. From Belgium.

Dish brush is a relict from the time before dishwashers. People washed table-ware by hands and brushes.

Hi from Minnesota, USA. My roommate in college was from Finland and you remind me of her! My favorite is the cheese slicer. I never thought to use it to slice cucumbers. The ease in which you sliced made me think I should be buying cheese in bulk instead of sliced already. And as far as washing dishes, I always use a dish brush because I think it’s more sanitary. It can be easily washed in the dishwasher. Thank you for your fun, RU-vids!

I just love this video. Kiitos!!!!

I use a dish sponge, or cloth, and sometimes a brush. As for recycling, we do all that but we don't have special bins. We collect all kitchen scraps (vegetable & fruit parings, used tea & coffee grounds, and other food scraps) and, because we live on a half-acre of land, when we have a tub of the scraps we dig a hole in the garden and bury the scraps. I think this is the same as composting without having the trouble of using compost bins. We collect all paper, plastic, glass, and metal containers and these are collected once every two weeks. We also use worn-out towels, bed sheets, tablecloths, etc. In fact, I recently went through a box of linens that were stored away and discovered that the linen napkins could be used as dish towels - they were big enough and absorb water quickly because they are linen. With bath and hand towels, they start as bathroom towels and then when they get too worn they become the towels that my husband uses when he washes his hands in our laundry room. Once they become too worn out for even that, they become rags for cleaning. I think we live in Canada very much as you do in Finland.

I love the dish drying cabinet! I think I will convert one of mine into this. Kiitos!

I am of Scandinavian descent, born and raised in Minnesota, USA. I fell in love the first time I tried a dish brush many, many years ago! Most of my family use a "dish rag" or cloth. A few use a sponge (which I really dislike).

Amazing! Thanks for the tip with the brush instead of the sponge and now I understand the meaning of this small switcher on the tap 😁

Varpu, paljon kiitoksia for this video! That was incredibly interesting to drop into the finnish culture from the inside) you can understand culture and traditions closer by seeing homes and how it all works in it. This is curiously enough, also )) Thank you 😊

Love the dish drying cabinet!

Cheese slicers and dish brushes are very common in the Netherlands also the air drying rack is something that we use. The other things we dont have so much. but we have more in common than i would have thought.

Terve! You make such sweet videos. It's exciting to learn more about people from our neighbouring countries. The cheese slicer (ostehøvel) is a Norwegian invention 😉 and it's cool to see that you love using one. I wouldn't be able to survive without a cheese slicer. We Norwegians are also using a brush for washing the dishes, but I have been laughed upon by people from other parts of Europe that think I wash up with a toilet brush...😁

That slicer design just opened my eyes

All those things make sense to me. No wonder Finns are so happy! I love all your videos but this one is one of my favorites. Thank you, Varpu 🤍

Love learning about your culture. Would love to visit Finland someday

I like the brush over the sponge, I'm changing! Thanks

Brush, sponge, scrubby, chain mail, copper scrub, steel scrub, scraper, and cloth. It really depends on the item that needs cleaning what you should use.

You are so cheery!!!Interesting and beautifully presented

Absolutely loved this video, now I can flip my flat up and turn it into a finnish one!

I love the drying cupboard. So much tidier. I am in Australia and I love my dish stick!

Love the sauna drying rack

It’s so cool discovering your channel! My father’s family is from Finland. Unfortunately, I know nothing about that side of my family. What a fantastic way to learn something about Finnish culture. Thank you. 😊

Hi there from USA, Virginia ❤ I’m so glad I’ve found your channel! You are delightful ❣️I’ve been a swimmer all of my life and love a sauna after a swim…always wanted one of my own. I love that you also dry your clothes in them…genius‼️❤️

Astiankuivauskaappi and munakuppi are two words I tought my boyfriend how to say in Finnish. Interestingly- he remembers them and uses them when we talk together in Slovak :D When we were designing our kitchen two years ago I told the carpenter I want the dish drying rack, showed him even the picture and he was looking at me like I came from a different planet. But one day I will fullfil this dream in my future house using this Finnish gadget! Nice video Varpu, I wrote the vocabulary down ;)

Yes to the dish brush! Must have.

your joy is contagious on any bad day. I love watching your videos. a big kiss and hug from Rio de Janeiro Brazil 😘🌹🇧🇷

The dish-drying cabinet is genious! I wanna have one!

Stayed in Helsinki a couple of years ago. I loved the drying rack cabinet a lot. The kitchen in my host Anuska's apartment was compact, but very convenient. The inbuilt closets in bedrooms with sliding doors had a huge amount of space even if those apartment buildings were built in the early 80s. I had to use a key to enter the apartment building too. Each front door had the last name of the apartment owner. Loved to clothes lines outside to dry bed sheets. Here where I live (my house is a part of a subdivision), I can only dry my clothing in the backporch, not outside of my house, even if the land is my own property. Love Finland so much! God bless this beautiful country and its amazing people. I will be back soon.

Id' never thought about using a cheese slicer for a cucumber, that's a great idea! I love your videos! A few days ago I had absolutely no idea about Finland's culture or language and your channel is so good!, thank you for sharing!

