How to Use Sponges for Washing Dishes

Hi! This is Grace Fitzpatrick here on behalf of Expert Village and I am going to talk to you about using sponges when you are doing the dishes by hand. Some people like to use brushes but I on the other hand, prefer to use the sponge when I am doing the dishes for a couple of different reasons. First of all, I feel like you can really feel what you are doing and wash the dish a lot more efficiently when you are using a sponge. It is more hands on as opposed to using a brush. It is kind of hard to tell how much food you are getting off and if there is a particle of food, it is harder to get off. It kind of changes your force as much. With the sponge, you can really scrub and use some elbow grease. Now there are a couple of different kinds of sponges. The sponge with the sort of steel wool side and then there is also a sponge that is smooth on both sides. I prefer the sponge with the steel wool on one side because then if you have something that is a little harder. You can turn it over and scrub pretty hard and get that hard to dislodge piece of food and dislodge it pretty quickly and then you can turn it over and wipe it nicely with a smooth side. Also, you can use the smooth side on counter tops and any other surfaces that you want to get clean. So a sponge is actually a good multipurpose tool because you can use it while you are washing the dishes and then you can wipe the counter pretty quickly afterwards. One thing you want to be careful of though is letting the sponge go too long without replacing it and this is what happens. Basically there will start to be some build up and dirt on the scruffy side and sometimes it starts to smell a little bit. That is when you know that you need a new sponge.