Garbage Disposal Smells - Home Remedies With Natural Ingredients You Can Use

Have you ever gone over near your sink and though, "my garbage disposal smells." I know I have.


What happens is that your garbage disposal, which is meant to grind up food before flushing it down the drain, can get some food stuck to its blades and over time that old food begins to stink.

Fortunately, there are lots of ways to freshen up this useful kitchen appliance to keep it from developing unpleasant odors, and unlike many cleaning tasks it takes only a second of your time with ingredients which are most likely already readily available in your home right now.

Below I've collected several tips and home remedies for getting rid of these odors, including a couple of video tips.

However, there are a lot of ways to do this, and if you use another method that I haven't listed I would love to hear your tip. You can share your smelly garbage disposal remedies here, and I'll add the best tips to the page.

I hope these tips help you, and you never have to think "my garbage disposal smells" ever again!


Top photo by Hey Paul

How To Clean Garbage Disposal With Rock Salt, Ice And Lemon Peels

Below is a video showing how to clean a garbage disposal on a routine basis.

In addition, it gives some tips if your drain and garbage disposal gets clogged.

My focus here, however, is just to focus on routine maintenance and cleaning.

Every couple of weeks you should clean your disposal just to make sure it doesn't get clogged, and also to make sure you deodorize it.

To do this you can put 2 cups of ice down your drain with the garbage disposal, and then 1 cup of rock salt.

Next, run the water for a couple of seconds and then turn on the disposal until it thoroughly grinds up the ice and salt.

(You should never run your garbage disposal without first turning on the water.)

After turning off the disposal continue to run the water for a couple more seconds to flush everything down the drain.

This method works by manually removing food and other debris from the garbage disposal blades as it grinds the ice and salt up.

In addition, for deodorizing you can grind up lemon peels (or any other citrus fruit peels) in the disposal.

Watch the video for full details:

You can submit your own tip for the uses of salt in your home here, or read additional tips already submitted.

Photo by Andrew.Beebe, Flickr CC

I Grind Up Used Coffee Grounds

by Anne-Marie

I have a reusable coffee filter. The grounds go down the disposal.

It freshens and sharpens my blades while I clean my filter.

Photo courtesy of How can I recycle this

Freezing Lemon Peels To Freshen My Garbage Disposal

by Patty

Patty has shared her tip for how she deals with garbage disposal smells in her home, and keeps them from becoming overpowering.

Patty says:

I love to put lemon peels down the garbage disposal every week or so, for the wonderful smell it releases, and to keep the disposal fresh.

When I use a recipe that uses lemons, or I squeeze a bunch of lemons for making a cleaning recipe, I save the peels in the freezer in a bag.

Then I always have some ready to throw down the disposal if I notice it needs to be freshened up!

Taylor says:

Thanks Patty for your tip for how you deal with garbage disposal smells.

Does anyone else have any other tips for dealing with a stinky garbage disposal? You can share your smelly garbage disposal remedies here.

Photo by Robynlou8

Use For Borax - To Clean Garbage Disposal

You can use borax to clean your garbage disposal.

All you need to do is add three tablespoons of borax down the drain and wait one hour.

After an hour turn on your sink's hot water, and the disposal, and flush the borax, old food, bacteria, and odors down the drain.

Borax Cleaning Powder {Referral Links}

You can also submit your own borax uses around the home here, or read tips already submitted.

Don't Forget To Clean The Ring Around The Drain Where It Get Gunky Even Underneath

Several readers actually shared similar tips with me about how to not miss a big source of the stink in your garbage disposer -- around the rubber ring around the drain of the sink.

Gunk tends to accumulate there, and while these methods are designed to get it off, sometimes manually just removing it works best.

You don't have to stick your hand down in the drain with the sharp blades though -- in fact, that's not recommended.

Instead, use a cheap toilet brush you purchase just for this purpose. (Don't stick a nasty toilet brush you use in your toilet down your drain -- ewww!)

In the alternative, you can also use an old toothbrush for this task.

Here's what several readers had to say:

Heather says:

I pull the cover out (that soft plastic/rubber collar that keeps stuff from spitting up at you when the disposal runs) and run it through the dishwasher.

The first time I did that it almost made me sick. Ick!

Now I have a long handled scrub brush and I actually scrub the inside of the garbage disposal regularly.

Amy says:

Not sure where I got this tip, but I truly love it. A long time ago I purchased a toilet brush exclusively for the kitchen.

On Monday's when I detail the kitchen I use it to scrub inside the garbage disposal drain. Things get pretty disgusting in there and can smell if not cleaned regularly.

It's good to run a lemon rind or something like that through the actual disposal but the drain area needs to be cleaned as well.

Be sure to also check out these additional toothbrush uses around your home for cleaning and stain removal!



Photo courtesy of Hey Paul

Clean Your Garbage Disposer With Frozen Vinegar Cubes

One of the best ways to loosen food particles that are stuck on your garbage disposer is to run ice down the disposer regularly.

In addition, vinegar is a good thing to run down your disposer to help deodorize.

Therefore, why not kill two birds with one stone and freeze some ice cubes of white vinegar and throw a couple down your disposer every week?

That is a great way to keep your garbage disposer clean and deodorized at the same time, so you can get rid of garbage disposal smells.

Just make sure you don't get these vinegar cubes mixed up with your ice or you or your family member or friend will get a very interesting tasting drink! ;)

You can submit your own uses for vinegar around your home here, or read even more tips and ideas already submitted.

In addition, as you can see there are lots of home remedies for getting rid of garbage disposal smells. Do you use one that hasn't been mentioned yet? If so, you can share your tips for here.

Related Pages You May Enjoy

100s Of Homemade Cleaners Recipes

House Cleaning Tips & Tricks For Busy Moms

Uses For Salt In Your Home

Borax Powder Uses For Stain Removal, Laundry And Cleaning

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