That's called having a preference, and a pretty normal one. If you do have OCD then I think you should consider not simplifying it to liking things to be clean and new looking, because I imagine if it's like mine it's far more complicated and debilitating.
Just use a kitchen washcloth instead of a sponge and get a silicon gentle scrubber in addition that you can put in the dishwasher. Less microplastics and more environmentally friendly
Longest I ever kept a sponge for was four months it was a "I'll do it later" kind of thing, the green scrubbing part had nearly fully been removed lol.
Tbh we wash them and use them for really dirty stuff. Like when you need to remove mold with a chlorine spray or poop from your shoes. Then they get tossed because there's no way I am washing that again.
We're phasing out single use sponges though, but now I don't know what to use for the really dirty stuff.
We use a combination of brushes with wooden heads (I don't like stuff with handles though), structured cotton towels from the drug store, and sponges from Ikea called "Pepprig" which I think work best for most things. They are also plastic but you can wash them easily.
Same. We actually cut them in half before we use them (no this is not a way to save up $10k in a year) and then quarter them when they turn to crap sponges xD
