--- title: Your Sponge May Be Dirtier Than Your Toilet description: A team of German researchers analyzed 14 used kitchen sponges and discovered that they harbor more bacteria than previously thought canonical: https://time.com/4882325/kitchen-sponge-bacteria-dirty/ author: Kate Samuelson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-01T16:08:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T05:10:00.000Z article:section: Health og:title: Your Sponge May Be Dirtier Than Your Toilet og:description: Sponges are "the biggest reservoirs of active bacteria in the whole house," scientists say og:url: https://time.com/4882325/kitchen-sponge-bacteria-dirty/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbfe40dcb688652f0/6988abbacf40a81804c45532/dust-household-chemicals-diabetes.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: dust household chemicals diabetes og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Your Sponge May Be Dirtier Than Your Toilet twitter:description: Sponges are "the biggest reservoirs of active bacteria in the whole house," scientists say twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbfe40dcb688652f0/6988abbacf40a81804c45532/dust-household-chemicals-diabetes.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Your Sponge May Be Dirtier Than Your Toilet by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Updated: Dec 13, 2023 5:10 AM UTCPublished: Aug 1, 2017 4:08 PM UTC  Using yellow sponge for cleaning dusty wood Using yellow sponge for cleaning dusty woodKatarzynaBialasiewicz—Getty Images/iStockphoto by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Updated: Dec 13, 2023 5:10 AM UTCPublished: Aug 1, 2017 4:08 PM UTC If you’re someone who repeatedly uses the same [sponge](http://www.extracrispy.com/culture/2825/when-should-you-throw-out-your-sponge) to wipe your kitchen counters, table and dishes, replacing it only every month or so, a [new study published in _Scientific Reports_](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-06055-9) may make you want to change your cleaning habits ASAP. A team of German researchers analyzed 14 used kitchen sponges, collected from households in southwestern Germany, and discovered that they harbored a surprisingly high amount of bacteria. You may be wasting your time by even trying to clean your sponge; the study found that the best thing you can do is replace your sponge once a week. [Previous research](http://msystems.asm.org/content/1/4/e00083-16) has shown that kitchen sponges contain more active bacteria than anywhere else in the house—including the toilet. It has also shown that sponges contain pathogenic bacteria—the type that can lead to disease—like E. coli and salmonella. Sponges are “the biggest reservoirs of active bacteria in the whole house,” the authors write. Unfortunately, the new study showed that regularly sanitized kitchen sponges did not contain significantly less bacteria than unclean ones, so it’s probably best to invest in a weekly sponge if you want to have a cleaner kitchen. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4882325/kitchen-sponge-bacteria-dirty/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4882325/kitchen-sponge-bacteria-dirty/"},"headline":"Your Sponge May Be Dirtier Than Your Toilet","datePublished":"2017-08-01T16:08:48.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T05:10:00.000Z","description":"Sponges are \"the biggest reservoirs of active bacteria in the whole house,\" scientists say","url":"https://time.com/4882325/kitchen-sponge-bacteria-dirty/","keywords":["home","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbfe40dcb688652f0/6988abbacf40a81804c45532/dust-household-chemicals-diabetes.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kate Samuelson","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbfe40dcb688652f0/6988abbacf40a81804c45532/dust-household-chemicals-diabetes.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"dust household chemicals diabetes","caption":"dust household chemicals diabetes","creditText":"KatarzynaBialasiewicz—Getty Images/iStockphoto","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/home/","name":"home"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4882325/kitchen-sponge-bacteria-dirty/","name":"Your Sponge May Be Dirtier Than Your Toilet"}}]}] ```