How To Clean and Remove Odors from a Garbage Disposal or Blender
A dirty garbage disposal is often the culprit for bad smells in the kitchen. Food bits can cling to the disposal and pipes and create extremely unpleasant odors. The best way to de-stink your kitchen is with a healthy dose of all-natural ingredients that will loosen tough food particles and get the pipes moving!
Any time I’m cooking or baking with lemons, I try to squeeze out any excess or leftover juice down my drains for that added smell of freshness in the kitchen. Often, I’ll throw smaller parts of the rind in the garbage disposal to give it a quick clean. When I’m giving the kitchen a good top to bottom clean, I’ll pull out the vinegar and baking soda and add it to my lemon regiment. While this task isn’t a huge undertaking, I’ve discovered a quicker, easier method that takes hardly any prep time at all and is easy to keep on hand for more frequent/obsessive future cleanings (yea tuna fish, I’m lookin’ at you!).
What You Need
Materials
- Distilled white vinegar
- 1 Lemon
Tools
- Muffin tin
Instructions
1. Slice a lemon into small (quarter size) wedges and place in muffin cups. Be sure you don’t cut your wedges too large, you want them to be able to grind up well once they go down the disposal. You can also add limes or any other citrus fruit you have on hand.
2. Pour distilled white vinegar into the cups. Leave a bit of room so the vinegar doesn’t spill out on your walk to the freezer!
3. Let the cubes set up in the freezer overnight. If you are able to cover your tray with some sort of plastic lid I would recommend it, the vinegar smell will be very strong (I almost fell over when I opened the freezer to check on my cubes the next day)!
4. Remove the cubes from the tray and pop a few down the disposal. Run a low stream of water and flip the switch! For an extra boost of clean, sprinkle a few tablespoons of baking soda over the vinegar cubes.
This is also a great method for cleaning and deodorizing blenders or smoothie makers that have adopted the smell of your protein shakes.
More great tips and tutorials: Cleaning Basics