Garbage Disposal Cubes: Naturally Deodorizes and Cleans

This week's tutorial is for an all-natural and easy solution to smelly garbage disposals. These cubes use citrus peel, baking soda, borax, salt and water to not only deodorize but clean your garbage disposal. The citrus works in two ways: The oil from the peel leaves a wonderful, fresh fragrance, and the acid helps eliminate odor-causing bacteria. The baking soda deodorizes the disposal and also works as an abrasive cleaner along with the borax and salt to get rid of grime and build up. They're not only easy to make but easy to use: Just toss one in with some running water, turn on the disposal and voila- A clean and deodorized garbage disposal!

I always feel so wasteful when I throw away the citrus skins after juicing them. It takes a lot of lemons or oranges to get just a little juice! I knew there had to be a use for the unused portions, and this is a great way to put the leftovers to use! Each time you juice a lemon, lime or orange, put the peels in a zip-top bag and store them in the freezer. When you've saved up enough, just thaw them out and they're ready to be made into Garbage Disposal Cubes.

Note: I used limes because they were on super sale when I bought them, but you can use limes, oranges or lemons, or a combination of the three. It's totally up to you. However, since the fruits vary in size, you'll need to adjust the amount of peels needed depending on what fruit you use. Before measuring, cut the peels into about 3 inch pieces.

Makes about 18 cubes

Ingredients

• 2 cups juiced citrus skins and peels ( about 6 limes OR 3 lemons OR 2-3 oranges) -do not use the juice
• about 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup baking soda
• 1/4 cup Borax
• 1/4 cup any type coarse salt (I used epsom)

Method

Use a food processor to combine citrus peels with enough water to make a wet paste, about 1/2 a cup.


The moisture should be wet but not runny

Stir in the baking soda, Borax and salt.

As soon as I added the baking soda, Borax and salt, the mixture turned neon yellow!

Spoon the mixture into ice cube trays and press down lightly to pack each cube. Transfer trays to freezer.  Once the cubes are totally frozen (several hours), pop them out of the ice cube trays and store in the freezer in a zip-top bag.



Please forgive the poor photos, my condo has terrible lighting!

 

To deodorize and maintain daily or after each use, turn on cleared garbage disposal and add one or two cubes with running hot water.

To deep clean or for very heavy odors, add three or four cubes to garbage disposal with 1/2 cup water. Turn disposal on and off very briefly. Let sit for 1/2 hour, then turn on disposal with running hot water to clear.