FYI, Your Kitchen Sponge Might Be Crawling With More Than 300 Different Types Of Bacteria
Doing the dishes might be one of the most hated household chores in the country (at least, according to a survey by the American Cleaning Institute), and I get it. I’m also about to make that seemingly endless task even worse (sorry—don't shoot the messenger!). Because even when you've finally emptied your kitchen sink of every last mug, fork, and pot that’s been "soaking" there for days, there’s one major germ source still lurking in your kitchen: your sponge.
This, however, isn’t an excuse to lean into your food delivery habit (again, sorry). Instead, lean into #adulting by learning how to clean your sponge properly, with these tips from experts.
With their help, you can actually keep your dishes as clean as they were the day they came out of their box.
Hold up: My kitchen sponges are always in soap and water. Why do I need to clean them?
Oh, my sweet, naive friend. Soap and water are the least of what your sponges are picking up. A 2017 Scientific American study found some dish, er, jaw-dropping results about the amount of bacteria lurking in used kitchen sponges. Some tests discovered more than 300 different types of bacteria (!!) on one sponge—at a density of as much as 45 billion per square centimeter. That's a LOT of microscopic creepy-crawlies.
Compared with other dirty places in your house, that means there are spots on your kitchen sponge as concentrated with bacteria as your toilet, NPR reports. And this is what you’re using to clean the things that come into direct contact with your mouth Every. Single. Day.
On the off chance you're not totally grossed out already, here are some other ways your kitchen might be making you sick:
What are the risks of dirty kitchen sponges?
The biggest issue here—and where a lot of the bacteria comes from, tbh—is that your sponges are responsible for doing multiple jobs and cross-contamination is a huge risk.
Many people use the same sponge to wash dishes as they do for cleaning up a counter after meal prep, which means you’re using the same tools to clean up raw (and potentially dangerous) food remnants as you are to scrub your plates and bowls. And yes, all this bacteria can potentially make you sick, the New York Times reports.
I'm talking E. coli and salmonella, two super common foodborne illnesses, but also Campylobacter, which causes an estimated 1.3 million illnesses each year in the U.S. and is the leading cause of bacterial diarrhea. (Betcha didn't know that!)
Okay, I'm convinced. How do I clean my kitchen sponge?
Becky Rapinchuk, founder of Clean Mama, offers three methods for how to get those sponges back into tip-top, spick-and-span shape:
1. Clean your sponge in the dishwasher.
Sometimes the simplest solution to a problem is the best one, and here's proof. Besides the fact that you’ll be running the dishwasher anyway, this is Rapinchuk’s favorite method for cleaning a kitchen sponge.
All you have to do is give it a good rinse and squeeze after washing the dishes (and the inside of your sink!) before placing it in the top rack of your dishwasher. (You can throw any dish scrubber you use in there, too.)
Be sure to use the heated dry option if you have it. One cycle later and—voila!—your sponge is ready to scrub-a-dub-dub.
2. Clean your sponge in the microwave.
If you’re not #blessed enough to have a dishwasher, you can also throw your sponge in the microwave—a method Rapinchuk says is perfect for whenever you want to give it a quick but efficient clean.
But before you pop in it like your favorite bag of popcorn, rinse the sponge out and get rid of as many crumbs and other food debris as possible. Soak it with enough water that it’s saturated but not dripping, and then zap it on high for about a minute.
Heads up: Your sponge can burn, so make sure to keep an eye on it, and let it cool completely before use.
3. Clean your sponge in vinegar.
If you’re looking for a little more ~natural~ option, a good soak in full-strength vinegar (which has a higher concentration of acid than regular white vinegar) will also do the trick.
First, remove any solid particles and give the sponge a good rinse and squeeze before dropping it into a container filled with enough vinegar that the sponge is completely submerged.
Allow it to soak for a good five minutes before rinsing and squeezing. Pro tip: Wear gloves for this, since the extra acid in your vinegar-soaked sponge can sometimes irritate skin. (Also, this vinegar should explicitly used for cleaning, not eating. It's unsafe to digest—and probably tastes terrible, anyway.)
Real talk: How often do I need to clean my sponges?
If that study didn’t already motivate you to clean all the sponges in your house, do it now—seriously. In fact, Rapinchuk recommends cleaning them **daily**.
"The kitchen sink is the dirtiest spot in our home—a dirty sponge doesn’t have to contribute," she says. You'll also want to rotate between different sponges to let each dry out completely between uses, Rapinchuk suggests. This will help them stay cleaner, longer, but that still doesn’t excuse you from following strict sponge hygiene all day, every day.
When do I need to just throw a sponge away?
Like rolls of toilet paper, tubes of mascara, and pairs of running sneaks, you’ll go through many sponges in your lifetime. So accept now that each will be just a temporary part of your kitchen.
Trust that your nose will know when it’s time to throw out a sponge. If it starts to smell, shows noticeable wear, or just isn’t working anymore, it’s time for it to GTFO. And for you to move on to a bigger, better, and cleaner sponge.
You—and your dishes—will be glad you did.
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