If there’s a particular smell lurking in your kitchen that no amount of scrubbing, wiping and spraying seems to solve, your kitchen sink could be the culprit.

But how do you clean a sink effectively without using harsh chemicals?

Turns out it’s a lot easier than you might have thought, with a professional cleaner suggesting a solution made up of common household products you most like have sitting in your cupboard right now.

A simple trick for tackling drain smells

In his video that’s racking up hundreds of views, Jason shares a quick trick for tackling funky drain smells with two pantry staples that are not only cheap and chemical-free, but available at almost every supermarket.

The idea is simple. Pour bicarbonate soda down the drain, follow it with some white vinegar, let the mixture fizz away for a few minutes, then flush everything through with hot water.

It’s one of those cleaning tricks that feels almost too easy, but plenty of people swear by it as a quick way to freshen up a smelly sink.

Why do kitchen drains start to smell?

When you stop and think about how much you use the sink, you tend to realise just how much they deal with a lot over the course of a day. Grease, oil, food scraps and soap residue can all cling to the inside of pipes.

Over time, that build-up starts to break down, which is what creates that unpleasant smell that sometimes wafts up from the drain.

Even if your sink isn’t blocked, a thin layer of residue can sit inside the pipes and trap odours. That’s why a drain can smell bad even when everything still seems to be working perfectly normally.

Why the bicarb and vinegar trick can help

When bicarbonate soda and vinegar combine, they create a fizzy reaction. That brilliant bubbling action can help loosen up the accumulated grease and grime stuck inside pipes.

And once you flush everything through with hot water, most of the loosened residue that may be causing the smell is washed away. Bye-bye, funky smells.

It’s also a gentler option than many chemical drain cleaners, which is why plenty of people vouch for this method.

How to try it yourself

If your kitchen drain has started smelling a bit off, the method is easy to try:

1. Start by pouring boiling water down your sink to soften scrum and build-up
2. Then pour about ½ cup of bicarbonate soda down the drain
3. Follow that with 1 cup of white vinegar
4. Let it fizz and sit for 10–15 minutes
5. Flush again with boiling water

Sometimes that’s enough to clear away the build-up and leave your sink smelling much fresher.

How to prevent smells from returning

Prevention is always easier than dealing with a smelly sink.

Avoid letting grease or food scraps go down the plughole where possible (remind your kids, too!), and occasionally flushing the drain with hot water can help stop residue from building up inside the pipes.

Do you know another method for eliminating unwanted sink smells? Tell us about it in the comment below.