No one relishes dealing with a clogged drain. Whether the impacted drain is in your kitchen, bathroom or any other area of your home, a stubborn clog has the power to throw your usual routine into disarray. For example, a clogged bathroom-based drain is liable to turn your everyday grooming regimen into a chore. Similarly, a clogged kitchen drain can make cleaning up after a meal all but impossible. Luckily, staving off drain clogs doesn’t have to be an uphill battle. With the help of the following pointers, you’ll be able to nip a wide assortment of drain clogs in the bud and save yourself a tremendous amount of stress.
Watch What You Flush
Clogged toilet drains are all-too-common problems in countless households. This is because many of us give very little thought – if any – to what goes down our commodes. As long as everything appears to be in order when we press down on the flusher, people generally adopt an “out of sight, out of mind” approach to toilet waste. While this is somewhat understandable, it’s important to realize that toilets are not magical devices that are capable of flushing away anything and everything.
For starters, you should avoid flushing too much toilet paper at once. If you catch yourself using a fair amount of T.P., flush the toilet before you finish cleaning up. This will ensure that the paper you use is processed across multiple flushing instead of in one go, thus reducing the likelihood of clogs. Secondly, if you’re fond of wet wipes, take care to follow the instructions on the product’s packaging when it comes to flushing. In many cases, the packaging will recommend flushing no more than two of these wipes at a time. Additionally, some municipalities advise against flushing them at all. You should also abstain from flushing sanitary napkins, tissues and paper towels, as these are all much thicker than traditional toilet paper. As a general rule of thumb, you should think twice about flushing anything besides waste and toilet paper.
Dispose of Large Food Scraps in the Trash
As is the case with toilets, misusing garbage disposals stands to result in stubborn clogs. Although many disposals are perfectly adept at taking care of small food scraps, large scraps should never be placed down the drain. In addition, foods with hard textures – eggshells and chicken bones, for example – should also be kept out of disposals. To form a clearer understanding of what types of foods should and should not go down your disposal, consult the device’s owner’s manual. Furthermore, if there’s any doubt as to a certain type of food, simply play things safe by disposing of it in the trash.
Be Mindful of Hair
When it comes to preventing clogged drains in your home, limiting the amount of hair that finds its way down your drains can prove tremendously helpful. To start with, outfit your various bathroom drains with hair catchers. These handy little plumbing aids are affordable on any budget and incredibly easy to install. Once in place, hair catchers will stop a significant amount of hair from entering drains. Of course, for hair catchers to remain effective, they’ll need to be cleared out on a regular basis.
If anyone in your household is fond of DIY haircuts, they’ll need to be extremely mindful of how much hair they allow to enter the drain. If this person opts to cut their hair over a sink, they should spread a towel across the sink before the start of each haircut. This will ensure that the vast majority of hair is caught before it’s able to make its way into the drain. If they want to be extra-vigilant about avoiding drain clogs, they may want to forgo the sink altogether and cut their hair on the ground while sitting on a towel.
A stubborn clog can put a damper on even the brightest day. A clogged bathroom drain stands to interfere with the respective grooming rituals of every member of your household, whereas a clogged kitchen drain stands to hinder both food prep and post-meal cleanup. Fortunately, turning clogged drains into problems of the past is well within every family’s abilities. Putting the previously discussed pointers to good use can help keep your home’s various drains clog-free for the foreseeable future.
