With all the recent blogging about germs and the many places in our homes they hide I thought it time to point out the biggest spreader of things-that-make-you-go-ewww in the house: the sponge.
Most of us, me included until I started writing this blog, assume that the sponge we use to clean our kitchens or bathrooms simply must be be clean, after all it’s soaked in cleanser by the time you’re done, right? Wrong.
Sponges are fertile ground for germs, particularly bacteria that love a nice, dark, moist home in which to grow.
So what do you do? No one wants to spread germs around the house. In our house, we’ve ditched the sponge. You heard me right, we no longer user a sponge when cleaning, not even one of those two-sided scrubby kinds.
We’re still experimenting here at Casa Larson.
I can tell you we have yet to find anything that substitutes adequately for the scrubby side of the sponge when working with dishes that may have been in the sink a tad longer than we want to admit, but I do currently have high hopes for these disposable Brillo pads. The waste factor bugs me a bit though, so my back-up plan is to use my long-handled veggie scrubber on the tough stuff and then run it through the dishwasher with it on the high heat/sanitize setting. I haven’t tried this yet, but logic seems to dictate it should work. I’ll let you know.
For regular lightweight dish washing a dish cloth works just fine and I just toss it in the laundry at night. I figure they are beyond cheap, especially if I get them at one of the dollar stores, so I don’t mind buying a bunch to have on hand and it won’t kill me if one gets thrown away due to stains.
I actually prefer dish cloths for all surface cleaning. I can use a clean one each time, for each surface if needed, they are soft, won’t tear on a wet spot, and a whole lot cheaper than using the equivalent in paper towels.
That last is the part I’m trying to get through to my husband. His mom is a serious paper towel user and mine is the frugal queen sometimes, so we go toe-to-toe on this one a lot. I grew up with cloth napkins not because we were snooty but because my mom could make them out of fabric remnants and they were reusable. I’m winning the battle, currently, but that may change if he figures out where I hid the paper towel stash.
If you want to stop the spread of germs, ditch the sponge and find a new way to get the job done.
Until next time, stay safe!