Unclogging My Garbage Disposal

I have a garbage disposal under my kitchen sink. I never had one growing up so this contraption was new to me and I was excited to use it. They have been around for years, it’s just that my childhood home didn’t have one. They are easy to use; I just put food down the hole, turn the water on and flip the light switch up for a few seconds and the food is gone. Chewed up and grinned down to nothing. Since using the garbage disposal, I have come to notice that my regular kitchen garbage can isn’t as stinky and doesn’t fill as fast.

My children eat dinner but they often don’t finish their entire plate of food. I usually have them scrap their plates into the garbage but when they forget to scrap their plates or when they don’t get all the food off, I don’t mind because the disposal will take care of the left over food. I never let them turn on the disposal, I always do it. I think the noise scares them so it’s intimidating for them when they hear the gears grinding.

I put a lot of food down the garbage disposal hole and on a few occasions, I managed to back the disposal up. Maybe the pipes got backed up because I put too much food down at one time or maybe food like pasta, potato skins or lettuce doesn’t work well with the disposal, I just don’t know an exact reason. When the disposal pipes get backed up, my sink will fill with water and I get nervous about the sink overflowing. I asked my husband to go out and buy a small plunger that we can keep under the kitchen sink for when the sink gets clogged. He did and now I feel more comfortable when I see the water in the kitchen sink slowly rising. I grab the plunger and plunge the sink. Eventually, the clogged food gets loose and all is well again.

I thought buying a plunger that is solely dedicated to the kitchen sink was a good idea. I don’t have to call a plumber to fix the clogged sink and I can continue to use my sink as I normally would after it gets unclogged. Being prepared as much as I can be, just in case of accidents and natural disasters is important to me. Although, I am learning that no matter how prepared I am, I’m always at risk of something being a miss, like a backed up sink from over stuffing the garbage disposal. Keeping a plunger under the sink is my solution for that disaster.