Enjoy the cottage life

Life at a holiday home offers the perfect escape from everyday routines and is enjoyed by many throughout the seasons. Cottage life comes with all kinds of little chores, from carrying water and washing up to relaxing in the sauna. These everyday tasks are much easier when you have reliable, high-quality tools at your disposal. Orthex’s buckets, bins, tubs and other accessories, crafted with care in Finland, make your time at the holiday home both smooth and enjoyable.

Sauna is an inseparable part of the cottage experience. Unhurried sauna sessions followed by a dip in a lake or the sea are the highlight of summer days. The sauna adds its own unique atmosphere to life at the cottage.

Every sauna-goer’s essential companions are, of course, the sauna bucket and the sauna scoop. In a traditional cottage sauna without running water, you’ll also need bins, buckets, wash tubs and water scoops for washing.

The best sauna experience, naturally, comes in a clean and fresh space. Check out our tips for cleaning the sauna here.

At many holiday homes, washing dishes is still done by hand. Doing the dishes is easy with Orthex’s wash bowls and tubs, made in Finland to last for years of use.

Here are some handy tips for washing up by hand at the cottage:

1. Make dishwashing easier by removing food scraps from plates immediately after a meal. For example, you can wipe plates with a used napkin.

2. Soak dishes briefly if needed before you start washing.

3. Start with the cleanest items: wash glasses first and leave greasy cooking pots until last.

4. Rinse dishes in a separate tub of warm water.

5. Choose an eco-friendly detergent and never pour used washing water into natural waters.

Collecting rainwater is easy with Orthex bins, and you can use the water for watering flowers, plants and lawns, or as sauna steam water.

Large bins are also practical for storing all kinds of cottage essentials. You can keep anything from fishing nets to bottles and cans waiting for recycling. There are also lids available for bins (sold separately).

Some Orthex bins are made from food-safe plastic, which makes them ideal for gathering fruits or vegetables from your garden. You can recognise food-safe bins by the fork-and-glass symbol.

Beyond these tasks, there are countless other chores at the cottage where buckets, bins, wash bowls, and stools prove to be invaluable, whether it’s carrying water, washing potatoes, picking berries and fruit, cleaning rugs, or gardening.

Orthex offers durable, high-quality products you can rely on year after year. We believe that practical is beautiful, and our goal is to provide functional items for everyday needs, whether you’re at the cottage or at home.