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.
Apr 12, 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?
Mar 5, 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.
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!
May 17, 2023
8 Mistakes You're Making When Washing Dishes By Hand
For one thing, don't use a dirty sponge.
Nov 30, 2022
8 Cluttered Kitchens We Totally Love
Because sometimes bohemian maximalism is downright refreshing.
Apr 14, 2021
This Brilliant Hack Adds a Shelf’s Worth of Space to Your Fridge
Thanksgiving is tough on your fridge space. That's why I'm particularly proud of this hack that I figured out, all by myself, a few years ago.
Oct 14, 2020
A Smart Storage Hack for Those Short Upper Kitchen Cabinets
Unless you remodeled your kitchen from scratch, with a custom layout and cabinets, it’s probably not perfectly suited to your needs (I’m looking at you renters). But, there are still lots of ways to configure your space—and especially those plain basic boxes on the wall—and make it work for you today. Take note of this clever project that squeezes every drop of storage out of your cabinets, especially those shorter ones above the fridge and stove.
Jul 17, 2020
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.
Apr 6, 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.
Jul 9, 2019
The Natural, Food-Safe (and Practically Free) Way to Get Rid of Rust on Your Kitchen Knives
I’m always surprised by how finicky knives are. You’d think that a blade that can slice right through meat or cleave a squash in two would be pretty much impervious to any kind of wear! But if you — like me — have a habit of neglecting your knives, they can dull and rust pretty quickly. And sadly, rust is a frequent visitor in my kitchen. That is not OK, considering a good knife can cost more than $100!
May 22, 2019
How NOT to Clean Right Before Your Guests Arrive
If you’re like me, then about half an hour before any house guests arrive you frantically run through the living and dining room, sweep any evidence of actually living in your home off of your surfaces, and jam all that crap into the nearest drawer/cabinet/closet to create the appearance of cleanliness. I would literally sweep clutter under a rug, if I could! Unfortunately, it would probably look lumpy under my flat-weave carpets.
May 3, 2019
You’re Probably Storing These 5 Things the Wrong Way in the Kitchen
Your kitchen is the workhorse of the home, and the items you store in it — serving pieces, utensils, and all that cookware — are among the toughest items in the whole place because they have to stand up to daily use. And even though these items are super-durable, if you store them incorrectly, you could potentially damage them (or, at the very least, waste space you could be using for something else). Here are five kitchen items you may be storing the wrong way.
May 3, 2019
5 Good Kitchen Things to Clean During Winter Downtime
When we think about big cleaning seasons, spring usually comes to mind. But winter is actually a pretty good time to do some serious cleaning. I mean, think about it: Soon we’ll be stuck inside, staring at the walls, and we won’t mind working up a sweat. Here are five projects to tackle the next time you’re faced with a gray wintry day. This time of year is peak baking and roasting season.
May 3, 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.
May 3, 2019
This Is the Worst Storage Mistake You Can Make
I have friends who renovated their home recently, and they put together this gorgeous, open-plan kitchen with The Works: white marble countertops on top of crisp black base cabinets with pull-out drawers, floating open shelves instead of upper cabinets, and an enormous farmhouse sink. Basically everything I’ve ever pinned. Not surprisingly, it looked amazing when it was finished!
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.
May 3, 2019
You Should Know How to Make Your Own Drain Cleaner
Dead skin cells, soap scum, random food scraps, human hair, pet hair, and just regular ol’ dirt—these are all the things you regularly wash down your sink or tub’s drain. And if they sound gross now, image how much worse they are once they’ve congealed into a stringy, slimy ball of gunk inside your pipes. Yuck! You want to prevent any of this gunk buildup before it becomes a real problem—especially in homes with older pipes or large families.
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!
May 3, 2019
One Daily Staple You Need to Clean More Often Than You Think
Now that my oldest is in school, we have discovered the joys of packing her lunch. Beyond the list of banned foods we need to be careful about (last year it included peanut butter, strawberries, and shellfish—as if I would ever send her to school with shrimp cocktail!), there are her ever-evolving and contradictory preferences we had to remember and adjust to. But you know, you do it. Five days a week.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Feb 7, 2019
Experts Have Identified the Grossest Spot in Your Fridge (And You Probably Don’t Clean it Enough)
Despite the fact that the sole purpose of the refrigerator is to keep your food safe—by chilling it enough to slow bacterial growth and rotting— it can actually pose some hazards to your health. When you think about it, it makes sense: It’s one of the few places you go in and out of multiple times per day. And when you do, you’re typically moving around food, in the middle of cooking (hello, bacteria on your hands!
Feb 4, 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?
Jan 30, 2019
This Little-Known T.J.Maxx Fact Is a Total Game-Changer
I go back and forth in my love for discount stores. When you go and find an amazing deal, you don’t just feel lucky—you feel like a genius for being smart enough to scour the store and find just what you needed, without paying full price like those other fools. Combining the rush of a shiny new object with pride for your perseverance is celebration-worthy.
Dec 26, 2018
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.
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).
Dec 23, 2018
The $4 Amazon Buy That Will Make Your Dishwasher 100 Percent Better
As anyone with kids—especially babies and toddlers—knows, all that feeding gear seems to come with tiny bits and pieces that need to be disassembled and individually sanitized. When you’ve got a newborn, buying a sterilizer might feel like it makes sense, but by the time your kids are older, you’ve moved it out of the way to make room for other gear.
Dec 13, 2018
One Simple Trick to Using Fewer Paper Towels
Recently, I was talking to Melissa Maker, author of Clean My Space. While I consider myself pretty neat and tidy, she’s made a career out of being a bit of a clean freak—she ran a cleaning company for 11 years, has her own line of cleaning products, and for-real washes her kitchen towels every day! And there’s one common cleaning tool she just loves to hate: paper towels. “Paper towels are the worst!” complains Maker.
Dec 6, 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.
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.
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!
Nov 19, 2018
This Common Bite-Sized Grocery Habit Could be Costing You Big Money
Fact: The convenience of having a pre-portioned, pre-packed snacks in your fridge or pantry to grab and go anytime, whether you’re packing up for work or school, is undeniable. And so I remain eternally grateful to the companies that make the little hummus-and-pretzel packs and sacks of olives. (They’re much better alternatives to picking up a bag of chips at the convenience store!) And yet. As you already know, with convenience comes a price.
Nov 18, 2018