I was surprised living in south Texas (Mexican culture) how we use very similar things in our homes. Drying cabinets aren't the norm but they are a great idea! We have dish racks that sit across one of side of the basin that do not take up counter space. They are easily removed and stored if need be. We use both dish brushes and sponges. I use both based on what I'm washing. Dishwasher switches are not common, that I know of. There are homes here with saunas but not many. We do have gyms equipped with public saunas. We have both storm shutters which block out all light and wooden plantation indoor shutters that filter out most or as little of the light as you like and we hang our clothes outdoors on clotheslines during most of the year even though we do have dryers. The rest, we use often! Even in warm weather like ours, many opt for heated floors in the bath areas. It's so interesting to see the similarities. 🙂

I live in Perth, Western Australia. I’ve had a cheese slicer for years & I love it! I use my dish brush when I really need to scrub off baked on food, but sponges are a perfect home for germs 🦠 so I prefer microfibre cloths & I wash them regularly. We also have recycling bins in Aus. They are pretty much standard in most homes now as are clothes drying racks, but I would give my left arm for a sauna! Many Aussie homes have swimming pools or spas instead. I think all my old towels and sheets have become cleaning rags over the years, but I cherish the handmade quilts my Grandmother made for me and my daughter. I really enjoyed watching your video 😁 Thank you for sharing. P.s When it comes to blinds, the only good ones are called “Holland” blinds or as we uncouth Aussies call them, “pull down blinds”. 😅

Thanks for sharing, yes I have a cheese slicer and never thought of using it for cucumber. I also use a dish brush - Brit living in SW France.

I have frequently wondered, why many people including my wife here in Germany use sponges instead of dish brushes. Now I know. It is because I come from Finland 🇫🇮 ☺️.

I have a good friend from finland but shes been in canada for over 30 years now. I certainly saw her bring some of these things to her canadian home. The cheese slicer, the sink brush and recycling bins. She had to do small renovations in her kitchen for the recycling bins but she is very finnish and I love her. The cupboard for towels and bed sheets is one thing my grandmother did and my mom does. My mom uses old towels too for cleaning.

I discovered the dish brush in Sweden and I don't understand how I lived so long without it.

All is great to me! Especially the sauna!

Beutiful HOME. Have a blessed day. Saludos desde Mexico

I use a dish cloth to wash dishes. Sauna is a wonderful thing in cold climates.

In the US, for dishes, we use the brush, and the sponge, but usually just the dishwasher.

The dish drying cabinet is such a good idea! If I ever remodel my kitchen, I'll try to remember that. I'm familiar with most of the other items, although the bidet with shower head is not at all common in Austria where I live. The blinds are a funny thing, in my great-grandparents' time people used to have wooden shutters for privacy and to block out light, but they were a bit inconvenient to use. People started having those lighter blinds between the layers of glass or on the inside, mostly for privacy, and had curtains to block the light, like you said is common in Finland. Nowadays, most modern homes have outside blinds that block light and also keep the sun from heating up the window, and use transparent curtains for privacy.

I’m redoing my kitchen this year and I’m putting in a drying cabinet!

Oltermanni is my favorite cheese and can’t wait to have some more against. My entire family is obsessed with the cheese slicer and I have one really old one from my grandma. We also just bought an iitala one that is amazing. I love everything in a Finnish home and would love to have a Finnish apartment here in America. I use both a dish sponge and brush. Thank you for sharing this. It was great to see the wheel of cheese, the nostalgia. Haven’t had any since before COVID. I brought 24 wheels back with me my last trip the cheese just melts in your mouth. Kiitos!

The floor drain in the bathroom is my favorite and should be adopted worldwide.

Great Video.....and beautiful Finnish Features...smile and laugh.

Loved visiting Finland a few years ago Good video

The sauna is my favorite 😍

I really enjoy people who emanate positive energy! Thank Varpu! God bless you and your family

Thank you for sharing items in a Finnish home. My husbands grandma was Finnish - Swede. We live in the U.S. & we personally Don’t use a sponge to clean our dishes as they are Notoriously know for holding onto bacteria that just gets rubbed back onto dishes. We use a brush & a Clean wash rag that we wash right afterwards using on the dishes

I use a brush! I love a Finnish home! Maybe one day I will have one! I love the astiankuivauskappi! 😍

Nice smile. 🙂 I use a brush to clean the dishes. I like the idea of heated floors.

The dish drying cabinets are brilliant! I will have one when I build a home someday. Also, a sauna.

She is adorable!

Olen käyttänyt tiskiharjaa monta vuotta ja se on suosikkini! ♥️

I like everything you introduced us to, but I think the hand held bidet is what I would love to have. I have never heard of the drying cabinet, such a great idea. I will be buying a cheese slicer! In regards to the brush vs sponge, I use hand knitted dish cloths that I wash and when they are old, I throw them in my compost pile. The heated floors are something I dream of. Happy your video popped up for me. It gave me some great ideas. 😊

Kiitos 🙏🫶🏽

I love the brush, because I also use this and it's again one thing finnish people and me are similar with 🥰😍

Makes perfectly sense to me not to block out the light in a country where it is dark a lot of the time, in order not to increase depression. You are such a smiling vibrant person, tx :)

Sounds delightful. We need all of this in the UK.

