Funky Drains and Ballpoint stains

Here are two short and sweet household tips which have alleviated great sadness in my land. Perhaps you already knew of them. But if you didn't, behold your salvation!

Dilemma 1. Omigosh the smell! The smell is going to kill me! Nothing will make it stop! We must move.

When your kitchen sink/garbage disposal smells like something died in there...GAH eeeeeeuw you can pour every known drain cleaning agent known to man down there, (don't though, drain cleaner is not good for garbage disposals oh no, not good at all) or you can take apart the garbage disposal and clean it thoroughly... or you can get.

A cup of ice
A liberal amount of baking soda
A cup of white vinegar
A lemon (cut into quarters)

1. Pour in the liberal amount of baking soda (like half the box worth or more...when it comes to baking soda more is better. Unless you are actually using it to bake. You can let that sit for a while. I buy the giant boxes for just this sort of purpose. Baking soda and white vinegar. Together there is nothing they can't do. (except get out ballpoint pen stains but more on that later)

2.Make sure your kids are there to watch because when you add the vinegar to the baking soda it makes an awesome foamy science experiment.

3. Add the vinegar. Enjoy the bubbles. Ooohhhhhh coooool.

4. Let it sit for a bit, go check your email, come and comment on my blog. Come back. Add some more vinegar, watch for some more foaming. Let it sit, load your dishwasher, have a snack

5. Toss down the ice, and the lemon and flip that switch. Listen to the satisfying crunching sound, smell the yummy lemon as it is shredded down there.


There that should do it. If it didn't, repeat the process again. That should definitely do it.

Also a tip for the future which I learned from the great and mighty internet: garbage disposals get to smelling like death because people don't run the water long enough to flush them out after "disposing". If even a little tiny bit of something gets attached to the blades it is going to smell bad man..real bad. So don't be skimpy with running the water after you have crunched stuff up, it needs to thoroughly rinse (imagine if you washed your pots with a perfunctory little splash of water..that would get really gross really quickly and things can wrap around those blades easily) . It seems wasteful but combine it with rinsing some dishes or some other kind of water running necessity.

Thank you to Julie and Cyndi for leading me to the light through the shadow of the valley of deathly smells with this recipe.

Dilemma 2: Why Gracie! Why did you decide to "colour" a piece of paper with a ballpoint pen on your lap, while wearing your best Sunday dress? Why did you encourage your small brother in his one and only nice pair of Gymboree khaki shorts to do the same? Why don't you use the Crayola washable markers which litter your room in all their colourful and washable glory. Why Gracie? Why do you hurt me in this way?

Ball-point pen stains. Don't even bother with the Shout people. This is the one time the Shout can't do a thing for you. None of those stain removers can. Well maybe one of them can but none of the plethora that I have tried. That ballpoint pen is there to stay. Sad. UNLESS!

1. You have some hairspray. The cheaper the better.

2. Take a white paper cloth or towel and stick it under the stain (so that it does not bleed from one pant leg into the other, that would just be very annoying).

3. Then take your el Cheapo hairspray that you bought from Big Lots and spray that scribble into oblivion. You will see it get all runny. Blot, blot, blot and blot some more and then wash. Ball point pen all gone. It's a beautiful thing.

I keep a cheap can of hairspray in my stain fighting arsenal (but don't be putting it on top of your dryer because heat + aerosol= not a good idea.


Hey!! Pllllllllllllllllease come back tomorrow (Thursday) to participate in the silent auction for Stephanie and Christian Nielson. Visit Design mom for more details! It's going to be huge! And awesome!

I'm reading: Funky Drains and Ballpoint stainsTweet this!