I live in a house with VERY temperamental pipes! Over the years we have had 3 floods in the basement and numerous backed-up sinks, showers and tubs — all due to clogs! That’s a lot of time, money and consternation! Needless to say clogged drains cause me a great deal of fear and loathing! That’s why whenever I run across a way to DEAL with them I am compelled to read about it, try it, and SHARE it! :-)
I was actually surprised to realize just how much sharing I’ve already done about clogged drains in the past on this blog. A quick search revealed FIVE home remedies I’ve already written about, and you can read the posts by clicking on the links.
Baking Soda and Vinegar
Empty one-half cup baking soda down the drain, followed by one-half cup white vinegar. Cover the drain and let mixture stand for a few minutes. Then pour a pot of boiling water down the drain. The baking soda and vinegar dissolve fatty acids, allowing the clog to wash down the drain.
Borax
Unclog drains with 1/2 cup of borax followed by 2 cups of boiling water. Let it sit for 15 minutes, then run your water for a few minutes to flush it out.
Dawn Dish Soap
A cup of Dawn detergent poured into a clogged toilet allowed to sit for 15 minutes and then followed with a bucket of hot water poured from waist height will clear out the toilet.
The Secret Plumber’s Trick
Fill a bucket with hot water. Pour the hot water down the toilet and the clog should be fixed in no time. The heat melts the fats in the “clog” & makes it all more flushable.
A Wet/Dry Vacuum
With the sink overflow hole blocked and a rag placed over the drain, press the end of your wet dry vacuum’s hose against the drain to form a tight seal. Then turn the vacuum on and let it do all the hard work for you!
All of these I have personally tried and have saved me countless plumber service calls! Not to mention they are inexpensive and non-toxic – unlike traditional drain cleaners that are EXTREMELY toxic!
Do you have any tips for dealing with clogged drains?
We so need this. Our shower drain backs up every so often and it’s always due to hair. My husband has to unscrew the top of the drain and goes “fishing” with a wire and it is pretty disgusting. This little gadget would make life easier.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.UGH! It was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (33 years ago) and I’d just had my daughter that Sunday. I was having Thanksgiving for the whole family at my house (what the hecko was I thinking?)! The kitchen sink/disposal/dishwasher backed up and flooded the entire kitchen/dining room/family room. I was mopping and soaking the water up with towels, etc,prentending to be Super Woman while crying and crying!! my Mom happened by and put me to bed and took care of everything!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Wow! It’s amazing how clogged drain incidents stay with us! Even 33 years later!! LOL. thx for sharing Ellen!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.My youngest was playing in her sink and clogged it up. She sat there and watched the water flooding on to the countertop, and spilling on to the floor, and running in to her bedroom. Luckily her sister ran in and turned the water off. It was quite a mess.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.The worst clog I have dealt with happened at a friend’s house, but I worked on it for at least 45 minutes, so I feel I can tell the story.
My friend’s nephew (2 years old) was found playing in the downstairs toilet. He had shoved a hand towel down the hole. The towel was removed, but that’s when things got GROSS!
Several children used the toilet, and it stopped draining. At that point, several more children helpfully used the toilet. It wasn’t discovered by an adult until the floor was covered and the mess was everywhere.
Every solution we could think of was tried over the course of the next few days, we did the dawn thing, we did the hot water thing, I personally plunged that nasty sucker for almost an hour. The toilet seemed to clear up a bit, but continued to clog and overflow any time it was used.
The next day my friend’s husband removed the ENTIRE toilet from the bathroom and took it to the front yard. After an hour or so of blasting it with the hose, turning it upside down, kicking it, shaking it, and trying to exorcise the demons from it- a WOODEN BLOCK fell out.
Turns out the toddler had shoved a 2″x2″x4″ toy block down the drain before impacting it with a towel. Awe. Some.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Ahhhhh! KIDS!!! lol.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Wow! These sound fabulous. We have six bathrooms at our bed and breakfast with guest from all over the world, with all types of hair. One thing they all have in common is they all loose hair down our shower and bath drains. Yuk!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.This definately sounds like a solution to slimmy drain hair build up.
Oh wow Cyndi! You DO need these! lol
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Years ago our youngest daughter decided to remove the cap from the shower drain. She then dropped a shot glass down which blocked the entire drain. After HOURS of plumber work, she finally confessed. As the shower was in a basement, it required a jackhammer to get to the offending shot glass. I saved it and fully plan to share it with her children when the time is right.
When I was pregnant with my oldest we lived in an apartment that kept clogging up no matter how careful we were. The landlord came in with a bottle of something that made the whole apartment smell and we couldn’t breathe. No warning how dangerous it was. We wound up at his parents for three days while trying to air the place out and worse thing it didn’t even unclog it. Later a plumber pulled out so much hair from prior tenants. I still remember that smell and shortness of breath.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.OMG…. I am in desperate need of this marvelous little gadget. Both my husband and I have long hair and even though we used drainers in the plug hole of the shower, hair still somehow seems to get through to clog the drains. This invention would be a life saver in my house.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Worst one was last week lol. One side of the kitchen sink was clogged for days and nothing would work. The funnest thing was hubby put lye down the drain and it still did nothing but when he finally took the pipes apart it had a solid block at the end of the pipe from the lye. I thought it made soap but once he ran water through the pipe it dissolved but burned a little lol
Please log in or create a free account to comment.It was Christmas night and we still had quite a lot of company at our house. We had all enjoyed a huge dinner, plus all the extra goodies one has on hand for the holidays. That said, there were many visits to our bathroom. At some point the old toilet just couldn’t handle all the traffic and plugged up! And no one fessed up! Have you ever had to call the plumber on Christmas night? It was a very expensive proposition! We still laugh about it, though,
Please log in or create a free account to comment.When my oldest was a toddler, our toilet backed up and we couldn’t seem to fix it. The plumber came and found a hand towel in the pipe! Hmm, how did that get there? lol.
When I was in college, I worked at an inn at the Grand Canyon and they had to have low flush toilets because there wasn’t much water on the mountain, which was problematic for the large numbers of tourists who used the toilets near the restaurants in the lodge. They frequently backed up, and I those of us who worked in the store had to take turns cleaning it up. Not a pleasant task, but it made me feel “tough.” lol.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Once, a big hair clog from my lovely, thick, very long hair actually saved the day! I was a teenager (how I miss that hair!), and my mom invited my cousin, who attended a nearby college, and her roommate over for a nice home-cooked meal. Before dinner my cousin’s roommate was washing up in the bathroom when, you guessed it, her irreplaceable family heirloom ring slipped off and went plopped right down the drain before she could grab it. Panic! She was so upset that my dad, in a long-shot effort, took the pipes apart to see if perhaps the water had been shut off in time to catch the ring in the trap. Lo and behold, he found the ring, without a scratch on it, safely nestled in a big, soft clump of hair. Made me feel so much better the next time my dad had to fix a clog from my hippie-length hair!
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