For years I went without using a salad spinner. In fact, when I was younger, I cant believe Im going to admit this but I never washed my lettuce because I always bought the bagged kind and figured it was already washed. Now that Im older, I buy most of my produce locally and directly from the farmers using a delivery service and it MUST be washed, especially spinach because it will be sandy if its not washed. In fact, I triple wash spinach just to make sure to get out all the grit.