How long do you use a kitchen sponge for?

[Anonymous]

once a week or two they're $2.00 for a pack of 6. why not?

[Anonymous]

years, we put them thru the dishwasher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just use a scrub daddy

Mmm, microplastics!

[Anonymous]

I bought a huge pack at Costco and try to replace the sponges on the first day of every month. Which is today! So now I will do that because I don’t always remember….

[Anonymous]

Depends on how it's used. I typically use the scrub daddy things which stay clean. For a regular sponge, when it gets a bit off color it goes in the garbage.

[Anonymous]

Scrub daddy or a similar dish cloth. No sponges anymore.

[Anonymous]

I get the natural ones and maybe a month or two? After cleaning up at night, the sponge gets hand washed / soaped up, rinsed, washed out so it's clean and dries overnight. I run them through the wash every couple of weeks too. Also use the thin spongy counter cloths that get washed regularly.

My dad's housekeeper cuts their sponges in half! Now, that's a thrifty woman.

[Anonymous]

I don’t. I use a brush only.

[Anonymous]

I use handmade scrubbies that I wash in the d/w and then toss after 6 months or so.

I also use steel wool that I keep for maybe a week or two depending on how often I use it.

And then a longer wood brush that I clean occasionally and then toss wants the bristles are bent and it looks cruddy

[Anonymous]

Gross never. Those things are germ infested.

[Anonymous]

I keep two. One is always in the dishwasher, so I can switch and get a clean one at anytime. This is helpful when I don't know what the cleaning lady did while here.

[Anonymous]

Until I notice a tear on it…so usually about two months at most. 🧽

[Anonymous]

I only use them at our STR and they are replaced after every renter.
I use rags (washed daily) at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of the answers here are

I use them for a few weeks, which is longer than I should - but I do try to remember to microwave the sponge every day though I often forget.

I can't stand to use a sponge that is encrusted with food bits and other filth - cleaning tools are meant to be kept clean between uses.

Microbiologists caution against using kitchen sponges at all, but I consider it a challenge to keep my immune system exercised.

Haha. I know a few microbiologists and they use sponges! I switched to non plastic sponges, and they are fine. They last 3-4 weeks and I feel better about throwing them out because they are biodegradable.

I think people spend way too much headspace worrying about disinfecting counters, contaminated sponges, disinfecting everything. There are no cases in medical literature that I can find that can be attributed to a dirty sponge. Sure, maybe it has happened, but it’s not a big enough problem that anyone has bothered to document it. Dirty sponges, yes, but not actually getting sick. And that’s because there are only a handful bacteria that cause food borne illnesses, and they aren’t the ones found in sponges.