To dampen the sound of dripping faucets

In sub-freezing weather, to prevent plumbing pipes from bursting in case the water freezes, I leave the indoor faucets dripping. Both the hot and cold water, as I read in the past on a plumbers' forum that (counterintuitively) hot water pipes may be more prone to freezing than cold water pipes.

To dampen the sound of the dripping faucets, I used to put a sponge in the sinks to catch the drips. That worked pretty well. But perhaps it depends on the type of sponge. Lately I've been noticing that once the sponges are saturated with water, the sound of drops falling on them gets fairly loud too.

So I have switched from sponges to brushes. For example: dish-washing brushes, tub-scrubbing brushes, or plastic hair brushes. I lay them under the drips with the bristles facing upwards. The bristles break up the water droplets into small trickles of water, preventing much of the thump thump thump sound.