This is how often you should really be changing your kitchen sponge
As the kitchen sponge is something we use to make dirty plates and dishes cleaner, it's easy to forget that your kitchen sponge needs regular cleaning itself. After all, it comes into frequent contact with warm water, food residue and even spills on kitchen work surfaces, all of which create the ideal conditions for germs to thrive.
Washing up sponges and dish cloths actually rank among the dirtiest places in your home, and can harbour the equivalent of more than one billion bacteria per 100cm squared, according to research by Magnet Trade and Dr Gareth Nye, Programme Lead for Medical Science at the University of Chester.
So how often should you really be cleaning your kitchen sponge?
According to advice from the Good Housekeeping Institute, kitchen sponges and cloths should be replaced or – more realistically – thoroughly washed once a week, and also rinsed properly daily.
Washing a kitchen sponge
Some washing-up cloths and sponges can be washed in the washing machine – check the care instructions to see if the ones you use are machine washable. Always wash at the highest temperature recommended by the manufacturer.
Non-machine washable kitchen sponges can be soaked once a week in a disinfectant, such as Milton Sterilising Fluid, for 15 minutes. Rinse them, ring them out and leave to dry.
Silicone washing-up sponges such as Lakeland’s Double-Sided Silicone Cleaning Sponges are an alternative to a regular sponge (more on them below). These are usually dishwasher safe on the upper rack – check the care instructions from the manufacturer first.
Rinsing a kitchen sponge
In addition to a weekly deep clean, you should be rinsing your kitchen sponge or dishcloth thoroughly every day. After each use, it's important to rinse sponges at a high temperature (above 60°C), then squeeze the residual moisture out and leave to dry on the draining board. This will prevent them from smelling musty.
Should I switch to a silicone sponge?
Silicone sponges are more durable compared to your average synthetic sponge. This means they can last much longer before needing to be replaced. If you're thinking of switching to a silicone washing-up sponge, though, there are a couple of things to bear in mind.
Firstly, silicone sponges don't hold washing-up liquid lather like a conventional sponge, so you can only really use them in a sink or washing up bowl filled with water and washing up liquid. Secondly, although they're brilliant at cleaning pots and pans (including non-stick ones), they're not really suitable for cleaning fragile glassware.
We’d recommend having both a silicone and traditional sponge or dishcloth next to the kitchen sink to get the best of both worlds.
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