Sponges

Wiping everything with a sponge will keep the bathroom or kitchen clean

If reading about all the germs in your house does not inspire you to start cleaning, we don’t know what will. But before you go and do so, you should seriously consider how you will do so. Many of you use a sponge to clean in the bathroom or kitchen. Sponges are certainly common cleaning tools and seem like a good weapon to attack all of those bugs, spills, and stains. Is this a good idea, though?

Likely no. You see, contrary to what you might think, sponges become contaminated with germs when they wash things. The more things you wash, and the longer you use the sponge, the dirtier it gets. Soon, it starts transferring germs to other surfaces.

There’s research to back this up. In a study published in 2002 in the International Journal of Food Microbiology, scientists specifically examined how germs found in food moved around the kitchen during cleaning. One part of the study looked at how germs were transferred from a sponge to surfaces in the kitchen. They found that, on average, wiping a 20x30 centimeter surface clean transferred less than a gram of liquid. However, depending on the concentration of bugs in previously washed items, both salmonella and E. coli could be transferred from the sponge to other surfaces in the kitchen.

Another study examined what items in the home had germs on them. Items with what was deemed a “high” count included drain traps (91 percent), sinks (67 percent), and, yes, sponges (78 percent). The germs detected included such horrors as E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Sponges in the bathroom were also noted to have high counts of bacteria. For comparison purposes, the percentage of toilet seats or bowl rims with high counts were only 1 to 2 percent. It’s crazy. The toilet is probably cleaner than your sponge!

So what can you do? Well, there have actually been studies of methods to clean sponges. They include rinsing, bleach, and putting them in the dishwasher. The best method, however, seems to be microwaving. Wetting a sponge and putting it in the microwave for one to two minutes will kill more than 99 percent of the germs that could be hiding in there.

Of course, you could also try more disposable cleaning materials, which don’t have the lifespan to build up too many pathogens. Regardless, if you haven’t replaced your sponge or microwaved it in some time, be afraid. Or at least be more afraid of it than of the much cleaner items in your kitchen and bathroom.