Your kitchen sink drains collect all of the organic waste produced during food prep, which can turn into a breeding ground for offensive-smelling bacteria. Luckily, there are natural solutions to clean and deodorize them quickly.
When you’re suffering from bad kitchen odors, you may want to consider having drain cleaning done by a professional. If you live in Chicago or surrounding areas, click here for plumbing professionals to get the job done.
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Boiling water and soap
Boiling water can be one of the easiest and most efficient ways to rid drains of their unpleasant aroma. After pouring a boiling pot of water down the drain, give it a few minutes—this may dislodge small clogs or, at the very least, wash away food residue that contributes to its foul smell.
Fruits with citrus, such as oranges and lemons, can also help deodorize kitchen drains. Peel pieces off and drop them down the drain or garbage disposal for instantaneous refreshment.
Another way of keeping the sink drain odor-free is regularly running your garbage disposal cycle or using a plastic drain stick with bendy bristles to clear away trapped hair or food debris from inside it.
Baking soda and vinegar
Pour vinegar and baking soda down the drain of your sink if it’s extremely clogged. The vinegar’s acetic acid will aid in clearing the muck and unpleasant odors.
After pouring the baking soda and vinegar solution down the drain, wait until the bubbling has stopped before flushing hot water through to clear your pipes. This method also works great on garbage disposal drains that tend to collect soap scum and food waste.
Baking soda and vinegar react chemically, producing carbon dioxide bubbles that help clean a stinky drain and break up congealed grease that could be blocking it or creating foul smells. Although both baking soda and vinegar possess powerful cleaning abilities when used individually, their fizzing action combines to form an efficient yet safe cleaning solution.
Baking soda dissolves grease while distilled white vinegar breaks down minerals without staining surfaces with its fizzing action, creating an effective and safe cleaning solution.
It helps to also sprinkle one tablespoon of baking soda down your drain once every week to eliminate odors and maintain fresh kitchen pipes.
Ice cubes and coarse salt
Kitchen sink drains are notoriously bad at producing unpleasant aromas. A build-up of hair, soap residue, and food debris produces a foul odor reminiscent of rotten eggs or sewer gas.
When soap and hot water fail to do the trick, why not try an unconventional approach using ice cubes and coarse table salt instead?
Put a cup of ice cubes and a cup of coarse salt into your drain, then run the cold water for 30 seconds after you turn on the garbage disposal. This should loosen up any clogged debris, eliminating odor in the process.
The abrasive action from this combination helps to scrape residue from dried food out of your pipes while dislodging hair or grime that has accumulated, leaving your drain smelling fresh and clean. Once a month should do the trick to prevent bad odor from returning.
Borax and ice
Borax (sodium tetraborate decahydrate) combined with ice is an ideal combination for cleaning kitchen drains quickly and odorously. Solid solubility increases with temperature, while the crystals help dissolve borax more effectively.
To use this DIY hack, add one cup of ice cubes and one cup of borax to the sink drain, turn on your garbage disposal, and run cold water through both. As the ice thaws and dissolves, borax will attack any foul-smelling build-up in the drain and garbage disposal. Once everything has dissipated completely, rinse your system out using cold water to flush.
