Sour sponges

[lxxf]

If we cook, we make a mess right? I just learned that you can refresh sponges by nuking them - how neat is that!? I usually put it in the dishwasher, but sometimes I forget. My son-in-law told me 20-30 seconds will kill the bacteria which produce the odors.

[Half_Baked]

I'll be darned. I always washed them with the whites (clorox)or put them in the dishwasher.

Thanks for the tip!

[cjs]

...that's why I never use sponges, all that crap.

[Half_Baked]

What do you use, a dish cloth? Are all the cracks what's bad about a sponge and the thickness? Do they hold the germs? I put mine in the dishwasher everynight and wash with clorox every week.

[lxxf]

My sponges last about 3 weeks tops and then they start disintegrating. Sometimes hubby forgets to include the sponges when starting the dishwasher. I'm tired of chlorine bleach (clorox etc) ruining my clothes by splashing, so I am using some strong disinfectants which won't ruin your clothes if splashed upon them. Unfortunately, I know more about disinfectants than I ever cared to learn after nursing my son and both my parents through chemotherapy treatments for cancer. When someone's immune system is totally erased through chemo, it is important to keep the house as germ free as possible, and after some research, I settled upon a hospital-strength disinfectant which was diluted to a 20/l solution.

[vannin]

I think the best dish cloths are knitted in garter stitch from good cotton string on thickish needles. I no longer have any, but must get busy and make some. Just soaked in bleach after use they last and last, and go so very white. Nary a whiff of sniff from them.

[vannin]

My bleach is pretty strong, I have commercial s/s sinks and like them soaked on the bottoms and curved corners too. The string seems to stand up to the mistreatment well, but chlorexylinol is rather expensive.

[Roxanne 21]

I am forced to use those sponges with an abrasive strip on it for scouring. There is no such thing as brillo here so I'm stuck. They are disposable and fairly inexpensive so no problem here with "sour"--use a cotton dish cloth for everything else.