How Often Should You Replace Sponges?

The Thing You Use Everyday that You Should Probably Throw Away (Or At Least De-Grossify)

You probably do the dishes often—even more so if you lack the luxury of a dishwasher—but how often do you clean or replace your kitchen sponge? (Or any sponges in your home, for that matter?).

The dirt on sponges (pun intended) is that they can get really gross, really quickly—more gross than you might realize. It’s the dirtiest thing in your home, even worse than toilet seats and garbage cans. Wet sponges grow new bacteria every 20 minutes, and rinsing them off in hot water isn’t enough to ward it off, because they’re full of holes and gaps that hold on to bacteria.

If you don’t disinfect your sponges and replace them often enough, every time you wash a dish, you’re basically just spreading bacteria around and not actually getting anything clean.

So, How Often Should You Replace Sponges?
Bad news: If you’re keeping sponges you use frequently (like your kitchen sponge for dishes) for several weeks or months on end, you’re definitely not replacing it enough. According to Today.com, you should be replacing your kitchen sponge once a week. If that seems like too often, you don’t have to actually follow that to the letter—a few weeks is OK, so long as you’re taking care of it and disinfecting it. If you’re worried about the status of your sponge, whether it’s discolored or smells funky, just toss it and replace it.