What Causes Kitchen Sink Smells?
Rotten food particles and organic matter are the main cause of smelly sink drains in the kitchen. Your garbage disposal blades may have accumulated food debris that have started to rot, and oils coating your pipes have now gone bad. These contribute to the bad smell coming from your kitchen sink drain.
Cleaning your kitchen sink is the best way to get rid of the smells. Sewer gas and a dirty garbage disposal can also cause a smelly sink, as can mold and bacteria that lingers in the drain pipes. Flooding the sink with hot water will help get rid of the source of these smells.
What You'll Need
- Baking soda
- White vinegar
- Ice cubes
- Rock salt or Coarse salt
- Dish soap
- Hot water or Boiling water - the hotter, the better
- Kitchen scrubber or Old sponge
How to Get Rid of Kitchen Sink Smells: A Step-by-Step Guide
Cleaning Your Sink Drain
Step 1: Pour Baking Soda and Vinegar Down the Drain
If you have a sink drain without a garbage disposal, then you can deodorize a stinky sink with baking soda and vinegar. Pour a cup or two of baking soda down the drain, followed by an equal amount of white vinegar. Refrain from using apple cider vinegar as it may stain light-colored sinks. Let the mixture bubble.
Step 2: Let it Sit
Let the mixture sit and form a chemical reaction for about 5 minutes. The bubbling should lift stains from your kitchen drain pipes, while baking soda deodorizes any kitchen sink smell. Vinegar would kill any pests and mold living in the drains that may be causing the grime and odor as well.
Step 3: Scrub the Sink
In the meantime, it is a good idea to scrub the kitchen sink with some dish soap to keep it clean, and remove any oily or greasy residue from the surface of the sink. Be sure to scrub around the sink drain where mold may accumulate, and scrub the faucet clean as well. An old kitchen sponge works well in scrubbing the sink!
Step 4: Flood with Boiling Water
As the last step, flood the entire sink with boiling water to clear out any food particles, melt any oils, and remove any sink drain smells. This will keep your sink smelling fresh, and unclog a slow-draining sink as well. Let the sink cool off before using to allow the smells to dissipate.
Cleaning Your Garbage Disposal
Step 1: Add Ice Cubes and Salt
Add a few ice cubes and ample amounts of kosher salt, or coarse salt into your garbage disposal. Ice cubes crunch through the blades of your garbage disposal, clearing the food debris that may be on the blades causing the smell. Salt acts as an abrasive scrubber that scrubs out food particles from the blades and the pipe walls.
You may also add citrus or lemon peels, baking soda, or vinegar down the garbage disposal for added freshness, but this step is optional. The citrus peels should provide a fresh scent, while baking soda deodorizes the drain.
Step 2: Run the Garbage Disposal
Allow the garbage disposal to crush the ice cubes as the blades slice through the ice and salt mix. You may hear the motor struggling to crush the ice, but this should not negatively affect your garbage disposal as long as it is functioning well.
Step 3: Pour Hot Water
Immediately follow suit with hot water. This will melt the ice, and flood out any stagnant water causing sewer gas in your drains. A continuous flow of hot tap water works well for this as you need the hot water to slowly melt the ice to avoid damaging your garbage disposal motor and blades.
Step 4: Rinse the Sink Drain
Let the hot water run as the garbage disposal crushes the ice. You may notice your sink baking up with dirty water - this is normal as the disposal dislodges food waste from its blades. Allow the dirty water to drain, then rinse your entire kitchen sink to clean it. This should make your sink smell fresh!
How to Keep Your Kitchen Odor-Free
Kitchens deal with a lot of food and organic matter, which can rot and give off bad smells. Kitchen scraps, fruit and vegetable peels, and other food particles can also serve as food for microorganisms like mold and bacteria that cause musty odors, so cleaning your kitchen will help get rid of the sources of these bad smells.
- Clean your drains weekly to remove sink odors, and clear out the stagnant water that is causing those sewer smells.
- A lemon juice and salt scrub on your sink and kitchen counters does wonders to clear out mold, and provide a fresh scent to your kitchen.
- Toss out kitchen scraps daily, and keep them in a covered trash bin to prevent the smells from escaping.
- Clean spills as they happen, long before the oils and particles from rotting.
- Change your kitchen sponge frequently before they start to smell, particularly if the sponge is used often without having a chance to dry.
Kitchen Cleaning Made Easy
Luce Home provides an easy fix for your cleaning needs! Our house cleaning services include cleaning and sanitizing your kitchen as well as the rest of your home, so you can be confident preparing food in a pristine kitchen! You can be assured that we'll get those nasty sink smells out of your home once and for all.
Contact us today, and let's discuss what we can do to bring the cleanliness back into your home.
