How To Clean Your Garbage Disposal With Coffee Grounds

When it seems like my garbage disposal could use a little freshening up, I usually reach right for my vinegar and lemon cubes. They’re effective, inexpensive, and don’t contain any harmful ingredients. Win-win-win! But I try to never pass up a good opportunity to reuse something, so when I came across the idea to use coffee grounds to deodorize your garbage disposal, I was immediately on board! We don’t have any coffee drinkers at my house, but I figure that most of you probably do, so I decided it needed to be shared. :-)

It may be surprising to hear that coffee, just like baking soda, can be used as a deodorizer, but it’s true! In fact, coffee beans are widely used as a way to “reset” someone’s sense of smell when they’re smelling several different things, like perfumes or wines. Coffee can also help neutralize odors, which makes ground coffee a great thing to have on hand around the house if your garbage disposal starts to smell unpleasant. And you don’t even have to waste your good, fresh ground coffee; you can use your used grounds, too! Here’s how to make these easy coffee grounds cleaning tabs.

Garbage Disposal Cleaning Tabs

Ingredients:

1 cup coffee grounds (fresh or used*)
3/4 cup Epsom salt
1/2 cup baking soda
3 Tbsp white vinegar

*To make your tabs out of used grounds, spread them out onto a plate and allow them to dry thoroughly first.

Directions:

Combine the coffee grounds, Epsom salt, and baking soda in a mixing bowl and stir to combine.

Slowly add the vinegar to the mixture in the bowl. The vinegar will start reacting with the baking soda, so it will fizz up a bit, but it will subside quickly.

Stir the ingredients until the mixture starts to clump together. You want the mixture to be damp enough that you can form a ball. If it seems too dry, add more vinegar in 1/2 teaspoon increments until it’s damp enough.

Pack the mixture into a melon baller or a small scoop. Then pop the formed tabs out, and lay them out onto a piece of parchment paper.

Place the tabs and paper onto a baking sheet, and put it in your freezer. Once the tabs are frozen, transfer them to a freezer safe bag or jar.

Using Your Garbage Disposal Cleaning Tabs

When your garbage disposal seems like it could use some cleaning or freshening up, simply drop one or two of your frozen tablets into your running garbage disposal. Rinse with cold water.

To pack an extra deodorizing punch, do the same thing but rinse with a cup of vinegar, rather than water.