How to Track the Total Volume of Household Sponges
A sponge is perhaps the dirtiest thing in your home. I say this as a person who regularly comes home after a subway post and immediately eats food from his hands (it strengthens character!), But still the sponge disgusts me. It is by its nature a festering sump with germs, a damp thing used to clean dirty things that you allow to fester in the open air and also suck in all bacteria from the air. The dirty sponge smell is one of the worst household smells, it stays on your fingers and makes me obsessively wash my hands after every contact with the sponge. It’s like cat urine or black mold – it’s the smell of poor cleaning.
Research says sponges are actually dirtier than toilets, and you should change your sponge about every week , which of course none of you do. It is difficult to keep track of how you use the sponge, especially when you have roommates and you don’t know how much bacteria is getting under the bubbling surface.
Here’s an easy way to track how rough your sponge is that I learned from my sponge-obsessedroommate : Take a Sharpie and write the appointment on a dry sponge (dishes, counters, pet food bowls, walls, sex swings, or whatever) then something else). You can also write there the date you first used the sponge, or alternatively the “expiration date” of the sponge to remind yourself to replace it.
The lettering on the sponge will remind you what each sponge is used for, so you will not infect your counters with germs from dishes and will know how long the item has been used. Like this:
And, friend, listen to my words: you (most likely) are no longer in college, so the extremely short-lived charm of living in your own shabby rubbish heap is long gone. Sponges are not expensive, you can spend money on sponges and replace them at your discretion. There is no financial or moral value in using a sponge that smells like rotten cabbage every time you walk into the kitchen.
You Can’t Really Clean A Sponge: A study published in August found that using a sponge in the microwave or boiling can reduce bacteria by about 60 percent, but it won’t cleanse them completely.
“Kitchen sponges not only act as a reservoir for microorganisms,” the study says, “but they also spread on household surfaces, which can lead to cross-contamination of hands and food, which is considered a leading cause of foodborne disease outbreaks. “
So be mindful of waste, but also be mindful of your own health and don’t let your fingers smell like a foul-smelling sponge all day long. Use this Sharpie to keep your sponges tidy – you’ll quickly learn a new approach to keeping your home clean.