I love and hate sponges at the same time. They are awesome for cleaning, but they never feel that clean to me. For a long time I lived with 6 different roommates in a small kitchen with no washing machine. Needless to say, I got into the habit of cleaning the sponges once every 3 days or so. If your sponge is smelling funky, or looking rough, give it a good cleaning! It's quick, effective, and you can clean with the ease of knowing its not just spreading grossness all over the kitchen.
After a big cooking session and a serious wipe down of the kitchen, I will take out a clean dish and get the water as hot as I can. I rinse out the sponge and try to get anything gross off of the sponge. I will then toss some soap on top, and fill the bowl with hot water. I let it soak for a little bit, about a minute or two.
Once I wash all of the soap off of the sponge, I put it in a bowl with no soap (you can rinse out your other bowl or grab a new one, its up to you!) and cover the bottom with a little bit of water, not a ton just enough to cover.
Set the microwave for 1 minute and put the bowl in the middle of the microwave. Make sure before you do this that the sponge has no metal in it, some of the scrubby pad ones have metal in them so be safe!
Be careful when you take the dish out, it might be super hot. I usually dump the gross water out and let the sponge hang out in the sunlight while it cools. Wait at least 20 minutes, you will burn your hand the hot water that's inside of that sponge (I have first hand experience).
Once the sponge is cooled off, go ahead and squeeze the water out of the sponge, do it a few times, then rinse the sponge out again.
All that is left to do is let your sanitized sponge dry, I let mine sit in the sun for a few hours, and then it gets put back to work. I do this once every three days, and I don't keep a sponge for more than one month. You can buy a big pack at Costco and make it last you a long time or go to a dollar store and stock up! Also I have separate sponges for different uses, in different places (one for the dishes that is next to the soap, one for the counters that is under the sink) and I never use a sponge on anything with meat, or meat juices! Use paper towel for anything meat related, you don't want to spread that stuff around! The key is to keep it dry, so get a cute holder that keeps it nice and dry, not sitting in the bottom of the sink. I know this all may seem a little over kill, but I promise you it isn't. I have read that a lot of people only use a sponge 3 times and then pitch it, and they clean it every day! How often do you clean/rotate your sponge? Tell me in the comments section! Thanks for reading!