To think that washing up sponges shouldn't be kept in the sink?

[Mcakes]

Not directed at anyone in particular but I sometimes notice at friends or family's houses that the sponge is usually kept at the bottom of the sink or floating in a bowl of cold, greasy washing up water.

My thinking is that, logically, anything that scrubs your plates/glasses/cutlery should also be clean enough to put in your mouth. All I see with the floaty or sink-bottom-dreg-filled sponge is a bacteria factory (especially if it's a meat eating household) but it is so common, I wonder if I'm the odd one here?

Disclaimer - My sponge-in-sink aversion doesn't affect what I think of the person (or stop me eating there etc). In fact, I think most of my favourite people keep minging sponges. I am also no clean freak and know that there are loads of things in my house that other people probably find disgusting (actually there are quite a few filthy oven, frequent horrendous slimy leftovers in fridge that I find disgusting myself but not enough to bother doing anything about on a regular basis ). I am, however, scrupulous with rinsing, drying and replacing my sparkling sponge.

YANBU. DH is a neat freak but always leaves the sponge in the bowl and it drives me mad!

You use a sponge? Argh... Surely a cotton dishcloth that you can boil wash is better?

You're not wrong though. Anything left in the sink to sit in wet is gross. I've a naice little basket for my brush, plug, boilable cotton cloth, scraper and nail brush. DH hasn't managed to grasp the system yet and leaves it all anyhow...

With you on that. Had to bring my mug home every day from work to clean it rather than use the communal sponge. Also grates when people wash up in a soupy bowl of dirty water and don't rinse dishes. Like you I tolerate a lot of dirt and untidiness otherwise!

Who do you know that leaves a bowl of cold greasy water in their sink? That's so grim.

I leave my sponge in my sink because I don't like it sat on my clean worktop making a mark and looking untidy. I wash my sink whenever I've used it and my sponge lives in their with my fairy. I would happily put my sponge or my sink in my mouth at any point.

You have a fairy, frilly? Wow...

I can't stand cleaning dishes in a dirty sink or with dirty cloths/sponges etc. Everything gets cleaned before I was dishes

Completely agree OP, dirty water with stuff floating in it is gross!

I use cotton wash cloths, use them once and chuck them in the wash.

No grim stinky mess for me!

What's the harm if it's in tbe empty sink?

Well I don't like it, but like you I haven't been taken ill after eating in houses that do it. I prefer cloths as you can hang them over the tap, put them through hot washes and the decent ones last for yonks.

Absolutely should leave a sponge etc where they can air. I have a second sink, half size, where I keep my sponge in Happy Draining Land. Wet sponges/cloths are a fab breeding ground for bugs.

Obviously if you have Frilly's fairy none of this will be a problem.

Yanbu, my aunt puts dishes in basin, runs hot water and leaves them to soak then washes them when the water has gone cold, disgusting!

My husbands family are all guilty of this, it gives me the rage. I feel less enraged now I know it's a thing rather than just them, so my blood pressure thanks you.

I leave my sponge soaking in some hot water with zoflora in.

Makes the kitchen smell nice too

YANBU.
I also wash dish clothes in the washing machine nearly everyday

My husbands family are all guilty of this, it gives me the rage.

Mine too. They wipe up then chuck it in the sink without rinsing it. Minging.

My thinking is that, logically, anything that scrubs your plates/glasses/cutlery should also be clean enough to put in your mouth

No, because the plates etc get rinsed off in very hot running water after they have been scrubbed with the sponge.

Sponges get chucked in a basket after every dishwash ready for the washing machine.

Sponge things are ok so long as there is a fresh one for every time you wash up! No soaking in the sink!

Ditto tea towels and dishcloths (for wiping surfaces) get changed at least once a day, if not more often!

I'm surprised how many people let their sponges get threadbare. Where the scouring part goes down to the sponge. They are hardly expensive!

My sponge gets rinsed and lives on a soap dish (It is one of those sets for the bathroom, but it just matched my kitchen) The dishwashing soap lives in the matching soap dispenser...is this a thing? Do others decant their dishwashing soap?

YANBU.

I know someone who leaves her plastic scrubby thing in the bowl of dirty washing up water too. It's grim, sitting there festering in the grease and bits of left over food. I think people don't understand bacteria and how they grow in warm, wet, conditions.

I was always taught to hang the washing up cloth where it got plenty of light and air and it was boiled every couple of days too.

Sponges can be sanitised easily by placing them in a glass of water (submerged) and boiling them for a minute in the microwave.

Very low electricity costs compared with gas for hob boiling, quick, safe, means you only have to go through one sponge at a time instead of waiting for a load of cloths to be washed.

My sponges sit a solution of vinegar and tea tree when not in use. I used to keep them in my sink in my old house but I scrub my sink before and after use (with a different sponge) so it never bothered me. My sponges are microwaved nightly and washed weekly (new one from rotation every morning and evening).

I think MN can be a weird place. Hygiene is important but it's easy to get disproportionate about it.

My sponge sits on the side of the sink. In a little suddsy cocoon. With the remains of the scrubby bit on top. Tea towels get washed once a week or before if I've wiped something off the floor with them. They only really get used for drying clean hands.