Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Clogged Kitchen Sink :(

We've all been there,  the water in the kitchen sink is draining VERY slow!!  Well,  our latest episode happened last night around 9:30 pm while the boys were finishing up the evening dishes.  We hear, "Mom, the sink is clogged, we can't finish the dishes."  I know, I know, can't you just hear the sadness in their voices?  AWWWWWWWW!!  Well,  I'm not one to keep Draino or Liquid Plumber on hand and no one wanted to run to Wal-Mart to get any, so..............  Hubby started searching the internet and we got to work. 

All we needed was some baking soda, white vinegar, and boiling water.  Fortunately, I had all of those things on hand. 

1.  Take 1 cup of baking soda and pour it down the drain.  We had to do some old school dipping out of standing water in the sink (YUCK) since it said to make sure the baking soda got down in the drain!! 
2.  Then,  pour 2 cups of hot boiling water down the drain.  You may have to use a plunger depending on how clogged your sink is. Ours was pretty bad!  Evidently, our children put mashed potatoes and mac n' cheese down there. BOOOOO!!! How many times have I told them????  We DO NOT have a garbage disposal down there.  Anywhoo, I digress. 
3.  Now, repeat the baking soda using another cup down the drain again. 
4.  This time follow with 1 cup of white vinegar and immediately plug the drain (plug both sides if you have a double sink). The baking soda and vinegar react and bubble.
5.  Once the bubbling settles down,  pour more boiling water down the drain.
6.  Repeat if necessary.

YAY, it worked for us.  And in our effort to have less harmful chemicals and processed items in our home, not to mention the cost difference between baking soda and Draino,  we will continue to use this process to unclog our drains.  I also will be putting 1 cup of baking soda followed by boiling water once a month down all of our drains in hopes of not getting any more clogged ones. I need to mark it on the calendar so I don't forget. 

4 comments:

  1. Now that’s a good way to unclog the kitchen sink, Jenny. The clog was probably because of a build-up of food waste in your kitchen’s plumbing. Do you have garbage disposal with your sink? Some sinks have built-in garbage disposal to help with food waste. Anyway, it’s good that you know some DIY. Thumbs up!
    Darcy Wallingford

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  2. Oh, yes! I’ve been using that formula ever since. Baking soda and vinegar just make a chemical reaction, and it’ll eat away everything that’s clogging the pipe. After that, I always pour half a cup of lemon juice to neutralize the odor.

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  3. Aside from this baking soda and vinegar solution, you can also use hot water to unclog your sink. You can also add salt to it for a more effective result. Do this on a weekly basis to see how helps in clearing drains. Also, watch out for things that you put in your sink to prevent it from clogging.

    -Darryl Iorio

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