If you don't have a dishwasher, how often do you replace your dish sponges?

[conuly]

Poll #20610 Sponge questions

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 82

View Respondents

So how often do you replace your sponges?

View Answers

More than once a week
1 (1.3%)

Once a week
3 (3.9%)

Two or three times a month
8 (10.4%)

Once a month
11 (14.3%)

Once every six to eight weeks or so
16 (20.8%)

Once every three or four months
6 (7.8%)

Even less often!
4 (5.2%)

Never
0 (0.0%)

IDK, I think the magical sponge fairies do this for me
10 (13.0%)

Other
18 (23.4%)

Are your sponges plain sponges, or do they have scrubbies on one side?

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Plain sponges
7 (8.8%)

Scrubbies on one side
60 (75.0%)

I don't use sponges at all
18 (22.5%)

Do you use the term "scrubbies"?

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Yes
27 (33.8%)

For some abrasive cleaning things, not others and I'll clear this up in the comments
6 (7.5%)

No, but I know what you mean, I use another term I'll specify in the comments
38 (47.5%)

I am utterly unfamiliar with this term
9 (11.2%)

What are your cleaning sponges and/or scrubbies made of?

View Answers

I have no idea
26 (32.1%)

Something petrochemical, I guess
47 (58.0%)

Actual sponges
1 (1.2%)

Plant materials!
2 (2.5%)

Other
7 (8.6%)

I don't use sponges
11 (13.6%)

(For reference, this is what I usually mean by scrubbie though the ones I'm using now are from Whole Foods and made of plant materials. Were it made of metal I'd call it steel or copper wool. Also, the sponges I'm using I got from Trader Joes and they expanded in water, which was nifty to watch. If I could get expanding sponges with the scrubbies attached I'd be in dishwashing heaven, inasmuch as people have to wash dishes in heaven.)

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Comments

[alias_sqbr]

I realise I'm skewing things with my weird Australian dialect but I'd say "scourer".

Also the changing roster is half the magical sponge fairies and half "when it looks gross", as it happens I changed mine yesterday but I honestly couldn't tell you whether the time before that was within the last month or two, or sometime last year. TIME IS AN ILLUSION.

[cesy]

Yes, they're scourers in my part of the UK, and I similarly go by when it looks gross.

[lilly_c]

I call that the scourer

[nostalgia]

I cannot touch a sponge, I use green scourers.

[highlyeccentric]

I call the scrubby stuff 'scourer' (Australian). The scrubber is sometimes this thing, although that's an adult weirding of my dialect. I grew up using the brush and a scourer and no sponge.

[marahmarie]

Scrubbies, no; I call them scrubbers.

I also differentiate between the one pictured (green) and a similar one (blue); the blue one's supposed to be gentler so I get the green one when I can because everything's hard enough to scrub without having to grab my Brillo because the scrubber won't scrub hard enough.

Also, variants: I used to use the kind in your picture, but have since upgraded (if you can call it that; it has its own drawbacks) to the same thing but on a handle.

No sponge

[moem]

I use a brush that looks like this:

It's what most folks use in this country. They can be desinfected in bleach, and if you get a decent quality like this one, they last for months.

Re: No sponge

[greghousesgf]

I have a brush like that, several sponges that have scrubbies stuff on one side and a dishwasher.
awwwwwwwwwwww baby horsies

[gingicat]

I toss them into the dishwasher when they look disgusting, and I keep one aside that can dry out and therefore be safe for hand washing things.

[merridia]

I use SOS pads, they just fall apart when they're ready to die. And I don't think I have a term for the scrubbing/scouring side of a sponge? It's just... the scrubbing/scouring side.

[conuly]

Yes, but do you disambiguate in any way between sponges that have one and sponges that don't?

[moxie_man]

"Old Fashion" cotton dish clothes. After three days, they go in the laundry. When they get really nasty, they get bleached. For stubborn things stuck to the dishes/pots, I use a combination of the green scour pads (what you call a scrubbie) and copper pad depending on the pot and the stubborn stuck thing on said pot.

I'm also not afraid to use the "three pot" method to wash my dishes as we do on scout camping trips: Wash, rinse, and sterilize in bleach water. I usually only resort to this when one or the other of us in the house is sick.

[miss_s_b]

* high five for a fellow dishcloth user *

[glinda]

I call the scrubbie things scourers (not to be confused with pot scourers which are more like plastic wire wool things) and they are the big guns of my dishwashing, for stubborn stuff. I like those sponges with a scouring pad/scrubbie on the back as a more flexible dish washer. I generally change them whenever they start to look a bit manky, so they get changed more in winter as they get heavier usage with stews and curries and pasta bakes than they do in summer.

[sabotabby]

I just got a new things that's from Sweden that is really pretty, supposedly effective and launderable, and just decomposes in the compost when it's done. We'll see how it goes.

[conuly]

Sounds like a dream.

[miss_s_b]

I would never use a sponge for washing dishes, I use a cotton open weave dishcloth, specifically because sponges harbour germs, and dishcloths are really easy to toss in the washing machine.

(we do have a dishwasher, but we also have handwash-only items of glassware etc)

[gale_storm]

Scouring thingies out of the corners of things that had been heated too high for too long are just referred to as 'scouring thingies' by me. Not that I've washed dishes for ages, anyway. One of the teensy-tiny benefits of having MS. Okay, the only benefit.

[conuly]

You say "just referred to", but the thing is, scour isn't in my active vocabulary and scrub is.

[gatheringrivers]

I use "scrubbing" washclothes (they have a plastic layer of netting on one side) and generally throw them in the bucket to wash every day or two, and run a weekly load of them.

I have "scrubbies" - green scrubbies like you linked, and some copper ones for stubborn things - both of which go in the dishwasher every few uses so they don't get too gross.

