OK, I need your advice.
I started bringing a water bottle to work, because I believe wholeheartedly in the amazing power of WATER. So I like to drink a lot of it during the day. I rinse it out every day and wash it with soap twice a week.
However, a week ago, while I was drinking from the water bottle when I noticed there was some black crud in the drinking straw. This inspired me to grab some cotton-tipped applicators from the supply closet and clean out the straw. The cotton came away BLACK. I used six of them, then washed again with soap, and then christened the water bottle as clean.
But when recounting this story to a coworker, they said I should have thrown it out and bought a new one. That no matter how much I cleaned, it was not clean. But to be fair, this coworker spends about ten minutes wiping down her work station every morning. (I'm not saying she's wrong to do that, but that's a level of disinfection I don't embrace.)
What do you think? Can I still use my water bottle? Is there a way to prevent this from happening again besides the cotton tips?