Like many people, I'd say that my kitchen is hands-down the hardest-working room in our house: I mean, sure, it’s where I cook dinner every night…but our kitchen is much more than just the room where I break out the pots and pans. It’s also where my son explores the intricacies of whether or not scrambled eggs really can fly (they can), where Lucy and Virgil create mud paintings using materials dragged in from our backyard, and where my husband and I perch on the countertops for a late-night catch-up after all the small creatures in the house have retired for the evening.

But high-activity goes hand-in-hand with high-mess, so I end up doing a lot of cleaning in our kitchen…and want to make sure that I’m using products that make the whole messy chore just a little bit easier. Presenting: three of my must-have cleaning products, all recipients of aBetter Homes and Gardens Best New Product Award, voted on by consumers in an independent research study.

First, we need to talk about Mr. Clean Select-A-Size Magic Erasers. This is important, so pay attention.