I haven't used a sponge for dishes since I was in my early 20's, before I moved out of my parents house. They always get SO gross and I'd have to keep buying replacements.

Wash and reuse for the win!

[julian]

Calluna calls 'em scrubbers; I just realized I never really had a term for it. (I mean, I call the metal ones you get separately scouring pads, but the ones attached to sponges aren't as strong and so I wouldn't call them that.)

So now: I call them scrubbies, thanks!

Edit: Also, I toss them when they start looking problematic.

[conuly]

I'm almost the opposite of never having a term for it - one day in my teens I suddenly said "Wait, they can't really be sold as scrubbies, can they?" and resolved to take a good look at the packaging next time I was at the grocery store.

[topaz_eyes]

We use dishcloths mainly. Sponges get gross after only a few uses.

We switch out dishcloths, scrubbies and dish towels frequently. One member of Chez Topaz has celiac disease, so we switch out when there's potential for cross-contamination.

[batwrangler]

Scrubbies are coarser than "sponges" and probably petrochemical if they are not metal while sponges are either natural sponge or cellulose. I use sponges, dish clothes, scrubbies, and various brushes depending on what I am cleaning. I generally zap the (well-saturated with water) sponges for 90 seconds at a time a couple of times a week, especially if they are not drying out between uses, and pitch them when they get worn or look gross (or if an older one gets used to clean up something noxious).

[redsixwing]

Dishcloths and a scrubbing brush. I have a dishwasher, but also a lot of things that last longer/do better when hand washed, so I do a lot of washing up by hand.

The brush has a bamboo handle and apparently bamboo-derived bristles, although there's been enough fraud about bamboo-derived polymers recently that I'm not sure how much I believe that. When it falls apart, the handle can be put out in the brushpile and composted. The brush head will probably get tossed, but it's a step less garbage than an all-plastic brush, and like the example above, they're easy to sanitize.

[moem]

That's a good point about plastic... maybe I should ditch my plastic brush for the good old wooden version. These are still available:

[oloriel]

I'm normally using a dishcloth for my non-dishwasher dish cleaning needs, which is basically a cotton flannel rag. We have a stack of them so when it gets disgusting after about three days, I just throw it in the laundry until there's enough stuff in there that needs to be washed at 60°C. (With two small kids, that doesn't take too long.)

For scrubbing pots etc., we have a steel wool pad which we probably should renew more often. As it is, we keep using the same pad until it falls apart, which, since it's made of steel wool, can take several years.

I actually have never thought about a proper name for the "scrubbie", though I like the name "scrubbie"! Whenever I've used one of those sponges with a scrubbie side, we've generally referred ot the scrubbie as "the tough side" or "the hard side". Boring! XD

[rachelkachel]

The things I call scrubbies are the ones that look like plastic steel wool. I don't really have a name for the scouring pad thing.

And I know sponges harbor germs, but I justify it to myself because I live in a dry climate so they're rarely damp for long.

[spikethemuffin]

I'm weird about sponges. I run them through the dishwasher every time I run it and store them in the fridge, which is frost-free and keeps them dry and non-fusty even though my ADHD is not great about reminding me to wring them out (although, weirdly, it's easier to remember to wring them out before putting them in a "weird" place because I haz the braindums). But I have no idea how often I replace them. It's been at least six months, though. I prefer to use Handi-wipes or generic analogs for washing/ wiping surfaces that touch food, though, and I suspect I use the "scrubbie: side more than the sponge.

I wish I could afford natural sponges, but it would feel weird to think that I was killing innocent animals to keep my faucets shiny, even though they have the I.Q. of, well, sponges, plus they don't have a scrubbie side... loofahs, maybe?

[archangelbeth]

Wait, sponges can GO THROUGH THE DISHWASHER?!?

Dish-cleaning tools

[mama_kestrel]

So I have a dishwasher, but I also have a bunch of stuff that can't go in it. Hence sponges and other tools.

I use cellulose sponges, preferably with scrubbies, to get the worst gunk off the things that get hand-washed. Those get changed when they get icky, gunky, greasy, or smelly - usually about every 10 days. But I know those are microbial meccas, so I also have cotton dishcloths (mostly hand knitted, because the texture is great for scrubbing and those squares are the perfect size to practice new patterns) that I use for the final serious wash with hot water and soap. Those get used for a day, two at most, and then washed with bleach and tossed in a hot dryer. I have a basket beside the sink that holds about 10 of them, and another under the sink for the used ones. I do let them dry before I toss them into the dirty basket.

[movingfinger]

When I say "scrubbie" I mean the plastic Dobie pad with a bit of sponge inside, or the Scotchbrite square not-steel-wool pad. I haven't bought either lately because the abrasive surface on one side of the sponge is enough.

ETA: Oh, reading comments, I see. I have the sponge in a sponge holder and I also use a flat cellulose dishcloth with a cute pattern printed on it which is technically compostable but which I throw out and replace on the first of the month, along with the sponge. If the sponges aren't too ratty I let them dry out and then save them for dirty cleaning jobs. For not so dirty cleaning jobs, there's a stack of washable microfiber rags.

[mindstalk]

Green and yellow scrubby sponge pad, replaced when it gets smelly (the sort of smell that clings to your fingers after.)

[conuly]

That's very ew smelly

[zesty_pinto]

I honestly haven't replaced our sponges in months, almost half a year now. However, we have a dishwasher and I only wash when I really need to clean something immediately for use or have gunk that can't be taken off from the washer normally.

Scrub daddies have been our current go to. That and a camp scraper I originally bought for, uh, camping.

[conuly]

Well, if you don't use them much I guess it's not necessary to replace them much.