Our TeamAyn-Monique Klahre

Ayn-Monique Klahre

    About Me

    Ayn-Monique is a lifestyle editor and writer who's worked for Good Housekeeping, Woman's Day, FamilyFun and more. She loves lattes, jogging and hanging out at the playground with her husband and daughters.

    Latest Stories

    5 Brilliant Tricks to Try if Your Trash Can Smells Bad
    So, your garbage may not smell like roses, but it doesn't need to take your breath away.
    Ayn-Monique Klahre
    Apr 13, 2024
    5 Surprising Things I Learned from Washing Dishes with Gloves for a Week
    Are dish gloves worth it or should you leave them hanging high and dry at the store?
    Ayn-Monique Klahre
    Mar 6, 2024
    The Only 3 Things You Need to Set a Gorgeous Thanksgiving Table, According to Ina Garten
    Ina Garten is always asking us one question: How easy is that? And this recipe couldn't be easier.
    Ayn-Monique Klahre
    Nov 22, 2023
    12 Household Cleaner Combinations You Should Never, Ever Mix
    Organize & Clean
    When you have a big mess, it's tempting to want to bring out all of the big guns and throw at it every cleaning product you've got. But don't!
    Ayn-Monique Klahre
    May 17, 2023
    8 Mistakes You're Making When Washing Dishes By Hand
    For one thing, don't use a dirty sponge.
    Ayn-Monique Klahre
    Nov 30, 2022
    8 Cluttered Kitchens We Totally Love
    Because sometimes bohemian maximalism is downright refreshing.
    Ayn-Monique Klahre
    Apr 14, 2021
    Here’s a Simple and Food-Safe Way to Get Rid of Ants in Your Kitchen
    Ants tend to pop up in the spring and can linger through summer, foraging through your kitchen for food.
    Ayn-Monique Klahre
    Apr 7, 2020
    5 Things in Your Kitchen You Should Throw Away This Summer
    To clear my head—and my space—for a season of carefree entertaining, here are five things I'm throwing away (or giving away) this summer.
    Ayn-Monique Klahre
    Jul 9, 2019
    An Easy Trick to Get ALL the Dirt into Your Dustpan
    I’ve struggled with finding a truly functional dustpan and brush combo. Too often the bristles don’t pick up all the debris, and dust gets caught under the lip of the dustpan, leaving that frustrating line of dirt behind. It makes me crazy! I finally found the right dustpan and brush combo, and it’s great almost all of the time.
    Ayn-Monique Klahre
    May 3, 2019
    The Easy, Genius Way to Clean Your Cheese Grater
    Freshly grated mozzarella (or any cheese!) is an amazing addition to all kinds of foods, but the process of grating it can be a pain. And we’re not just talking about the actual work of running it across the grater over and over again—without, hopefully, cutting your fingers!—but also the actual cleanup. That soft, fatty cheese can get stuck inside the grater’s holes and you can tear up your sponge (or really injure yourself!) trying to get it clean.
    Ayn-Monique Klahre
    May 3, 2019
    Here’s What Changes in Your Kitchen When You Move in with a Significant Other
    Moving in with your significant other can be a weighty next step in your relationship (or one taken lightly to save on rent), but no matter how seriously you take it, it’s going to affect how you work in the kitchen. If you were living solo before, it could be a bit of a shock to the system to share this busy space with another being. And even if you’re used to roommates, it’s a totally different animal to share the kitchen with someone you love romantically.
    Ayn-Monique Klahre
    May 3, 2019
    10 Things to Get Rid of as You Pack Up Your Kitchen for a Move
    Moving is the worst! Or, more accurately, packing is the worst. Getting set up in a new home is fun, and a chance for a fresh start. But packing is a slog, and if you’re not at least a little strategic about it, you can make more work for yourself. One essential part of your packing process should be decluttering. Do not put something in a box if you don’t want it to live in your new kitchen!
    Ayn-Monique Klahre
    May 3, 2019
    5 Storage & Design Hacks Every Stand Mixer Owner Should Know
