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Recipe 34 of 100 · The Country Cleans Mix Book

How to Deodorize a Garbage Disposal With Ice and Citrus

Borax Sink Scrub

Stir 1/4 cup borax with 1/4 cup coarse kosher salt. Scrub the wet basin with half of it, then flip up the rubber splash guard and toothbrush its underside, where most drain smell lives. Rinse. Run cold water, start the disposal and feed in about 12 ice cubes, then a quartered lemon or orange. Switch off, sprinkle the rest down and flush with 1/2 gallon very hot tap water, not boiling. Never a hand in the disposal.

Sink and Garbage Disposal Deodorizing Scrub recipe card: 1/4 cup borax, 1/4 cup coarse kosher salt, About 12 ice cubes, 1 lemon or orange, quartered
What it fixesSour smell coming from the drain, gray film in a stainless or composite sink basin, and gunk on the disposal splash guard.

You need

Mix it

  1. Stir the borax and kosher salt together in a cup. That is the scrub.
  2. Keep the ice, the citrus quarters, and the hot water separate until their step.

Use it

  1. Wet the sink basin. Sprinkle half the borax and salt mix around the bowl and up the sides.
  2. Scrub the basin with the damp nylon sponge. The salt gives you grit, the borax handles the odor bacteria and softens the water film.
  3. Flip up the rubber disposal splash guard and scrub the underside with the toothbrush and the same mix. This flap is where 90% of drain smell actually lives, not the disposal itself.
  4. Rinse the basin.
  5. Turn on cold water, start the disposal, and feed in the ice cubes a few at a time. The ice scours the grind chamber walls.
  6. With the disposal still running, drop in the citrus quarters one at a time.
  7. Turn the disposal off, sprinkle the rest of the borax and salt down the drain, and slowly pour the hot water through to flush.
Dale's noteDo the splash guard first and the rest second. If you flush the drain and skip the flap, the smell is back in a day and you will swear the recipe failed.
Don'tRinse the basin twice before you prep food in it and keep the borax box away from kids and pets, since borax is genuinely harmful swallowed. Never put your hand into the disposal chamber, even with the switch off and even for a second. Use tongs. And do not pour boiling water down a disposal with PVC drain lines, since near boiling water can soften plastic joints and loosen the glue. Very hot tap water is enough.
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