Just The Tip: How To Sanitize Your Sponge
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TGI #JustTheTip day, friends and lovers!
Very serious question: When was the last time you sanitized your kitchen sponge?
If you’ve owned your current sponge for longer than a week and the answer is either, “More than a week ago,” or, “Never!” then…
YOU NASTY.
Just kidding. Sort of. I mean, think about how often you work your sponge and the tasks that you use it for. Yesterday alone, I used mine to clean a chef’s knife after trimming raw chicken breast, to scrub an unexpected Kombucha explosion off my counter, cabinets and floor, and then to wipe down my stovetop. And that was a light sponge day.
My point is, sponges are a terrifying breeding ground for all kinds of bacteria, and we should be sanitizing those things on the reg to stay happy, healthy, and avoid the dreaded “dirty sponge smell.” (Dirty sponge smells like wet dog, but slightly more sour—don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about.) Lest you think I’m being dramatic, I’d like to go on record saying that I’m the furthest thing from a germophobe. I shamelessly eat food off the floor, hold subway rails for dear life, and regularly sit on public toilet seats (TMI?), so please trust that I’m not fear-mongering here. You really do need to take your sponge cleaning seriously.
The good news is, today I’m sharing a very easy way to kill 99% of sponge bacteria—that does not involve a dishwasher or toxic chemicals (i.e. bleach)—in what may be the most important episode in Just The Tip’s illustrious history.
Watch and learn.
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Personally I can’t hang with the microwave method, I sooo prefer to soak it in bleach. I feel like that metallic mildew smell doesn’t go away and it actually makes my microwave smell like that too— even though you know it’s “clean,” I can’t handle when that smell gets on my hands. Nope.
THIS IS SO RELEVANT TO ME, OMG! My sponges always get funky so quickly and I tried different ways of disinfecting, but they never worked (so then I would just replace them, but it felt like this was happening so often I was spending so much money on sponges). THANK YOU FOR THIS!!!
HAHAH I’m thrilled that I was able to help a girl out! We can’t be spending all our cash on sponges–we’ve got far more important things to buy. (Like avocados and booze?)