From Finland to the Forest: The Story Behind The Rinse
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There's a particular kind of product that you don't notice until you need it. And then, once you've seen it, you can't imagine going without it.
For me, that product was a small metal tap attached to the base of a water container in a garden in Finland.
I was visiting Finland on a work trip and I met a wonderful business owner. Her garden was beautiful — practical, natural, the kind of outdoor space that just works. And there, fixed to a hanging water container near the back door, was the simplest thing: a push valve tap that let you rinse your hands cleanly, with no fuss, no waste, no lifting a heavy container and sloshing water everywhere.
It was called the Andy Handy. I loved it immediately.
Life moved on. I filed it away in the back of my mind as one of those things you mean to get around to buying.
Then, a year or so later, I discovered a retreat campsite near home. The kids and I started going every weekend. It became our place — somewhere to breathe, to reset, to just be. During what had been a genuinely difficult time for us, that little campsite became something close to a lifeline. The people there were warm and welcoming in the way that costs nothing but means everything.
I wanted to say thank you with something useful. Something they'd use every single weekend, something that belonged in that kind of place.
I thought of the Andy Handy immediately.
I got back in touch with the lady in Finland and asked if I could buy two. She let me know that the Andy Handy had been discontinued and was no longer available anywhere.
What was out there as an alternative didn't feel right. Nothing had the same honest, natural quality that had made the Andy Handy so appealing in the first place. If it was going to sit in a woodland campsite or hang in an allotment garden, it needed to belong there.
So I decided to make my own.
I went back to what I'd loved about the Andy Handy — the solid feel, the simple valve mechanism, the fact that it just worked and looked like it belonged outdoors. I redesigned it, sourced the right materials, and had it manufactured here in the UK.
I called it The Rinse.
I gifted the first two units to the retreat that had meant so much to us — and this weekend, I'm heading back there to film them in use for the first time.
The Rinse is a small business with a small beginning. But it exists because of a garden in Finland, a campsite that felt like home, and the belief that the things we use outdoors should be as honest and well-made as the places we take them.
If you've been searching for an Andy Handy replacement — this is it. Redesigned for durability, made to last, designed to disappear into the background and just do its job.