Cleaning the Kitchen Sinks Drain and Disposal
The kitchen sink drain and garbage disposal are loaded with germs, more than most bathrooms. They are brimming with hundreds of thousands of bacteria and pathogens like salmonella, campylobacter and E. coli.
And how often do you actually think about putting a brush inside the disposal to clean it. It’s one of those areas that don’t get the cleaning it needs.
This is a two step process. First we’ll clean the drain then sanitize it.
Cleaning the Inside of the Drain/Disposal
If you haven’t cleaned the inside of the drain and disposal before, chances are you’re going to see quite a bit of black gunk and stuff. And let me warn you, don’t take the brush out too fast or it will fling gunk on you.
To help stop bacteria I’ll typically clean and sanitize on a Sunday evening after all the dishes have been rinsed and put in the dishwasher.
I use a long handled scrub brush that I get at the dollar store for this step as it’s inexpensive and I can throw it away when I’m done and I’m not out much.
- Take your brush and put it in the disposal area and clean all around the sides, bottom and underside of the rubber splash guard.
- Carefully lift the brush out through the rubber splash guard (so it doesn’t flick dirty gunk on you) and tap it against the side of the sink to loosen the debris that’s stuck on the brush.
- Turn on the cold water and rinse all the debris down the drain and turn the disposal on.
- Repeat the above steps until the gunk is pretty much gone.
- Now I add a liquid cleanser to the brush and clean the sides, bottom and under the splash guard. You’ll probably want to repeat this step a couple of times.
When you’ve finished, rinse the sides of the sink and drain with cold water then turn on the disposal for a few seconds then you can move on to sanitizing.
Sanitizing the Drain and Disposal
Before plugging the drain make sure you have rinsed the sink. For this step you’ll be using a lot of hot water and liquid bleach.
- Plug the drain.
- Fill the sink, as much as you safely can without it sloshing out, with the hottest water you can. Remember to leave room for the bleach you’ll be adding.
- Add in 1/2 cups bleach for every gallon of water your sink holds. My sink holds about 9 1/2 gallons of water so I add in 5 cups bleach.
- Swish this around carefully with a utensil; don’t use your hand as the water is Hot! Let this sit in the sink for 5 minutes then let the water drain. The water may still be too hot to put your hand in so use a pair of tongs to unstop the drain.
- Don’t rinse the drain after this; let it sit overnight before turning the water on.
Now that you have cleaned and sanitized the kitchen sink drain and disposal, you've also made it smell better.
from Mrs. Clean's House Cleaning Tips http://ift.tt/2ajGqKT The Dirty Truth about the Kitchen Sink Garbage Disposal and DrainHouse Cleaning Tips
