This Mouthwash Trick Can Fix Your Smelly Kitchen Drain

A smelly kitchen drain is the worst. Whether your kitchen sink wreaks of essence of sulfur and rotting food, nauseating you (and not in a good way) while you are washing dishes, or there lingers smells of meals of past weeks — you know, the ones you decided to try after watching Ina Garten or Rachael Ray make their masterpieces — a stinky sink is not a very appetizing problem to have. Why does it happen in the first place? After all, you scrub and clean your sink on a regular basis. No smelly sink shaming here.

According to Home Serve Living, there are a couple of reasons why your drain starts to smell like last week's dinner. The first has to do with what you put down your drain. After a while, the bits of food scraps that you put down your garbage disposal start to cling to the walls of your pipes, causing bacteria to grow — bacteria that can cause that kind of smell you wished you'd never experienced. The second reason is a possible leak that is allowing sewer gases to make their way up, causing an incredibly unpleasant stench. What can you do to get rid of the odor?  

The Kitchn shares that there is a hack that will fix your smelly drain, and surprisingly, or maybe not so, it is the same hack you use to fix your morning dragon's breath before you head off for your work day. Yep, mouthwash can be a real life-saver and problem-solver when your sink is brimming with smells of garlic, onions, or other odors. If you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. You use mouthwash to kill the bacteria that causes your breath to smell — bacteria created by the food you consume. So, pouring a capful of mouthwash down your drain to kill the bacteria from food build-up is pure genius. 

The blog Mom 4 Real that shares using mouthwash to clean your stinky kitchen sink is a simple process — no gargling required. Once you pour the mouthwash down the drain, wait 30 minutes so the bacteria-killing agents can do their thing. Once your 30 minutes are up, turn on the hot water and rinse. Your sink will smell fresh as a daisy with this hack, and no one will hold their nose the next time they are in your kitchen.