November 19, 2025
Don’t Let Your Garbage Disposal Ruin the Holidays
The holidays bring family, friends and plenty of delicious food, but they can also bring plumbing problems. Between cooking, baking, and cleaning up, your disposal works overtime this season. Knowing what can and can’t go down the drain may save you from expensive repairs and unwanted kitchen issues during your holiday festivities.
Even though disposals can handle a lot, some foods can clog pipes, dull blades or jam the motor. Applewood Plumbing Heating & Electric recommends these items to avoid:
- Grease, oil and fat may cool and solidify inside your pipes, creating sticky blockages. Pour grease into a container, let it cool and toss it in the trash instead.
- Fibrous vegetables, such as celery, corn husks, onion skins and asparagus strands, can wrap around the blades and cause jams.
- Starchy foods, such as mashed potatoes, pasta and rice, expand with water and may form thick clogs in your drain.
- Hard materials like turkey bones, fruit pits and nutshells can damage your disposal and dull the blades.
Stick to small portions of soft foods that easily break down. For example, foods like cooked vegetables or small bits of meat would be easy on your disposal. Always run cold water while the disposal is on to help flush debris through the pipes. Here are some tips to help keep your disposal working well.
- Don’t overload your disposal with a big batch of scraps at once.
- Keep cold water running for 15–20 seconds after turning off the disposal to wash away any remaining food particles.
- Drop in a few ice cubes to help clean the blades.
- Run your dishwasher and disposal at different times to avoid overloading your plumbing system.
Applewood emphasizes that taking a few simple precautions with what goes down the drain can make all the difference during the holiday season. By keeping the wrong foods out of your garbage disposal, you’ll avoid unnecessary clogs, protect your plumbing and keep your kitchen running smoothly, even with a house full of guests. Prepping your home for the holidays is as important as the plans for your holiday guests.