You’re planning a day at the park, when you realize you only have one ice pack for your picnic lunch. How can you come up with a remedy without having to make a trip to the store? A simple solution is to use a dish sponge. Sponges make the perfect DIY ice packs because they’re cheap, small, lightweight, and they hold onto most of the water, even after they’re warm. To make a dish sponge ice pack, start with clean sponges. They don’t have to be new, but they do have to be clean. Run each sponge under the tap so the entire sponge gets soaked through. Then, squeeze it a tiny bit. The goal is to have the sponge maxed-out in capacity, but not losing too much. If you hold the sponge by one end, a slow drip of water will leak out the bottom, and that’s what you want. Put the sponge in a Ziploc bag, push out the air, and seal it. Put the bag in the freezer for about 2 hours, or until frozen solid. You can do this with as many sponges as you want. These ice-pack sponges are excellent for keeping food and drinks cool in a lunch box or cooler.
