Well, it's easier to explain visually, but simple enough I guess. In the co-op I used to live in, multiple people were responsible for cleaning things on any given day, and we bought sponges in bulk, so there was no easy way to differentiate a sponge that had been used to wash dishes from one that had been used to clean counters, let alone one that had been used to clean floors or toilets or shower stalls. So we instituted the following three-tiered system:
1) a whole and complete sponge had only been used for washing dishes and food or for quickly swiping kitchen counters/tables without chemicals.
2) a sponge with one corner cut off had been used to clean tables, counters, stoves, etc., with chemicals, and thus should not be used to wash dishes or vegetables.
3) a sponge with two corners cut off had been used to clean toilets, showers, floors, or something else particularly gross, and thus should not be used to wash dishes or food, or tables and kitchen surfaces.
A sponge started its lifecycle as a dish-washing sponge and then would gradually get demoted as it got more worn and/or as the next level required a sponge (except on the rare occasion when there wasn't an appropriate sponge to demote -- then we'd get a fresh one out and just cut off however many corners fit what we were going to use it for). As part of the rule, if you demoted a sponge you replaced the one pulled it from, but that was the least important bit; what mattered was that you always knew what you could or could not use a given sponge for no matter who had used it last.
There were other preferences as to which corners were cut based on the original shape of the sponge and how obvious a cut corner would be, but other than that, that's it. Whew!
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Date: 2011-09-17 09:20 pm (UTC)From:1) a whole and complete sponge had only been used for washing dishes and food or for quickly swiping kitchen counters/tables without chemicals.
2) a sponge with one corner cut off had been used to clean tables, counters, stoves, etc., with chemicals, and thus should not be used to wash dishes or vegetables.
3) a sponge with two corners cut off had been used to clean toilets, showers, floors, or something else particularly gross, and thus should not be used to wash dishes or food, or tables and kitchen surfaces.
A sponge started its lifecycle as a dish-washing sponge and then would gradually get demoted as it got more worn and/or as the next level required a sponge (except on the rare occasion when there wasn't an appropriate sponge to demote -- then we'd get a fresh one out and just cut off however many corners fit what we were going to use it for). As part of the rule, if you demoted a sponge you replaced the one pulled it from, but that was the least important bit; what mattered was that you always knew what you could or could not use a given sponge for no matter who had used it last.
There were other preferences as to which corners were cut based on the original shape of the sponge and how obvious a cut corner would be, but other than that, that's it. Whew!