What a great idea in using the cheese slicer for the cucumber. I usually use a scrub brush for washing dishes. Hello from Canada 🇨🇦

I am German living in the US and I use a sponge, dish brush and scrubby, depending on what I clean. I also have a dishcloth. lol

I tend to use a sponge for general dishes but use a brush for cups cookware & bakeware.

I have to be honest the “astiankuivauskaappi” is where my love and fascination started with Finland. They are the perfection of household items. And almost everyone is an immigrant in Canada, so there is no specific system to what to use. Every family follows their own rules. I come from an Arabian background and we use sponges 🧽

The sauna is the best part of a finnish home. Staying in sauna makes your muscles recover and removes the stress.

Loved number 10

Hi Varpu. I love heated bathroom floors too. I live in the middle of the US east coast, in the state of Virginian. Our winters are much milder than yours. But I had heated bath floors in my last house and loved it. In the kitchen, I use sponge and brush. I don't see how you can clean a colander, sieve or grill without it. Towels - wow, I had never seen rolling up the towels. That is a wonderful idea, the best, much easier to get them our when they are stacked up

The sauna at home is the best. The cheese slicer was pretty good too.

I have always wanted heated floors! Love the dish rack over the sink. I like to use both a sponge and a brush but use the brush more 80% brush, 20% sponge.

The tin can opener is one of the best things we use in finland imo. I'm always amazed by the large contraptions they have abroad!

Terve :) Years ago when I lived in my first apartment Tel Avivissa the kitchen was surprisingly equipped with the dish rack over the sink. It was incredibly convenient and I was super happy to find out it's a suomalainen thing! The sauna is, hands down, my favorite home staple in Finland. And about the towels - I have a specific way of folding them, too! Maximum space justification. Awesome and fun video to watch, you are relatable and warm and witty as always ♡.

I like your story about your towels the most. 🥰 And I use a brush for washing the dishes because I fill up the sink with hot water and wash the dishes in there. I don't want to have to put my hands into the hot water. So a brush keeps my hands from getting burnt.

You're right about dryer hands with a brush. Im going to make the switch. Everything you mentioned made me feel more finnish, especially the recycling and using old bed sheets for cleaning.

The Finnish ways mostly remind me of the Japanese ways. Very practical. I think I will start to use the brush in washing the dishes now.

From Canada ... I use a brush for my dishes...best item ...the cupboard for drying the dishes... I want one of those!!!!

My favorite item was the towels, memories are the best thing we have.

I use a dish brush from Lola! My mother brought them home from the Netherlands when I was in high school (I'm 73) and I've had one ever since!

I use sponges and a brush. In my next house I want a hose and drain in my bathroom. It makes things so much easier. Genius :)

The cheese slicer seems to be a really good invention. I like thin slices... will definitely try this tool.

I like the colour of your flat, how i can see, it is more often white in Finland, i find this approach is very simple and useful.

I enjoyed your video very much. I use a brush at the sink, but also have a nylon cloth, it looks crocheted. Excellent for removing difficult baked on items. The best thing about it is that it is very easily rinsed out and I just drape it over the sink where it dries quickly. I also put it in the dishwasher for an extra good wash. Australia is blessed with a lot of sun, so even in Melbourne I can hang my washing outside to dry int the wind and sun. In Germany I had to dry my sheets, towels etc in the basement where it was warm from the heating.

In France bidets are fairly standard items. The external shutters on windows (in France, but also some other countries) block out the light completely and are also for security on ground floor windows. One feature on Finnish windows I really liked was the small side window with a mesh screen so that you could have fresh air without letting insects in, but I don't know if these are common?

most of these things are used in our home - including the dishbrush :D My favourite is the one we don't have and that is number 1, the bidet shower head - wonderful idea! I think I should have this installed. I live on the Atlantic coast of Canada Thank you for your videos - very interesting!

I use a dish cloth. One side is microfiber and the other side is a plastic net scrubber fabric. I can machine wash it so everyday I use a clean one. Much cheaper than buying sponges. I used a brush when I lived in the tropics because brushes don't mildew easily.

Hello Varpu - I have to thank you for this video. Because of it, I discovered that nice cheese cutter and it's so awesome. Now I can have real thin slices of any kind of cheese easily. And you're right, it does make for a great grilled cheese sandwich. So thank you! To answer your question: I use a dish brush. Sponges get gross.

Dish sponge in Japan 😊 The heated floor!!! Sauna!!! Wow Finland!!! We want that 😃

American here - I use a dish brush in my home. love the bidet on a hose.

the small bidet is very practical

My husband's family is swedish and I like many Scandinavian household items. I use linens passed down by three grandmothers, and the cheese slicer and a similar cheese shredder were two of my favorite souvenirs and are constantly used. Alas, I cannot have a drier cabinet due to a garden window over the kitchen sink. So many practical items ( I use the dish brush).