Cleaning your kitchen bins/ trash cans is a household chore that’s easily overlooked, but those things get gross fast! Every time I go to deep clean our kitchen bin, I’m amazed at how much food debris and liquid can sneak past the liner to settle at the bottom of our kitchen bins!
A lingering smell is an obvious sign that it’s time to clean your bin, but you should be thoroughly cleaning your kitchen bins/ trash cans, no less than one per month. Check out how grimy it is each time you change the liner, to assess when it needs a deep clean – for us, I find it’s typically about every 3 weeks.
STEP 1: Grab Your Gloves
Grab your rubber gloves: Cleaning your bins or trash cans can be a nasty business, so make sure you protect your hands with some rubber gloves!
STEP 2: Empty The Bin
Empty your bin/ trash can and remove any lingering food debris from the bottom of the can. The goal here is to get rid of all the major gunk and crustiness you can see outright.
STEP 3: Wash Out The Bin
If you have access to a hose, take your bin outside and hose it down. If you don’t have outdoor space (or as is often the case for me – it’s pouring rain and you can’t wait for it to stop to do your cleaning), you can also do this in your bathtub. Pat dry with paper towels.
STEP 4: Spray With Disinfectant
Using the disinfectant cleaner of your choice, liberally spray down the inside and outside of the bin. Don’t forget the top and bottom of the bin and the lid!
STEP 5: Scrub-A-Dub
Take a clean toilet brush or other long-handled nylon bristle brush and scrub the bin thoroughly. I got a cheap Bolmen toilet brush at IKEA that I reserve just for this purpose. After scrubbing, let the cleaner sit for 5 minutes.
STEP 6: Rinse & Dry
Rinse your bin thoroughly with your hose or in the bathtub. Dry with paper towels, or let air dry in the sun. You’ve now finished deep cleaning your kitchen bin!
STEP 7: Keep The Smell Away
I’ve always lined the bottom of our bin with an old newspaper as it means that when you need to clean it, you simply remove the newspaper and any debris it caught and it’s much quicker to clean. However, I also came across some great tips for stopping your bin from smelling, particularly in the summer months like the suggestion from Good Housekeeping to keep the smell away with cat litter.
We don’t have a cat and I don’t want to buy kitty litter just for this but I love this idea to make a kitchen bin freshener with Unstopables from Mommy Savers. Simply put a teaspoon of Unstopables into a snack-sized plastic ziplock bag and use a sewing pin to poke small holes in it. Place the bag at the bottom of your kitchen bin (underneath the liner) and wave goodbye to funky smelling bins!
So that’s how to deep clean your kitchen bin and prevent lingering odors! Do you have any helpful hints for keeping your bins clean? Let me know in the comments below!
