Clogging of kitchen drain pipes and stained kitchen sinks are universal problems every home maker has to face. Food and beverage waste tends to build up eventually in the kitchen drains, clogging them frequently. This leads to leaks, overflowing and a foul odor emanating from your kitchen drains and sinks. If you face this issue frequently, here are easy home remedies to clean kitchen sinks and kitchen drain pipes.
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What Clogs the Kitchen Drains?
Most people tend to throw all their food waste down the kitchen drain. Food particles like tea leaves, spices, rice, quinoa and other such small-sized food items are easy to wash down the drain. But the drain pipes are narrow. Furthermore, when you try to wash down greasy food items containing butter, oil or cheese down the drain, the sticky food particles stick to the sides of the drain pipes and make the passage even more narrow. Eventually, the pipes are blocked with food waste build-up.
When such a blockage happens, food waste along with dirty water washes up reversely back through the drain and in the sink. Sometimes, the leaks start occurring at the junction of the drain pipe and sink, leaving a mess in your kitchens. It is disgusting to clean such a blockage containing stale food, decomposed food waste and foul-smelling dirty water.
What Causes Stains in your Kitchen Sinks?
While we use our kitchen sinks to wash our vegetables, fruits and meat, we often tend to forget to clean the sinks. The food and beverage particles left on the sink dry up and leave a dull-looking and stained sink surface. When you ignore these stains for long, they get tough to remove later. Some kitchen sinks also get stained due to hard water in places that get hard water in their taps.
How to Clean Kitchen Sinks?
The best way to clean kitchen sinks is by using baking soda and vinegar. These two are universal household supplies that are used to clean a lot of home surfaces. Here is how to clean kitchen sinks with vinegar and baking soda.
Materials:
- 2 tablespoons baking soda
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- Scouring pad
Instructions:
- Make a paste of vinegar and baking soda.
- Rub it generously all over your sink, including the drain hole.
- Take a scouring pad and scrub gently over the baking soda paste.
- Leave for 10 minutes.
- Wash with normal tap water.
- Ensure that you have rinsed every corner of the sink.
- You will find a sparkling sink beneath.
- Make is a habit to clean your sink this way every once or twice a week.
How to Clean Kitchen Drain Pipes?
The best way to clean kitchen drain pipes is by first pulling out the stuck debris using a drain plunger. Next, you need to pour hot water, followed by a mixture of vinegar and dishwashing liquid.
Materials:
- Drain/Sink Plunger
- Hot water
- Solution of vinegar and dishwashing liquid
Instructions:
- Fill up your kitchen sink half with water.
- Using a drain/sink plunger, pull out debris from the drain hole by applying pressure on the plunger. This tool will suck out all the stuck debris out into the sink. You might have to do this repeatedly until water starts flowing easily down the drain hole.
- Next, pour in some hot water down the drain to loosen any left-over food build-up.
- Now make a solution of vinegar and dishwashing liquid in water. Pour this water down the kitchen drain to cleanse the inner sides of the drain pipe.
- Pour fresh water from the tap again.
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This way, you can easily clean your kitchen sinks and drain pipes using household remedies. You can also buy some commercial products to clean your drain pipes, such as Drainex. This unique and powerful formulation easily unclogs drains and pipes within seconds. If you cannot clean your drain pipes with the above methods, you might have to call a plumber for professional help.