The Food Scraps That Will Remove Odors From Your Garbage Disposal

After you are done cooking, eating, and cleaning up dinner, you just want the food odors to go away. But sometimes, the bad kitchen smells linger even if you take out the trash, wash the dishes, and light a candle. Often a harbor of those smells is the garbage disposal — a dark and murky place you don't really want to put your hand in for a deep clean (via Consumer Reports).

To help prevent the garbage disposal from ever getting stinky, it's important to be careful what you put in it. There are some things that you simply should not put in the garbage disposal. Cooking oil, grease and fat, and paint can all clog up the disposal and the pipes connected to it, per Build.com. Avoid putting banana peels, potato skins, pasta, rice, beans, and coffee grounds down the garbage disposal because they might get stuck. 

When food scraps are put in the garbage disposal, Build.com says not to let them sit there. Instead, process them quickly or they might lead to odors. However, there are some food scraps that will help your garbage disposal smell like nothing at all.

If you have a bad smell wafting up from your garbage disposal, there is no need to pour in lots of chemicals or buy a new one. Simply add peels from citrus fruits (oranges, lemons, and limes), to the garbage disposal and grind them up, per Southern Living. Out of all the citrus fruits, lemons work especially well to eliminate odors because the acid in their juice kills bacteria that can cause odors (via Advantage Pro Services). Once you turn on the disposal, eHow explains that you should run warm water down the drain to help break down the fruit peels. Not only will you get rid of the unwanted peels, but your kitchen will smell like fresh fruit.

Another advantage of using natural items like citrus fruit peels is that you are avoiding harsh cleaners, which can damage the garbage disposal over time, according to Disposal Answers. So, next time odors begin to invade your kitchen, look no further than your fruit bowl for a fresh and natural way to eliminate those pesky smells.