The Easiest Way to Clean Your Hardest-to-Clean Appliance

When it comes to dirty dishes, there are a few types of “food cement” I get a little crazy about. One of them is blender cement. This always happens whenever I make a smoothie and don’t clean the blender immediately.

Some foods, especially smoothies, can leave a tough-to-clean cemented mess on the bottom, sides, and lids of a blender. Even the best blender isn’t immune to the remnants of my daily combination of oat milk, bananas, peanut butter, spinach, blueberries, and ground flax seed turning into cement within minutes of pouring the smoothie into a glass. 

Of course, you could put the blender in the dishwasher if you have one, but you would need to run a wash cycle before using it again. And washing the blender by hand can be a dangerous endeavor. 

But what if I told you there was a super simple way to clean the blender, including the blades, without putting it in the dishwasher or washing it by hand? A method that makes so much sense, I felt a little silly that I didn’t think of it on my own. If you use your blender a lot, this is going to be your new favorite cleaning hack.

The Best Way to Clean a Glass or Plastic Blender

“This tip was seriously a game-changer for me,” says Allrecipes’ editor Courtney Kassel. “I would dread pulling out my blender for a recipe because it meant l eventually had to clean it. With this hack, it's clean in truly seconds and I can avoid the "soak and run" move with my dirty dishes.”

When you’re done whipping a smoothie, blender Hollandaise sauce, blender pancakes, puréed soup, or even whipped cream, follow these steps to clean your blender:

1. Remove the blender from the base and give it a quick rinse. 
2. Fill the blender halfway with hot water and add a couple drops of dish soap. 
3. Put the blender back on the base and attach the lid.
4. Turn the blender on for 30 seconds.
5. Dump out the dirty water, rinse thoroughly, and air-dry.

The blender will be clean and ready to use again immediately. It works with both glass and plastic blenders, and it only takes about a minute. 

Instagram user Melissa Pateras demonstrates just how easy this method is. 

It’s seriously that simple, and it’s effective. It’s so much easier than scrubbing the blender by hand and getting your sponge ripped up by the blades or waiting to run the dishwasher before you can use the blender again. We foresee our blenders getting much more use after knowing about this handy cleaning trick.