Summertime brings warm weather, outdoor fun, and a lot of family time. It also brings picnics, BBQs and a host of other summer foods that your kitchen is soon to be overwhelmed with!
With the kids home from school, it can be hard to keep up with all that’s going on around you or what’s going down the drain. However, proper drain and garbage disposal usage is essential to keeping your plumbing happy and in great working condition.
Before summer fully kicks into gear, here is a refresher on some of your favorite summer foods that should never go down your garbage disposal.
Your garbage disposal is a great tool that makes kitchen clean-up much easier! It is also one of the most widely improperly used appliances in the home. It is meant to grind up and carry away the extra scraps of food on your plate after dinner.
It’s important to remember that your garbage disposal is not a second garbage can.
With that said, let’s go through a few food items that should stay out of the sink.
Summertime is when everyone brings out their best salad recipes from pasta to fruit. Some of the ingredients in those salads should only be disposed of in the garbage can.
Pasta and rice are very absorbent and can cause clogs in your drain. The same goes for the leftover potato peels from your aunt’s famous potato salad!
Some other salad toppings to avoid going down the drain are:
One of the best parts of nice summer weather is grilling outdoors. Once you’ve finished feasting though, be sure to keep all animal bones, from chicken to fish, out of the disposal. Keeping poultry skin out is also recommended.
If you’re doing shish kebab night, keep the onion peels and skewers away, too.
Even if you follow all this advice perfectly, it’s still recommended that you regularly clean your garbage disposal. The grocery store shelves are stocked with many options of drain cleaning solutions that are convenient to grab and go. However, many of these products contain harsh chemicals which can over time damage your pipes.
To safely clean your disposal, you’ll need baking soda, white vinegar, ice, and salt.
Fill the disposal with ice and sprinkle some salt over top. Turn the water on and run the disposal to grind up the ice.
Next, pour a very generous amount of baking soda into the drain, followed by a half cup of white vinegar. Allow this to sit for a few minutes while it fizzes and cleans. Finally, run the hot water to flush everything away down the pipe!
If you’re experiencing a garbage disposal problem or have questions about best practices, give Universal Home Experts a call at (713) 364-0226! You can also check out our services online!
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