How to Make a Reusable Bottle Brush for Dishes, Pots, Pans, and Bottles

A bottle cleaning brush is a pretty hand thing to have when you need to hand wash glasses, coffee cups, or sports water bottles. Well actually mine isn’t a dish washing brush but this exact bottle/glass/dishwashing scrubber sponge with a handle. Same difference. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links in his post for your convenience.)

 

And just like dish washing sponges and scrubbers, you are supposed to replace your bottle washing brush every few weeks due to bacteria buildup. You can’t wash the spongy one to make them last longer (I tried.)

 

At a buck and some change a pop replacing my glass washing brush/sponge on a stick won’t break the bank. But I hate buying the stupid things to throw away over and over again. Especially if it is going to sit in landfill and never decompose. If I switch to eco friendly dish brushes like these weird looking things I still have to replace them and they have parts that won’t decompose either but are eco feed good at much higher price.

 

What I want is a bottle/glass/dishwashing scrubber brush or sponge on a stick I can wash when it is dirty and reuse. I tried to crochet a dish scrubber that would fit into the handle of the dish scrub sponge holder I have.  The size needed to wash a bottle was too large to fit in the ring at the top of the handle. I tried using a cotton towel but hemming the edges so it wouldn’t fray was a nightmare. I also had the same size issue as the crochet dish scrubber. 

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I found a solution when I switched to a microfiber dish towel. The more you use a microfiber towel the more the fibers split and which makes stuff stick to it better when you use it to clean.  That little benefit helps it stay in place on the dish washing sponge handle until it is time to pop it into the wash (I use a lingerie bag like this one because I don’t like microfiber towels sticking to the other cotton towels in the wash) when it is dirty and use a clean one. Finally a reusable dish washing scrubby option!

 

Quick and Easy DIY Washable Dishwashing Scrubber

 

You will need the following supplies:

 

Dishwashing sponge with a handle – you can find the Scrub Buddies dishwashing sponge I am using here

 

14 x 16 inch microfiber cleaning cloth – you can buy buy the microfiber cleaning cloths I used here

 

Scissors

 

Straight pins

 

Coordinating thread

 

Sewing machine

 

Step by Step How to to Make It

 

1.  Remove and unroll the sponge from the handle. My glass cleaning sponge slid out of the ring in the handle holding it in place.

 

2. Pin the sponge to an unfolded microfiber towel to use as a pattern and cut the microfiber towel to its shape. If your microfiber cleaning towel is thin like mine, you will need to cut 2  4 inch wide and 14 inch long rectangles per dish scrub brush head you want to make. Chances are  you will want more than one. 

 I was able to make three reusable dish scrubbers from two 14 x 16 towels.

3. Overlap and pin the ends of the towels together  to make one  long rectangle and sew them into place with the sewing machine.

 

I used two straight stiches because I didn't want the seam to flop around.

4. The cut edges of a microfiber towel will fray and shed even if you cut the towel with pinking shears like these. Making a traditional hemmed edge is too bulky. Instead, I used the overlock/serger stitch on my sewing machine to sew down each side of the towel to keep it from fraying. If you don’t have or can’t get the overlock stitch on your sewing machine to work (been there!) you can use a zig zag stitch to do the same thing.

 

Almost done!

5. Accordion fold the microfiber strip from end to end and slip it through the ring in the bottle brush handle. Fluff the sides of the towel so it is even on each side of the handle ring.

 

Washable, reusable, and works great!

6. Scrub up! When your reusable pot scrubber is dirty, pop it into the laundry, grab a clean replacement bottle brush head, and scrub up some more!

Rather buy than DIY? Check out the following options - and more! - below!

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