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How To Clean Household Sponges
Did you know your household sponges should be cleaned at least every other day? They are nice for scrubbing and wiping up, but make sure to wash frequently to help prevent spreading grubbies around your home.
According to Simmons Center for Hygiene and Health in the Home:
”A sponge that’s been in use for no more than two or three days in a kitchen will harbor millions of bacteria,” said Elizabeth Scott, co-director of the Simmons Center for Hygiene and Health in the Home at Simmons College in Boston. That’s a problem, she said, ”if you pick up the pathogen or a pathogenic E. coli, salmonella or campylobacter on the sponge.”
She added: ”That means that any time you use the sponge to wipe up a surface you are potentially spreading those pathogens.”
How To Clean Household Sponges
Methods for cleaning household sponges depend on what they’re used for and what chemicals they’re already holding.
Sponges Used For Kitchen Counters & Dishes:
- Toss the sponges in the dishwasher when you do a load of dishes. The dishwasher detergent and the heat should sterilize the sponge.
- You could also wash the sponges in hot soapy water with a good splash of vinegar, rinse well, then when still wet microwave for a couple of minutes. Bleach and water could be used as well rather than soap and vinegar.
Sponges Used For Wiping Up Toilets, Bathrooms, Showers & Floors:
- You can soak in a bleach solution*, then toss in your washing machine. If you’re going to wash them with other items, don’t mix with clothing, dish clothes or towels–wash with other household cleaning rags.
Sponges Containing Ammonia:
- Don’t wash with bleach. Clean and rinse in hot soapy water*, then wash in the washing machine.
More Cleaning Methods:
- Soak sponges in bleach and hot water (as long as the sponges haven’t been in contact with ammonia). Use one ounce of bleach per gallon of water.
- Soak sponges in vinegar and hot water.
- Bring water and vinegar to a boil, then add sponges. Boil for a few minutes, cover pot and remove from heat. Let sit for an hour.
*Soaking and rinsing before tossing in the washing machine helps remove most of the hair and grubbies before being washed with other items in the washing machine.
Originally published January 3, 2007
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I knew you had instructions here about this. Interesting after all the blog excitement recently over disinfecting sponges gone wrong and your instructions were right on weeks ago, good job Tipnut!
I run our sponges through the dishwasher all the time, they come out looking NEW, it saves us tons of money since I only need to replace them once a month or when they start falling apart.
I zap my kitchen sponge (a microfibre imitation) in the microwave for 2 minutes. It comes out steaming and with no smell.
I put my sponge in the microwave for 20 seconds and watch the suds boil out of it (1200 watts). Using tongs, I let cold water from the faucet run over the sponge. I’m still careful when I handle it because the sponge can be cold on the outside and contain hot water on the inside.
I’ve experimented with smelly sponges using this method and they come out fresh smelling.
I saw on TV some place that a clean kitchen can have more germs than a dirty kitchen because the same sponge is used on all surfaces that just spreads the germs.
I bought a box of rags from Home Depot. They must be dish rags that did not make the cut. I have a drawer full of them and try to use them once. They are better than paper towels for covering large bowls because they don’t curl up. I even put wet ones on the floor and stand on them for a quick floor wash. Then the whole stack or rags goes in with the other whites and I hit “sanitary” which includes bleach.
I am constantly using sponges in the kitchen during the day.
Now and then my husband would say how nasty they smell and made his hands smell when he’d use them. To de-smell them (smile) I used to put them in with my laundry (as I do not have a dishwasher). That worked ok, but I do not always get the laundry done in a timely manner (hah, seldom!) so I would end up getting a fresh one each time. I would end up with a dozen or more sponges sometimes.
One day the idea hit me…I have a bottle of hand sanitizer sitting on the top of my sink…this is used to ’sanitize’…
Each time I am done with the sponge for the time being, I pump some sanitizer on it and squeeze it in. The sanitizer sort of liquifies and spreads as I squish it around. Then I just set it down until the next time I use it.
He has not said it smelled since….not one time.