Best Practices to Keep Your Kitchen Sink Maintained

It’s easy to assume that the dirtiest place in your home would be your toilet. But actually, that isn’t true.

The place in your house with the most bacteria is actually the kitchen sink. A study found that kitchen sinks contain bacteria like E.coli and salmonella. Cleaning sinks is a big part of kitchen sink maintenance, especially when you realize that this bacteria accumulates and there’s old food sitting in your drains and pipes just waiting to form a clog.

Here’s what you can do to keep your kitchen sink clean and maintained in Riverview, Brandon, Valrico, and other nearby Florida areas.

Keeping Your Kitchen Sink Clean

Using abrasive chemicals that are often found in cleaners can lead to damage to your kitchen sink’s finish. A great alternative is to use baking soda and vinegar. Sprinkle a layer of baking soda on the bottom of the sink and let it form into a paste-like consistency. Make sure to then rinse it out completely, then lay down white vinegar-soaked paper towels for about 20 minutes. It acts as a disinfectant and also helps to break down grease. After this, rinse the sink out with warm, soapy water.

You can also use baking soda and vinegar to clean out your drains and pipes. Doing this helps to ensure that your drains and pipes won’t get clogged and start smelling.

Things You Should Never Pour Into Your Sink

One of the quickest ways to plug up your pipes is by pouring grease down the drain. It will quickly build up and leave you with a backed-up sink, which is something no one wants to deal with. Your kitchen sink is one of the most heavily used items in your home, and to have it out of commission is very inconvenient. Other items that can contribute to clogs include pieces of fat that were trimmed from meat and coffee grounds.

You can also purchase screens that go over your drains to prevent large pieces of food from falling down into the pipes and creating worse clogs.

Other Tips Include Teaching Children about Drains & Starting a Compost Pile

A great way to help reduce usage of your sink drain and garbage disposal is to consider starting a compost pile. Food items can decompose and be used as compost in your lawn and landscaping, cutting down on items going down your drain and benefiting the environment at the same time.

Also, teach children about what should and should not go down your sink drains. They may not know that it’s not okay to pour a bunch of food down the drain or how that affects your kitchen plumbing. Toys should never go down a drain.

If you have kitchen sink issues, we at Curtis Plumbing can help fix them!

At Curtis Plumbing, we fix clogged kitchen sinks all across the areas of Riverview, Brandon, Valrico, and other surrounding communities in Florida. Give us a call at (813) 672-4111 and we can set up a time to come out and fix your kitchen sink!