The Dishwasher Trick That Can Make Your Entire Kitchen Smell Good

A fresh-smelling kitchen is what everyone wants, but sometimes that can be a bit difficult to achieve. Between odors from strong ingredients like onions, fish, and raw meat plus food disposals, funky smells can emanate from your cooking space, making it more important than ever to freshen up. (Now is also a good time to figure out why your clean kitchen smells bad.) While there are all sorts of air fresheners or warm oil plug-ins to purchase, there's a genius trick to deodorize your smelly kitchen — all you need is a lemon and your dishwasher.

So, why you should add a lemon to your dishwasher before running it? Dishwashers work in part by cycling hot water through their compact basin, generating steam in the process. The hack capitalizes on the normal washing process, using hot water and steam to warm the lemon, which helps to release the natural scent-boosting oils from the fruit. Once the cycle has completed, the smell of the lemon will be filling your kitchen, and leaving it far more fresh than when you began. Your dishwasher will also get a cleaning, and the lemon will help to deodorize the whole machine. Rather than throwing an entire lemon into the dishwasher, however, it's best to cut a few chunky pieces of the fruit and place them in the appliance.

Although this simple hack is easy to get excited about, there are a few aspects to be aware of. First, you should properly prepare your fruit before adding it to the dishwasher. This includes removing any seeds or very loose pieces of flesh, as these parts of the fruit can get trapped in the filter. Next, there is the placement of the lemon to consider. You can put them in a number of places, including the utensil basket or the top rack (just avoid cramming a piece in the detergent container, since it could get stuck there). You'll also want to use good-sized pieces of lemon — as much as a half — to prevent thin slices from falling through the slots on the rack. Finally, remember to remove the pieces of lemon after the cycle has finished running, so nothing gets left behind on accident.

There is some talk of the damage that lemon juice can do to stainless steel — such as corroding it over time — but this outcome is unlikely in a dishwasher with periodic lemon-freshening sessions. Another component of your dishwasher, the rubber seals around the door, can be harmed by exposure to lemon juice; so be careful to keep that part of the appliance protected from full strength lemon juice when trying this trick at home. Most users of this hack say including a lemon while your dishwasher is full of dishes is fine, so long as you're also not washing anything that is sensitive to the juice. Some even say the lemon can help cut through grease and grime on dirty dishes. Dishwasher manufacturers recommend cleaning your dishwasher every 30 days, so that's likely a safe frequency to be using this lemon hack to make your kitchen smell good. You can also try it with lime if you're currently short on lemons — you should see similar results.