Looking at a sink full of dirty water or waiting for those last suds to go down a slow-moving drain is annoying and disgusting—-and more than that, it can be expensive. Plus, who wants to use strong chemicals in their home if they don’t have to?
A few household items can open up a clog pretty quickly—-and that way, you can stay on top of future build-ups—-catch that nasty clog before it gets all the way back to totally gross.
Below, you will find two ways to unclog your drain—-one with a couple of pantry products and a kettle of boiling/very hot water; and another with some relatively easy moves under the sink. The first works better with an open drain—-one with a rubber cover rather than a pop-up drain stopper—-though I have used this method on a sink with a pop-up stopper and it’s worked.
A pop-up stopper adds a whole new dimension to this, though—-it’s hard to get the baking soda past that contraption. My brother tried to tell me how easy it was to remove the stopper and clean it. He had my attention until I heard the words, “get under the sink” and “take apart.” I’m somewhat mechanical but he’s really mechanical, so “easy” for him wasn’t necessarily “easy” for me—-and I had visions of water flooding our bathroom if I disassembled the wrong parts.
I turned to my old faithful, baking soda-and-white vinegar method. Getting enough baking soda down the drain became too challenging though, and I finally couldn’t stand how slowly the drain was moving. Time to re-focus on “easy,” and hey—-my brother wouldn’t steer me wrong:), so I googled and found a fantastic YouTube. Seeing this YouTube made all the difference. It had step-by-step written instructions with a video clip for that step immediately following it—-and yes, it did look easy. I cleared everything out from under the sink and had at it, keeping that YouTube with me every step of the way.
The system worked—-and though the pop-up drain stopper set a new standard of disgusting—-the process was easy enough that I’d tackle the project again, and encourage others with a little mechanical ability to do it as well.
That said, if you get into this process, disagree with my opinion on how difficult it is, and have to call a plumber, you’re on your own😊
Here you go:
Method 1: Unclog a sink drain with white vinegar, baking soda, and boiling/very hot water. The Today Show has a video that shows the procedure listed below.
- Heat a kettle of water until it boils. If you have older pipes, use only very hot water, as boiling water can be hard on old pipes. Pour it down the clogged drain.
- Put ½ cup of baking soda into the drain and let it sit for a few minutes
- Add 1 cup of white vinegar to 1 cup of very hot water. Pour the mixture on top of the baking soda that’s in the sink. This will loosen and flush away any grimy sludge.
- Cover the drain with a plug and let it sit for 10 minutes.
- Boil one more kettle of water. Pour it in the sink to rinse everything away.
Method 2: Physically remove and clean the pop-up drain stopper:
- Pull up this video on YouTube by unclevroomvroom and follow it step by step. And be sure to particularly note what unclevroomvroom says about paying attention to which hole you removed the rod from on the Clevis—you’ll need to put it back in the same one.
Good luck!
While you’re here, be sure to check out the rest of our website! Our newest posts are listed on the far right side of this page, and the following are some other fun reads that you may have missed—-New England Meets Southwest Florida, Love—-Celebrating One of Life’s Greatest Medicines, Smoked Paprika Chicken Wings, and REVS Institute—-Naples, FL. Check them—=and many others—-out.
As always, thanks for stopping by!
Until next time,
