Do you wash sponges and dishcloths?

[JazzAnnNonMouse]

Or throw them away?

So Rat and BananaPie - do you actually use the same cloth to wipe your work surfaces as you do to clean your dishes?

Alinta, I know what you mean, I did at first but now I bung anything in there with them, I use special antibac powder and actually nothing gets whites whiter!

Alinta, why not? The work surfaces are fundamentally clean, any meat etc has been dealt with on a chopping board which gets washed up, the surfaces really just need cleaning of crumbs and minor spillages.

I think it's a combination of washing at 95 with a tiny bit of vanish or biotex and a scoop of miofresh :)

Yes of course I wash them, and daily boil up the sponge in a saucepan on the hob, usually last thing at night so it can then dry out nicely ready for the next day.

The only sponges we use are for washing the car (not very often!).
I bleach dish cloths over night along with the little washing up brushes. I use jcloth type for household cleaning and I throw them away after a few uses.

Rat I only have one sponge too in the kitchen, it does everything, gets properly squeezed out between uses, doesn't sit in a puddle of water or anything.

What's wrong with wiping the counters with the same sponge you wash the dishes with? It's all the same food waste being cleaned.

i use a clean microfibre cloth every day.... i wash pretty much every day anyway, so stick the previous days cloth in with my morning load of washing

i only use sponges for washing up and have a fresh one at least every week, more often if it needs it.

every so often they go in on a 60 wash, but as they are washed daily i dont find they ever get manky or smelly

I would never use a sponge for wiping surfaces or a sponge for cleaning dishes... ever.

So, do people really think it's hygienic to take the cloth/sponge that they've been using to wash and clean plates and then use the same cloth to clear (smear) over work surfaces?

I wash cloths and sponges, and after a while I chuck the sponges out and replace them

never thought of putting sponges in the dishwasher. Like that idea.

I used to put sponges in the dishwasher before I started using e cloths.

Alinta hopefully people rinse out the cloth and use a squirt of WUL.

Alinta, yes, I do use the same sponge for wiping work surfaces and cleaning dishes.

My views are the same as MrsHoarder's and Overmydeadbody's: I use chopping boards/plates to prepare food anyway so my worktops and table are pretty clean. Nobody sits on them; I do not put my handbag on kitchen surfaces; I don't put any old kind of rubbish that might be dirty on them either.

As an aside, I am a sponge fan. I have a bit of a phobia of dishcloths: it might just be the grey colour but I find them grimy.

Yep, don't see what the problem is wiping work surfaces with the washing up sponge. They don't get dirtier than plates do. I draw the line at wiping the floor with it (although have seen that done). Rat thanks for the almost-honoury rat.. I only change it once a week because the green scrubby bit wears out by then. It gets relegated to a cleaning sponge then binned.

BananaPie, I do as you do: I also downgrade my dish cleaning sponge when it gets worn out. It then gets used on floors, shower tray, outside window sills, etc. I have established a hierarchy of sponges!

I buy a cheaper equivalent to the Scotch Brite sponges with the green scouring pad. I am a big fan of those.

Just like Rat - except I use sponges until they wear out and also j-cloths: used for all washing-up and wiping down of surfaces. Chopping boards are used for food prep and washed. No illnesses in our house either. The sponges never get washed and get thrown out when the scrubby bit has gone. The j-cloths get bleached every two or three days until they start to fall apart.

You haven't got me have you? I'm surprised that you use a dirty sponge to clean a worktop. Not the other way round. Yes it's dirty. You admit that yourselves - or you wouldn't be washing it so often (or not!)

euh no... my sponge is not dirty actually. It is washed and rinsed a few times a day and boiled once a day with water from the kettle.

I use my clean (not brand new, but clean nonetheless) to watch my slightly dirty worktop.

I don't quite understand what point you are trying to make, Alinta.

But if I thought it was dirty, I wouldn't do the dishes with it either. I just don't see the worktop/dishes distinction - why would you not wipe one with something you wipe the other with?

Alinta - what do you use to clean your worktop?

Did you just rinse it and clean the sponge with WUL during pregnancy too?

Yes I put the dishcloth and any other cleaning cloths in the washing machine everyday so I only use them once. I hate it when you go to someone's house and their dishcloth is all dirty and crispy!

I am honestly shocked at this thread - feel like I have a long way to go! Team Rat over here. It's genuinely never occurred to me to wash my washing up sponges (never use a cloth!) I use the sponge to wash up, then rinse in hot and use it and a spray of disinfectant on all kitchen worktops, then re-rinse and leave on the side (not in a puddle). Once it wears out or if it gets v manky during washing up (rarely happens as I pre-rinse all dishes, don't cook with a lot of oil, don't cook meat so no yukky residue) it either gets chucked and replaced or relegated to cleaning sponge, depending on condition. Always done this, there are me, DH and DD and we get ill once in a blue moon. Also have lots of visitors and have never poisoned any of them either!