How To Get The Stink Out Of Your Garbage Disposal
Do you ever get the gross smell coming out of your garbage disposal and not know how to fix it? We have some tips, tricks and an easy recipe to keep that stink away forever.
(THIS POST PROBABLY CONTAINS AFFILIATE LINKS. OUR FULL DISCLOSURE POLICY IS LONG & BORING BUT, YOU CAN FIND IT HERE.)
Get The Smell Out Of Your Garbage Disposal
Sometimes your garbage disposal gets really stinky. It makes sense right? All kinds of food and debris gets stuck down there.
One time when my kids were little our disposal stopped working. One of my husbands friends at the time, used to be a plumber and he offered to come help.
You would be shocked to see some of the things that were caught inside of it, which included a very small Lego. Not sure how that managed to get in there but it did. There is also so much muck and grim that gets stuck in all of the crevasses.
Obviously garbage disposals are going to get gross but did you know there are things you can do to prevent that?
Tricks To Keep Your Disposal Clean
Here are a few things you can do to try and keep your disposal clean, sharp and free from smells.
- When we are washing dishes we tend to use really hot water. But after we wash our dishes we need to run cold water down the drain. Why? Because oils and fats solidify with cold water and then can therefore can be chopped up in smaller pieces and flushed down the drain. This way they don’t stick to your blades.
- Keeping your blades sharp can also be a great way to keep debris off of the them and help wash things down the drain better.
- Deodorize. You can chop up a lemon and throw it into the disposal and start that bad boy up.
- Always run the disposal after adding any food to it. Allowing food to sit in the disposal will cause food to dry out and be harder to cut into pieces.
- Do not dump oil or grease down your drain!
- Be sure to run your disposal regularly to prevent rusting or corrosion.
Keeping The Blades Sharp
Keeping the blades sharp on your garbage disposal makes a huge difference. The sharper the blade, the better and more finely they can cut up food and debris.
But what can we do to keep those blades sharp? Here is an easy trick to do once a week or so to keep your blades sharp.
You will need
- ice
- Sea Salt
- sink plug
- Take a bowl of ice and liberally sprinkle with sea salt.
- Dump the ice with sea salt down the drain.
- Stick your sink plug into the sink drain because you definitely do not want ice to shoot out and hit you!
- Start up your disposal and let the ice and salt work its magic. Run it until you no longer hear any chopping noises. The ice will sharpen the blades and the sea salt will help get rid of any of the old food particles from the blades and sides of the disposal.
DIY Deodorizing Tabs
You can buy some deodorizing tabs at the store but they are actually really easy to make at home. You only need a few ingredients.
- baking soda
- citric acid
- Lemons or Lemon Essential oil
- Tea tree oil
- silicon molds
- water
In a mixing bowl dump a cup of baking soda and a 1/4 cup of citric acid.
Mix together and then add a few drops of water. Too much water will make these too wet so adding a few drops at a time is best. Or you can use a spray bottle with water in it and keep giving a few sprays at a time.
When the mixture feels like it is starting to clump together add to the silicon molds. I got mine at Dollar Tree.
Add a drop or two of tea tree oil to each mold. Then add several drops of the lemon essential oil.
If you would rather use a real lemon you can do that in two ways. You can either squeeze lemon juice into the mixture before you put in the molds, or you can add lemon zest to the mixture. I used the lemon essential oil because I didn’t have a real lemons on hand right now.
Let these sit out for 24 to 48 hours or until the are dried out. Pop out of the molds and put in an air tight container. Pop one into the garbage disposal about once a week to help deodorize it.
Depending on how big your molds are you can use one to three tabs at a time. Pop them in the disposal and turn on the COLD water so that the tab start to dissolve. Then start the disposal and let that go for a few seconds and that is it.
Stinky Garbage Disposal
I hope you learned some new things today about your disposal and can use some of our tips and tricks for keeping it stinky free.
Do you know of another tip or trick that we didn’t mention? Leave it in the comments below so everyone can learn more.
