Clean Your Garbage Disposal

Ditch the lemon! It’s not doing anything!! Here’s an easy way to clean your garbage disposal:

Does your garbage disposal smell gross, nasty, and generally, like some disgusting funk?  Does it have an ooey, gooey, funky slime in it?  Don’t just stick a lemon in your disposal! Clean it!! Chances are, if your disposal is that disgusting, you are beyond the help of a lemon. A lemon doesn’t have magical unicorn powers. It’s not going to actually clean your disposal. You’ll only need a few simple products, and some good, old-fashioned elbow grease. That’s it!

Tips to Clean Your Garbage Disposal

01. Choose a non-abrasive, cleaner that will coat your disposal. I like Soft Scrub because it is inexpensive, non-abrasive, and you can get it to coat whatever you are cleaning. I’m that clean freak who likes bleachy, clean smells when I clean. Forget “natural” remedies and all that jazz. Nope! They aren’t strong enough for me. But, if you have some natural, miracle working genie in a bottle remedy, feel free to use it.

02. Use a scrub brush with a long handle. Do not stick your hand down into the disposal! Even if it’s not running, which I hope you realize you need to turn it off before you clean it, there are sharp blades down in the disposal. Don’t risk sticking your hand down there. I just have a simple scrub brush with a long handle. When I’m done with my scrub brush, I give it a rinse, and you guessed it, stick it in my dishwasher to get clean during the next wash cycle.

03. Remove your rubber food catcher. The food catcher can be a big culprit for kitchen sink stink. Yes, that’s a thing! Take that food catcher out. Coat it with the Soft Scrub too on both sides. Scrub it, then rinse it off. If your food catcher is really disgusting, without any hope of getting it clean, just get a new one. I called my disposal company to make sure I got the right size. Yes, there are different sizes, so be careful which one you buy. The company directed me to their website, where I bought one online for under $5.00. I hate shopping, so this was a win-win for me. Inexpensive and convenient. If you’re like “But, Mellie, you’re such a neat-freak. Why did you need a new food catcher anyway?” Good question! Our food catcher is made of rubber, and it had started to warp over time. It was no longer fitting properly. It was time to ditch it and get a nice, new, pretty one.

04. Coat your disposal with the Soft Scrub. I pour the Soft Scrub around the perimeter, and it slides down to coat the entire disposal. Let it sit for a minute.

05. Next, you want to start scrubbing with your scrub brush! Scrub as much of the disposal as you can. If you’ve never done this before, it will be funky and nasty. Just hang in there. I like to use a sponge or something soft, to go around the perimeter, but not too far down! I don’t want to get anywhere near the blades!

06. Rinse out with hot water. You’re done!

I clean my disposal out once a week, and it stays nice and clean and de-funkified. If you can even work it into your (or your maid service’s) cleaning schedule once a month, your kitchen will thank you for no longer sporting the funky disposal smell.

Happy cleaning! (and de-funkifying!)

–Mellie