    A stand mixer is a staple of many home cooks’ kitchens—and it can also be an amazing focal point. It’s sculptural! It’s industrial! It comes in so many different colors! On the flip side, a stand mixer can be big and bulky and presents a fair share of other problems you might not have anticipated before you decided to spring for one. But don’t fret—there’s probably a hack for whatever it is that’s ruining your stand mixer state of bliss.
    Ayn-Monique Klahre
    May 3, 2019
    How You Can Use Chopsticks to Seemingly Double Your Fridge Space
    This quick trick instantly delivers more space—just by raiding your utensil drawer.
    Ayn-Monique Klahre
    Feb 27, 2019
    3 Big Kitchen Trends You’ll See All Over The Place This Year, According to Etsy
    When it comes to kitchen decor, some things never really go out of style. (We don’t see the modern farmhouse look going anywhere anytime soon, for example.) Other things, however, have a slightly shorter shelf life. (We’re talking about you, cacti, pineapples, and flamingos!) To find out what’s hot for 2019, we reached out to Dayna Isom Johnson, Etsy’s trend expert.
    Ayn-Monique Klahre
    Feb 19, 2019
    5 (Way Too Common) Mistakes You Might Make with Bleach
    Bleach is a strong cleanser that, when used properly, can be a safe and effective option for sanitizing various objects and surfaces in your kitchen, in the laundry and around your house. “But it’s not an all-purpose cleaner,” says Nancy Boc, senior vice president of education at the American Cleaning Institute.
    Ayn-Monique Klahre
    Feb 7, 2019
    The Only Two Things That Motivate Me to Keep My Kitchen Counters Clean
    Kitchen counters are clutter magnets—plain and simple. As I look at my own countertops, I see seven-ish different piles in the works (kids’ art, unopened mail, recyclables on their way to the bin, etc.). It’s never-ending. And despite being a fairly organized, clean-surface kind of girl myself, and literally interviewing dozens of experts on the subject, there are only two times my countertops ever get clean. Oh, is it midnight the night before an article is due?
    Ayn-Monique Klahre
    Jan 30, 2019
    One Thing You Need to Know About Recycling Your Christmas Wrapping Paper
    Few things inspire more joy than a collection of beautifully wrapped presents under a Christmas tree! The problem with gift wrap, though, is that it’s often not recyclable. Even though the base of most gift wraps is indeed paper, many have overlays like metallic foil or glitter, have tape stuck to them, are saturated with problematic inks or dye, or are so thin that the fibers aren’t useful for recycling.
    Ayn-Monique Klahre
    Dec 25, 2018
    3 Smart Tips That’ll Make Unloading the Dishwasher Way Easier
    In my experience, there are two kinds of dishwasher users: people who have figured out the right way to load the dishwasher, and people who really don’t care. Also in my experience, those two camps of people tend to marry each other and spend the rest of their lives complaining about the other’s method of loading or critiquing the other’s loading technique (sorry, husband of mine).
    Ayn-Monique Klahre
    Dec 23, 2018
    The Single Best Thing You Didn’t Know About Dollar Tree
    In case you’re not familiar with the premise of Dollar Tree, here it is: Everything they sell is $1. Wander through the store, and you’ll find everything from dinnerware and kids’ gear to cleaning supplies and home improvement tools—all for a dollar (sometimes you can even get multiples for a buck!). Yes, while some stores with “dollar” in the name have strayed away from selling everything for $1, Dollar Tree has managed to stick with it.
    Ayn-Monique Klahre
    Nov 27, 2018
    3 Smart, Unexpected Things You Can Do With a Dishwasher
    Besides, you know, cleaning your dishes, your dishwasher can do a few other fun things.
    Ayn-Monique Klahre
    Nov 24, 2018
    5 Common Kitchen Cleaning Habits You Need to Break ASAP
    You know how to clean a kitchen. So do I. But there are things we learned from our parents, shortcuts we developed ourselves, and just straight-up habits that may make our cleaning, well, less than optimal. Heck, half the time I research a story, I learn I’ve been doing something wrong my whole adult life!
    Ayn-Monique Klahre
    Nov 19, 2018
