What is that smell? Upon arriving home from work one day, you notice a foul stench wafting about the house.
By following it to the source, you find a sink with a blocked drain. Water is barely flowing and the resulting mess has the most unpleasant aroma.
What do you do? Here are a few ideas.
1. Put Your Dish Soap to Work
Dish soap does double duty when it comes to clearing drains.
First, the slimy texture of liquid dish soap helps to coat the clot and move it through the drain easier. It’s also tough on grease which can help with clogs caused by oil or grease in the kitchen. Second, it leaves behind a fresh scent where once it smelled so gross.
Making it work is quite easy, just dump a generous amount into the drain. Follow it with a pop of boiling water and you’re all set!
2. Baking Soda and Vinegar
Want to go all science project on it as you did in school? Try turning your fizzling baking soda and vinegar volcano into a drain cleaner.
Pour about one-third of a cup of baking soda into the drain. Now add one-third cup of vinegar and let it fizzle and pop. After about an hour, try pouring hot water down the drain to test the blockage and clear away any remaining debris.
Bonus: this method is also great for smelly drains.
3. Baking Soda and Salt
What if you don’t have any vinegar? The odds are you will have some salt. So mix about half a cup of salt with half a cup of baking soda and shake that into the drain.
Leave this aggressive cleaner to sit for only about 15 minutes. Then wash everything away with hot water.
4. Yeast
Here’s one more strange kitchen staple that may be able to solve your drain blockage problem. Add 2 packets of yeast to your offending drain. Mix half a cup of salt with a cup of boiling water and pour this down the drain.
Leave it alone for 45 minutes, then come back and rinse with another cup of hot water.
5. Wire Hanger Drain Snake
Most of the methods we’ve talked about are most effective in the sink. But what about in the shower drain where bits of hair are tightly holding the clogs together?
For this, you may want to use a drain snake. You can call in a plumber to help you with a professional drank snake, but we recommend trying this trick first.
You can make your own drain snake out of a wire hanger. Just straighten it out and bend a hook on one end. With a little luck, you can use this hook to snag the hairball and pull it out.
Clear Drains for All!
How’d you do? Were you able to clear your blocked drain with one of these tips? With any luck, that stinky drain will be a thing of the past in no time!