Garbage Disposal Maintenance

You almost never think about your garbage disposal. You wash bit of food off the dish you were washing and down into the drain to be grinded up. After that, you don't worry about your garbage disposal again until its time to start over. However, failing to do the proper maintenance can be a costly and smelly mistake. Here are the top maintenance habits you should have for your garbage disposal:

Run!
Run your garbage disposal often, even f you're not disposing of anything. This prevents rust and buildup.

Clean the blades
Pour some dish soup and let it run for a minute.

Back to the grind
food materials such as chicken and fish bones, egg shells, and fruit pits are not only ok but good for the garbage disposal. They scrape and clean material off of the blades and the walls.

Not the whole enchilada
Big items should be cut into smaller bits so they don't overwhelm the disposal.

Refrigerator Tips (part 2)

6. Clean your Coils
The condenser coils at the back of the fridge are important to keeping your food cold. Make sure that there isn't any built up dust around them! Check your coils at least a couple times a year.

7. Frosty - no man!

If the frost in your freezer is 1/4 inch thick, its time to do something about it because your freezer is working waaay harder than it needs to. Thaw out your freezer and get that frost out for a nice reset button!

8. Put a lid on it!

Don't put containers of liquid in the fridge without a lid. The moisture will get in the air of the fridge and will make the compressor work harder than it has to, and not to mention frost and/or condensation.

9. A clean fridge is a happy fridge!

The last tip is another no brainer, clean your fridge! Build up in the fridge can cause your fridge to work harder than it has to, and it can cause problems for other food products as well.

Refrigerator Tips (part 1)

1. We have the meats!
Store seafood, chicken, and all other meats on a bottom shelf. This prevents their juices from dripping down onto your other food.

2. Overload!
Don't overload your fridge. The air in fridges must circulate, and if it can't do that, food wont be properly cooled.

3. Chill
Try letting food naturally cool before you put it in the fridge. Putting in hot food just means your fridge has to do double duty to get it cooled!

4. We are closed.
An obvious tip is to keep the doors shut as often as possible. Keeping the doors open for a half hour while you're trying to figure out what to eat lets all of the cool air out and your fridge will have to start over with cooling it.

5. Smell ya later!
To combat odors, fill a clean old sock with activated charcoal. Activated charcoal absorbs smells and prevents them from spreading. Its used in fish tanks to filter the water and keep the smell down. It can do the same for your fridge!