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 kitchen sponge is just spreading germs around your kitchen. And those germs, can make you and your family sick!
Your kitchen sponge is the perfect breeding ground for nasty bugs like salmonella, strep, and even E. Coli.
I do not even recommend using a kitchen sponge at all. I prefer a standard dish cloth that can washed in the laundry at the end of the day. I also prefer to use paper towels for picking up anything that is super nasty like raw meat juices.
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…
- 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.
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!
