The Quickest Way to Clean Your Toughest Appliance

When dealing with dirty dishes, there are a few types of stubborn messes that drive me nuts. One of them is blender gunk, which always happens when I make a smoothie and forget to clean the blender right away.

Certain foods, particularly smoothies, can create a sticky, hard-to-remove mess on the bottom, sides, and lids of your blender. Even the best blender can end up coated in a cement-like residue after blending my usual mix of oat milk, bananas, peanut butter, spinach, blueberries, and ground flax seed – all within minutes of pouring the smoothie out.

Sure, you could toss the blender in the dishwasher if you have one, but then you’d have to wait for a full wash cycle before using it again. Hand washing the blender can be tricky and even a bit dangerous at times.

But what if I told you there was an incredibly easy way to clean the blender, blades and all, without needing to use the dishwasher or scrub it by hand? A simple trick so clever that I felt a little embarrassed I hadn’t thought of it myself. If you use your blender regularly, this cleaning hack is about to become your new go-to.

The Ultimate Method for Cleaning Glass or Plastic Blenders

“This tip completely changed the game for me,” says Dinogo’ editor Courtney Kassel. “I used to dread pulling out my blender for recipes, knowing I’d eventually have to clean it. With this trick, it’s spotless in seconds, and I can skip the whole 'soak and scrub' ordeal with my dirty dishes.”

After blending a smoothie, Hollandaise sauce in the blender, blender pancakes, pureed soup, or even whipped cream, here’s the simple process to clean your blender:

1. Detach the blender from the base and give it a quick rinse.
2. Fill the blender halfway with hot water and add a couple of drops of dish soap.
3. Place the blender back on the base and secure the lid.
4. Blend on high for 30 seconds.
5. Pour out the dirty water, rinse thoroughly, and let it air dry.

Your blender will be sparkling clean and ready for its next use in no time. This trick works for both glass and plastic blenders and takes only about a minute to complete.

Instagram user Melissa Pateras shows just how effortless this method really is.

It’s truly that easy—and it works like a charm. Way simpler than hand-scrubbing the blender and risking your sponge getting torn by the blades, or waiting for a dishwasher cycle before using it again. We can already tell our blenders are going to be getting a lot more action now that we’ve discovered this brilliant cleaning hack.