Sanitizing Your Kitchen Sponges

We all have some kind of sponge that we use to hand wash our dishes or to clean messes. After a while they get real gungy, and in my case, very stinky. I've always hated that after just a few uses of my sponges, that they get stinky - especially my meat sponge (the blue ones in the pic). I use my meat sponge to clean anything that comes in contact with raw meat (I even have a separate cutting board and knife for raw meat - you should too). My regular sponge (the white/yellow one) will often get gross and eventually need replacing.

If you don't fully squeeze out all the water in your sponges and just let them sit, they will get gungy and start to stink (I do that when I'm in a hurry). I have been getting tired of having to replace my sponges all the time - they aren't very costly, but still.

I recently read on the Internet about sanitizing your kitchen sponges using dishwasher cleaner - it has bleach in it, which makes the perfect sanitizer. There were no specific instructions, so I made up my own.

You will need:  your dirty sponges, a flat glass (or ceramic) container to fit all your sponges, and some dishwashing soap (rubber gloves if you are sensitive to bleach).

If your sponges are dry, get them wet and wring them out.

Put about 2 tablespoons of dishwashing soap into your flat glass container. Add about 1/2" - 3/4" of water and mix the soap into the water - wearing rubber gloves if you need to.

Place your sponges into the container, pressing to get some of the soap into the sponges.

Set your timer for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, turn sponges over and press to get the soapy solution all through the sponges.

Set your timer for another 10 minutes.

After that, rinse your sponges thoroughly and let them dry. Put your glass container into the dishwasher for the next run.

This is my second time doing this and I love it! No more gungy, stinky sponges. Some of the stains will still be there (because they're stains), but it won't be gungy - I promise. I plan to do this every 1-2 weeks depending on how my sponges look (and smell). So if you have gungy/stinky kitchen sponges, take a tip from me and sanitize them quickly and easily.

Happy Cleaning!!!

Comments or questions are always welcomed. I would love to hear what you think of this tip or any of my other posts. Thanks!