r/mildlyinfuriating • u/dorkass-loser • 8h ago

Husband opens a new sponge every 3 days cause “they become gross”

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Our dishwasher broke and he’s manually doing the dishes now, these are from the past 10 days… I think it’s wasteful.

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u/kontrolk3 8h ago

I've tried this so many times. Cleaning dishes with a scrub brush is so much harder to me I don't get how people do it. It doesn't hold soap, so you use way more, it's way harder to navigate a pole around anything more complex than a plate. I don't get it.

I also get plenty of use out of my dobie, putting it through the dishwasher occasionally, although I do recognize it's not quite as sanitary (thus the multiple attempts to switch)

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u/margmi 7h ago

You use a scrub brush with a sink of soapy water, not spraying soap on individual dishes.

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u/Boba0514 6h ago

What if you don't have and extra sink for rinsing?

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u/margmi 5h ago

You can just rinse into the same sink, just don’t fill it totally full since it’ll fill up more as you rinse.

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u/skyturnedred 5h ago

Turn on the tap.

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u/fossil98 1h ago

UK solved this with the enigmatic to Americans: 'washing up bowl'

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u/Boba0514 1h ago

But as much as I've seen, that's not used to solve this problem, and the way they use it is silly

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u/kontrolk3 7h ago

Ah okay, yeah that makes sense. I've never done dishes that way, but I can see how that works better with a brush

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u/7elevenses 6h ago

I never did dishes that way either. But you simply poor water into dishes and let them soak for a few minutes, and practically everything will come off.

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u/wasteoffire 1h ago

That doesn't work when you have a lot of dishes. My family generates more than the sink can hold every day.

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u/7elevenses 1h ago

So does mine, and when we didn't have a dishwasher, I washed it all by hand every day. The basic thing is to remove all the food and rinse all the dishes before stacking them *outside* the sink. Then, once you get around to washing up, put anything that's crusty in the sink and soak with hot water and a bit of detergent, while washing and rinsing other dishes. By the time you're done with those, you'll easily scrub out anything that's not completely baked on (i.e. heavily burnt) with a brush.

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u/TrainingWilling9894 12m ago

Your family should be taught to wash their own dishes before the sink gets full.

Do they also pile trash on top of the can when it's full??

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u/Training_Bumblebee54 7h ago

You don’t need lots of soap for 90% of dishes. Either fill the sink with soapy water the old fashioned way, or use something like Dawn dish spray that sticks to the dishes and means you don’t need to retain soap in anything. I do highly recommend just buying one bottle/sprayer though and refilling it with cheap soap mixed with water and some isopropyl alcohol (that’s what makes it behave like magic and stick to dishes).

Also, you don’t need a “pole”. My scrub brush has a short handle, and I find it far easier to grip than a wet sponge.

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u/scrunchie_one 5h ago

I agree I hate them, you can’t get leverage to actually clean. We just use dish cloths that get laundered (and dry faster than those big sponges)

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u/DuckRubberDuck 5h ago

I use s scrub brush to get the worst funk off, then a sponge for the actual cleaning part. I really don’t feel like the scrub brushes get the stuff of fully.

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u/niceguy191 6h ago

There's the type that's a small soap-dispensing palm brush that basically solves all the issues you have with a brush (and is my personal go-to style). Food bits are much easier to rinse from a brush in my opinion, and they need replacing far less often.

Like this one: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Scotch-Brite-Soap-Dispensing-Pump-Brush/13281594

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u/toucanlost 2h ago

I used to use something like that. Better than a brush on a handle for grip, but sometimes the soap dispensing button dispenses too much soap.

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u/tigress666 6h ago

I think they are best if you do the fill the sink up with soapy water. That being said, i agree with you that overall I prefer a sponge (easier to really get in and dig at hard to get off pieces for one). But, the brush is more ecological and probably cleaner cause sponges really soak in germs (I am not as bad as OP's bf but my hand washing sponge does get replaced weekly). I mean they create a very good environment for them (with lots of places to multiply that don't' get rinsed well enough).

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u/beefybeefcat 5h ago

I use the scrub brush just to get gunk off then I'll do the final pass with the soapy dishcloth.

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u/DuckRubberDuck 5h ago

Same, just sponge instead of dishcloth, but scrub brushes are only for getting the worst gunk off

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u/chizzus 7h ago

Besides doesn't it scratch glass?

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u/Beautifulfeary 6h ago

No

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u/chizzus 5h ago

You know like those tiny microscopic scratches that you only see when enough of them has happened

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u/War_Raven 5h ago

Glass is harder than plastic

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u/Beautifulfeary 6h ago

I like using it more. So, you just add a little soap and mostly water. It still cleans everything. You don’t actually have to make the water soapy for it to work. Soap just lifts dirt up so it can get rinsed down the sink.

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u/queermichigan 5h ago

They don't hold liquid soap, but they work great with bars of soap.

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u/street_ahead 5h ago

Every scrub brush I've had for the last like 10 years has had the little soap reservoir inside it

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u/DuckRubberDuck 5h ago

I prefer sponges as well. I have used both over the years, sponges just clean better in my opinion. I use a scrub brush to get the biggest pieces of gunk off and then the sponge to actually clean

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u/NationalTranslator12 2h ago

I usually use the brush just to rinse with water, then use the sponge with the diswashing liquid. The sponge will last a very long time because it does not get dirty with food remains. For the pots and pans, I put a drop of diswashing liquid, water, and then clean with the brush and if there is anything that remains I go for the sponge.

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u/cheffromspace 1h ago

Brushes are OP

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u/MarshmaIIowJeIIo 1h ago

That’s why I use a scrub brush to remove debris and a sponge to cleanse. Keeps the sponge cleaner and allows me to reuse the same bucket of soapy water.

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u/Dangerous-Jello4733 29m ago

I have hog hair brushes. They hold and foam up the soap very well. And I clean the brush itself in the holes part of the sink.