    5 Reasons I’ll Never Put a Command Center in My Kitchen
    The kitchen is the de facto command center in most homes. This is where families gather for breakfast and dinner—and homework and work work, too— every day, and it’s the spot to catch your kids or your spouse if there’s something you need to communicate about your day. So no wonder companies and bloggers make a big deal about putting a command center in the kitchen. It sounds so good: a designated spot, bulletin board and all, for controlling your household.
    Ayn-Monique Klahre
    Nov 15, 2018
    9 Little Ways to Upgrade Your Kitchen Without Renovating
    You're not stuck with what you've got.
    Ayn-Monique Klahre
    Nov 7, 2018
    The Totally Free Super Cleaner You’re Not Using
    There is something in your kitchen that’s a super-cleaning agent, and you’re probably not using it often enough. And that’s silly — because it’s free (or almost free). That super cleaner is hot, hot water, and it costs about $0.0005 a gallon even in New York City, where everything is expensive! Few stains or debris stand a chance against super hot water, and it disinfects surfaces, too.
    Ayn-Monique Klahre
    Oct 4, 2018
    The Most Ingenious Way to Clean a Slow Cooker Is Also the Easiest
    You can actually get your slow cooker to clean itself.
    Ayn-Monique Klahre
    Sep 23, 2018
    The Best $30 You’ll Ever Spend on Your Kitchen
    When it comes to our kitchen cabinets, most of us are stuck with what we’ve got. Sure, if you own your place, you can do a full remodel — but even if you’re going the IKEA route, a renovation will easily cost you tens of thousands of dollars. And as anyone who’s ever done it knows, painting kitchen cabinets is an enormous pain. But there is one thing you can do for your kitchen cabinets that will keep them clean, preserve them long-term, and make them look better, too.
    Ayn-Monique Klahre
    Sep 10, 2018
    3 Super-Smart Packing Tricks for Your Next Move
    These little tricks will make it much easier to pack up your kitchen.
    Ayn-Monique Klahre
    Aug 24, 2018
    The Surprising Place You Don’t Even Need to Clean
    Keeping the kitchen clean is hard work. Every single day, multiple times a day, you spill food across the floors and countertops. You chuck crusty dishes into the sink. You splatter sauce or grease. And the effort of keeping it all spic and span— all that wiping, sweeping, and scrubbing! — can get totally tedious day in and day out.
    Ayn-Monique Klahre
    Aug 5, 2018
    10 Brilliant Storage Ideas to Steal from These Tiny, International Airbnbs
    If you want to (affordably) escape to an amazing city, renting a tiny Airbnb might be your best bet to get the perfect location. And one of my favorite things about staying in an Airbnb, especially one that’s someone’s home that they rent out versus one that’s really working as a hotel, is seeing the clever tricks they use to make living in teeny spaces work out. While we don’t usually recommend stealing from Airbnbs (that’s wrong! And illegal!
    Ayn-Monique Klahre
    Jul 25, 2018
    4 Things You Should Never Clean with Baking Soda
    From scrubbing pots and pans to deep-cleaning appliances, baking soda is such a great cleaning agent that it’s tempting to want to use it on everything. But even though it’s gentler than some alternatives, baking soda still has some downfalls. Because it’s abrasive, you have to be careful with surfaces that are lightly sealed or that have a finish that can be worn away (the same way you would be careful with scrubbing too hard with a scratchy sponge).
    Ayn-Monique Klahre
    Jul 5, 2018
    The 6 Things You Should Do in Your New Kitchen Before You Unpack a Single Thing
    Packing up to move is the worst—and the kitchen just may be the trickiest space of your whole house because of all those small, fragile items you have to carefully wrap and contain. On the flip side of that: Unpacking in your new-to-you kitchen (as long as nothing’s broken) is just about the best. I know, because we just moved into a new house and we got to start all over—yay! Starting fresh in a new place is an opportunity to really make that space work for you.
    Ayn-Monique Klahre
    Jun 14, 2018