We have one of those big water dispensers sitting in the corner of our kitchen and I just love it. We picked one up the day that we moved in to this house and honestly, I don’t know if I could get through the day without one anymore. We originally got it because we weren’t sure how we’d like drinking well water at first, even though the water is perfectly safe, and we just got used to having hot and cold water available instantly any time we want it. I love a good cup of tea so that insta-hot tap is just amazing!
We have a few of those big blue 5 gallon water bottles that we just take to a refill station once every week or two, rather than going through one of those exchange programs at a grocery store or a gas station. After re-using and refilling these bottles a few times, you might start to wonder if maybe you should clean them every once in awhile. You might notice that some refill places have a “sanitize” option, but these can be either really expensive or kinda questionable. Since these bottles are only used for fresh, filtered water, cleaning them is something I would much rather just take care of myself.
Here’s what you’ll need to clean your own 5 gallon water bottles:
-Water
–Tea Tree Oil (optional)
-A Funnel (Or you can make your own hilariously misshapen but surprisingly effective one like I did in the video! 🙂 )
Watch the video for a quick run-down of the process to clean the water bottle and deodorize it to keep your water tasting fresh and clean! The video has text in it for each step, so you can feel free to turn the sound off on your computer if that works better for you!
That’s all it takes! You definitely don’t need to do this every time you refill your water bottles because, really, they’re just holding filtered water, but it’s a good idea to do this every once in awhile to make sure they’re squeaky clean because they do sometimes sit for awhile between fill-ups.
I should also note that a lot of people suggest using bleach in their water bottles for disinfecting, but that idea just freaks me out. Tea tree oil is said to have disinfecting properties and it’s something that I use for a lot of other cleaning purposes around the house, so I’m much more comfortable swirling around a few drops of that in my water bottles. If I used bleach, I think I would just be nervous about drinking water for the rest of eternity, but that’s just me! 🙂
I hope you found this helpful if you use one of these big water dispensers in your house too!
If you love cleaning tips like this, make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel for all of my latest videos and check out my new book The Cleaning Ninja out on January 17th and available for pre-order now! Yay!
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Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.