Your kitchen sponge is dirtier than a toilet seat and can spread germs that can make your family sick. Learn how to disinfect your sponge with 5 easy steps!
5 Easy Steps For Disinfecting Your Kitchen Sponge
Studies have shown that your kitchen sponge is one of the most germ laden items in your home, even worse than your toilet seat! Your kitchen sponge comes in contact with raw meat juices, sticky spilled Kool-Aid, crumbs from the kitchen counters and more.
You think you are cleaning up a mess but in reality your sponge is just spreading germs around your kitchen. And those germs, can make you and your family sick!
Your sponge is the perfect breeding ground for nasty bugs like salmonella, strep, and even E. Coli.
But, if you insist on using a sponge in the kitchen here is what you need to know about how to keep it clean and sanitary…
5 Steps For Disinfecting Your Kitchen Sponge:
- Have at least 2 kitchen sponges at all times in the kitchen. This allows you to have one in use while you are cleaning the other one. If you are feeling brave have three, one for dishes, one for counter-tops and one that is clean and drying.
- Pour about 1/4 cup of chlorine bleach on your sponge and let it sit for 15 minutes. Some people balk at using bleach but in reality, bleach is one of the best disinfectants and is relatively inexpensive.
- After your sponge has set with bleach in it for 15 minutes rinse it in hot water to remove the bleach.
- Next get your sponge nice & wet and place it on a plate or in a bowl and pop it in the microwave for 1 minute. The heat will help kill anything nasty that the bleach didn’t. If you don’t have a microwave, bring a pan of water to boil, turn off the heat, and toss your sponge in the hot water and let it soak for 5-10 minutes. Once your sponge is cool enough to handle wring it out making it as dry as possible and set it out on your counter and allow it to completely dry.
- Your kitchen sponge has a pretty short shelf life. After about 2 weeks you really should toss your sponge or relegate it to another cleaning task such as cleaning bathrooms.
Disinfecting your kitchen sponge should be done every day. I recommend tackling this task every night after doing up your dinner dishes and cleaning your counter-tops.
Fun Science Experiment To See How Gross Your Kitchen Sponge Is:
If you are ever in doubt about how dirty your kitchen sponge is I urge you to try this fun experiment…
Take your sponge and pour about 1/4 cup of hydrogen peroxide on it and see how much it bubbles as the peroxide attacks the nasty germs! Gross!
Thanks for the info regarding the need to clean kitchen sponges. I am guilty of being addicted to using them. I always run them through the dishwasher (every other day), and have felt that doing that was sufficient. I guess it’s NOT! Will try working with the bleach…messy though.
Something to try Lillian to avoid the mess of bleach…pour a capful of bleach on your sponge and then place it in the dishwasher. The combination of bleach AND hot water should do the trick nicely.
Always use caution when cleaning with bleach. It is generally only safe to mix bleach with plain water or with laundry detergent as directed. Bleach mixed with other household cleaners, such as dish soap, which often contain at least a small amount of amonia, can be toxic and quite dangerous There are many other substances which are unsafe to mix with bleach. Please see: https://waterandhealth.org/disinfect/safely-mix-bleach-2/
Thanks for those tips T.C., however this article never mentions mixing bleach and dish soap or any other cleaning products.