I decided the other day to clean our long-suffering garbage disposal drain.
That may or may not have been a decision made after becoming a bit stir-crazy during our ice-in. Or perhaps it was the sink’s slow draining while we had the taps running to prevent pipe freeze.
Anyway.
Several months ago I found a great tutorial online here and saved it on my Pinterest for a rainy – or icy day. Her site also has several other natural and inexpensive methods for cleaning your home.
Step One: Pour 1/2 cup baking soda into the drain.
Step Two: Pour 1 cup of vinegar down the drain. It will react with the baking soda, bubbling up. Let sit for a couple of minutes.
Step Three: Pour a cup (or so) of boiling water down the drain.
Step Four: Add 1/2 cup (or so) of ice chips.
Step Five: Turn on the garbage disposal to churn up the ice chips. Run some water to help them go down. (Please ignore my dirty sink – cleaning things has a funny way of making other things dirty in the process!)
Step Six: Add 1/2 cup of coarse or Kosher salt. Continue running the garbage disposal.
Step Seven: Grind a few slices of lemons to make everything smell nice. You may need to pull the peel out afterwards. Because I used thinly sliced lemons, mine was able to completely grind and go down the drain.
Step Eight: Scrub, scrub, scrub the inside of the drain with a long handled brush. Note: Make sure the disposal unit is turned off before you start scrubbing! I won’t horrify you with what you’ll scrub loose. It’s disgusting – that’s why it’s necessary. Make sure you scrub the rubber flaps and the rim of the drain.
Step Nine: Clean the sink and enjoy the fresh smelling everything!!
