Comments on: Kitchen clean-up: sponge or paper towels?

By: Janet

Janet — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 10:23:34 +0000

rags and white vinegar, people, rags and white vinegar … and you wash the rags with the family laundry … and if you don’t have white vinegar … white vermouth works REAL good …

By: Wendy Swift McGee

Wendy Swift McGee — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 02:33:23 +0000

Ok my Dad has me using two different color sponges- one he uses on the dishes only, the other gets used for counters, spills, coffee pot, etc. I used to think he was crazy but now I understand his point.

By: Gary

Gary — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 03:29:47 +0000

I hate to waste good vermouth on unappreciative germs, so I just nuke the sponge in the microwave before using it on the counter top!

By: Bobby

Bobby — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 02:29:33 +0000

I use both. I hate to waste paper, but there are times it seems hard not to use them. But I DO put the sponge in the dishwasher, everytime I run it. And I DON’T wipe the kids face with it! (Unless it’s right after I wash the dog’s dish! They love that!)

By: Bill

Bill — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:28:09 +0000

Sponges and Handiwipes are not used in our house. It seems like the rest of the family doesn’t fully appreciate the bacteria factor and they tend to leave them balled up in the sink or soaked with whatever they just wiped up. Yuck! For small spills I’ll use a paper towel and for a full wipe down I’ll use a cloth towel and red wine vinegar (old restaurant trick). The vinegar cleans and degreases great and the smell which is not entirely unpleasant just kinda of goes away after an hour or so. Every so often I’ll wipe everything down with a mold bleach solution.

By: Marianne O'Hare

Marianne O'Hare — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:11:37 +0000

Having grown up in a germ warfare zone which is my perrenially under-cleaned kitchen, and having been traumatized by picking up a smelly, slightly oozy sponge more than once in her lifetime, my daughter is permanently scarred. Although I think the bacteria exposure has amped up her resistance to particularly virulent strains.

SO – now she’s in the design department at Syracuse Univ. they are expected to cook up cool life-changing inventions. Hers, sponge-related, is going to give the swifter a run for it’s money. Can’t say more until the prototype is in production. But suffice it to say – sponge nay-sayers will quit killing all those trees by over-use of paper-towels once the kid’s product hits the market. All those icky sponge traumas have been the mother of invention!

Meantime, a little splash of Clorox on the sponge at night, prop it upright – and you have a good deal less grossness in the AM.

By: Janet

Janet — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 14:51:38 +0000

I hate sponges in any form …

By: Bruce

Bruce — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 10:33:04 +0000

I like the idea of the sponge in the dishwasher, Suzi – saves valuable vermouth.

By: Suzi Craig

Suzi Craig — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 05:34:22 +0000

Sponges! And then throw them in the dish washer (if you have one). The temp of a dishwasher is high enough to kill anyone (er, anything). I can’t stand wasting paper towels but do when a sponge won’t cut it.

By: BCO

BCO — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 01:34:40 +0000

Well, ya’ know, I use to take the kitchen sponges and just throw them into the family laundry for cleaning. But then I read that sponges ALWAYS have to be washed in HOT water to kill any and all Bacteria they HARBOR. Then I realized that my kitchen sponges were being washed sometimes with other family members’items in WARM water -Yuck! Eeek! THAT did it! No more sponges, and no more attempting to kill the germs in the washing machine, hot OR warm water! Paper towels, handi-wipes and lysol spray does the job!