Much to my five year old son’s excitement, in my life pre-marriage an kids I was a “scientist.” A cancer genetics researcher to be exact. I spent much of my college career behind a microscope and it has left me with some pretty serious germophobic tendencies. You just can’t un-see some of the stuff I’ve seen growing in a petri dish y’all!
Any-who, my husband likes to make fun of me because one of the {many} things that gives me major eeby-geebies are sponges. Sponges are breeding grounds of nastiness. The warm, damp environment is perfect for the survival of germs. Think about that next time you’re wiping down the counters or washing the dishes.
I used to throw my sponges away every few days but have since found a couple of options for keeping sponges clean(er) that I’d like to share with you.
Keeping Your Sponge Clean
1. Dishwasher Put your sponge in the utensil compartment of your dishwasher for the entire wash and heat dry cycle. This should rid your sponge of 99.9998% of the germs.
2. Microwave For an even faster fix wet your sponge and squeeze and place in your microwave for two minutes with a cup of water. Some sponges have plastics that can melt so please put your sponge on a paper towel the first time you try this-if it melts you’ll thank me later! This is my preferred method of cleaning my sponge as its fast and kills 99.9999% of the bacteria present on the sponge. (According to the WebMD!) Note: It can take up to five minutes to kill mold spores however you must make sure the sponge stays wet or it can be a fire hazard.
3. Bleach This is actually a statistically less effective way to clean your sponges but some people (my husband included) just don’t feel something is clean if it hasn’t been bleached, so if that’s you here’s the best way to bleach your sponge: Make a 10% bleach solution with HOT water. Soak your sponge between 5-10 minutes squeezing every so often to help the solution penetrate the sponge. (Please wear rubber gloves for this.) After soaking rinse thoroughly under running water. Be aware that this has been shown to kill less than 94% of the germs.
So there you have it! Three options to keep the germs at bay and have a cleaner, healthier kitchen! I hope this helps!
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Hi! Great tips!
I’ve done the dishwasher cleaning before, but it takes too long and with a family of 5 I usually need to wash something more while the dishwasher is running, so I’m gonna try the microwave thing.
I just have a (really stupid) question… when you say ‘put the sponge with a cup of water’.. do you mean, the sponge on a napkin AND a cup of water on the side? I’m sorry if this sounds dumb, but I wanna be sure
Thanks!!
Yes, a cup of water on the side, this helps protect your microwave. I’ll edit the post to make it more clear, thanks for taking the time to comment and glad the tips helped!
Melissa
Oh, perfect! Thank you!
;D
Letty
Sponges totally gross me out! LOL I finally quit buying them and just change out a knitted dish rag every other day.
~Robyn
Not only does it mostly disinfect your sponge when you microwave it, you can clean your microwave easier, too! The steam from the wet sponge loosens gunk, making it super simple to wipe out spilled food. (Not that your family is messy, of course. But guess how *I* learned this?)