How to clean a garbage disposal to kill bacteria and eliminate stink

• To clean your garbage disposal, add baking soda and vinegar in the disposal, let the mixture sit for 10 minutes, and then flush with hot water.
• To naturally deodorize your disposal, grind up thinly sliced citrus peels.
• Tougher buildup or odors may require combining or repeating methods for best results.

While garbage disposals can make food scraps an out-of-sight, out-of-mind part of your kitchen sink, that doesn't mean you can forget about your disposal during your kitchen cleaning routine. A place that's regularly damp or wet with a variety of foods being flushed down it, garbage disposals are prime spots for bacteria growth, which is smelly at best and a health risk at worst.

Once a month is a good baseline for how often to clean your garbage disposal, but heavy usage calls for more frequent cleaning. Brandon Pleshek, the third-generation janitor and self-described certified clean freak behind Clean That Up, says at the least, "If it's starting to stink, then it's probably time to clean your sink."

Important: If you need to reach into your disposal for cleaning or unclogging, cut the power first. Then use a long implement to reach inside - never use your fingers.

What you need

• Kitchen sponge
• Dish soap
• Sink stopper
• Rubber gloves (optional)
• 1 cup baking soda
• 1-2 cups vinegar
• 1-2 cups ice
• ¼ cup coarse salt
• Citrus peels (optional)

How to clean a garbage disposal

1. Turn off the power. To find your garbage disposal's power source, look underneath your sink for the power cord coming from the unit. Follow the cord to its source, which usually ends at an outlet box, and unplug it.
2. Clean the rubber splash guard. Most garbage disposals have a removable gasket - the rubber seal that covers your drain. Take the gasket out and let it soak in vinegar while you clean your disposal. If your gasket isn't removable, carefully use a kitchen sponge or long-handled brush,to scrub down the flaps of the seal.
3. Unclog the chamber of any visible debris. For any food products that may be causing a clog, use tongs or pliers - never your fingers - to remove the debris. When you've completed this step, plug in the disposal.
4. Grind ice and coarse salt. Fill your garbage disposal with ice and then a quarter cup of salt. With water running, turn on the garbage disposal. Pleshek recommends this optional step because "the ice and salt help break down that first layer of dirt and grime." Continue to run the water until the ice finishes grinding.
5. Pour baking soda and vinegar into the disposal. How much vinegar and baking soda you need depends on the size of your sink, but most sinks, according to Pleshek, only need one cup of baking soda and two cups of vinegar. The exact ratio is less important than making sure the baking soda and vinegar react. You'll know the mixture is reacting properly when it bubbles or fizzes.As the baking soda and vinegar breaks down bacteria and grime, allow the mixture to sit for five to 10 minutes. If there's still baking soda after the first reaction, Pleshek encourages adding another cup of vinegar: "Get the reaction again, so you don't just rinse it and waste it."
6. Flush with hot water. Plug your sink with a stopper and fill it half to three-quarters of the way with warm water. Then pull out the stopper and start your garbage disposal to create a vortex in the draining water.
7. Grind up citrus peels. For a bonus cleaning and deodorizing touch, grind up the peels of citrus fruits like lemons or limes in your garbage disposal with the water running. The acidity of citrus both cleans and deodorizes, while also giving your disposal a fresh scent. Make sure to use only thinly sliced peels, as too many or too-large pieces can get stuck or clogged and damage your disposal.

Quick tip: For extra cleaning power, Pleshek suggests using cleaning vinegar. More acidic than regular vinegar, cleaning vinegar is stronger, faster, and more effective. However, regular white distilled vinegar will still get the job done.

Maintaining a garbage disposal

To maintain your garbage disposal between deeper cleans, you can flush it with soap and water. Start by plugging your sink with a stopper. Fill the sink about half to three-quarters of the way with warm water and add dish soap; then pull out the stopper and run the disposal to create a vortex as the water drains.

Make sure you're plugging and filling your sink instead of just running the faucet - this ensures that you're filling the entire chamber when you flush it.

Insider's takeaway

To thoroughly clean your garbage disposal, you need to both loosen up grime and kill bacteria. Several combinations of the above methods will cover both steps. Only the baking soda and vinegar method will take care of both at once - indeed, it's "a tried-and-true method that's been around forever," Pleshek says.

When it comes to a particularly tough job, patience is key. "If you've still got a little funk coming from the garbage disposal after doing the vinegar, it doesn't hurt to do it again," Pleshek says. "I've had to do that at some real nasty jobs that we've had, just let the vinegar do its thing and deodorize and take it off layer by layer."