While holding a plate on one hand and a sponge in the other, I thought, god, this must be *so* dirty. And then I thought, how do you clean a sponge? You know, the thing that’s meant to be cleaning everything else in the kitchen.

Because obviously, you should. A sponge can harbor so many germs, after all.

But according to a 2017 study, bacteria that survives in the sponge might become resistant to microwaving, so to be safe, it’s better to replace your sponges weekly.