Loose Change

Where do you find loose change in your house? On the floor . . . in the bathroom . . . in the closet . . . in your child’s piggy bank (I promise I won’t tell on you) . . . how about the garbage disposal?

I have a confession to make . . . I have this issue you see . . . a bit of a problem you could say . . . I am a disaster with garbage disposals.

OK, before we start with any troubleshooting, I want you to promise me that you will please obey the cardinal rule of "Garbage Disposal Repair". That is you will never put your hand in the hopper (down the drain into the disposal)! Do I listen to this cardinal rule, brah hah ha! Down the drain my hand goes to see what mischief is down my disposal.

That being said, let's take a look at fixing this vital piece of kitchen equipment in my kitchen that I consistently try to destroy. A couple of days before Thanksgiving I went to turn the disposal on and ‘click, click, click’ nothing. No purr of the motor . . . no grinding of food. My husband was sitting there and gave me ‘the look’, which I knew, meant, you are in BIG trouble. After a good lecture, which I completely ignored . . .

ME: “You need to fix it, I’m going to be cooking for two days straight and you need to fix it”
DH: “I am NOT fixing it”
ME: “If you don’t fix it, I’m calling the plumber”
DH: "I'm not fixing it"
ME: "You are"

The next day DH came home early from work and went straight to the sink and started to bang around. I was upstairs and I heard:

“Hey Honey” in a very stern, commanding voice . . . I simply ignored him and kept on with my task because I knew that he had figured out what the problem was with the disposal

When I came down a bit later, he pointed to the counter and said nothing (he was still steaming mad at me). You see, I have this little problem when my husband yells and shouts or is really mad at me . . . I giggle and I.Can't.Stop. Which really makes the situation worse . . . well, for him, I just keep giggling. hee hee hee hee

This is what he was pointing to. The mangled dime that was wedged in between the blades. There is a normal dime sitting next to "my" dime to show you what a dime should look like.

ME: “Well, I didn’t put it down there”
DH: “Well, you aren’t watching what is going down there either”
DH: “I’m getting real sick of this, every year or so you are breaking these disposals”
DH: “This is the last one, I’m telling you, I will not install another one”
DH: “Do you hear me?”
ME: “Yes, I hear you and I didn’t do it, but thanks for fixing it and saving yourself $200 bucks and 6 hours of misery”

And. Off. I Walked.

Yesterday, while cleaning up after dinner, I flip the switch of my disposal and I hear not the smooth purr of the disposal, but a clankety, clank clank.

DH: “Oh, Hell NO, what did you put down there NOW?”
ME: “Nothing, it’s nothing.”
DH: “Get out of the way”, tongs in hand . . . he digs out . . . a mangled medicine dispenser
ME: “I DID NOT put that down there, it was sitting in the sink, but I didn’t do it – it was you . . . when you washed your hands, you let it slide down there”
DH: "RRROOOOAAARRRR"

Let me tell you, I heard it for a full 15 minutes on this damn garbage disposal. I don’t think I’m going to use it for awhile now. Or at least I am going to try remember to put the lid on or is in in?

Avoid the Following:

* Do not grind up potato peelings. They will form a starchy paste similar to mashed potatoes when ground up and will surely clog your drain.
*Do not put coffee grounds or eggshells into your disposal. They create very tiny granular waste that will stick to any sludge in the pipe and quickly create a clog.
*Do not put bones down your disposal.

Do the Following:

* Maintain your disposal by regularly grinding up pieces of lemon peel and ice cubes.
* Avoid odors by also treating your disposal every month with a combination of a couple of handfuls of baking soda and a half cup of vinegar. Let that set in the disposal hopper with the unit turned off.
*After it's done foaming, rinse it down the drain with running water.
*Freshen your garbage disposal with a bit of baking soda and dishwashing detergent. Just sprinkle a bit of the soda and couple of squirts of detergent into the disposal and using a bottle brush, scrub vigorously. Flush with clean water.