Cleaning Garbage Disposal

The garbage disposal is a great tool in the kitchen. It grinds up large pieces of leftover food and safely sends it down the drain. Garbage disposals are a big help when it comes to keeping the water flowing. The one downside with garbage disposals is that they tend to accumulate food grime and can end up smelling if not cleaned on a regular basis. Fortunately, there are a couple of simple tricks that you can use to keep the disposal clean.

Baking soda and vinegar are very useful here. Pour a half cup of baking soda down the drain, then follow it by pouring a mixture of 1 cup vinegar and 1 cup hot water. Make sure that you have something to cover the drain. the baking soda and vinegar will react and foam. This reaction does the cleaning, but you don’t want it foaming out of the drain. Let the mixture sit for about 10 minutes then flush it out with hot water.

To keep the blades sharp, you can run ice through the garbage disposal. Add some orange or lemon peal and your will even get a little of that fresh scent once finished.

Finally, when using the garbage disposal, always let water run through it to rinse the garbage disposal after using it. This should keep the accumulation of grime down to very low levels and is something you should do each time you use the garbage disposal.

These practices should keep your garbage disposal clean and running well.