Before this year, I was always a renter. So whenever I had a clogged sink I thought nothing of buying the heaviest duty Drano-type of product I could to clear it.

I didn’t even know it could eat away at your pipes, until my landlord saw it in my apartment one day and had a conniption fit. The next day while I was at work, she spent several hours pulling hair out of my tub and sink drains with tweezers, and when I came home, she placed mesh wire drain covers over the drains.

So when I finally bought a house last year, it was burned into my brain — never pour Drano or any of those other chemical products down my pipes. So when our increasingly sluggish bathroom sink drain finally hit the “gross” mark this weekend, I was almost ready to call roto-rooter.

But first, I knew I had to at least TRY one of these “green” remedies. I had no faith in regular old non-toxic household products, but I scoured the Web, chose a popular remedy, and was shocked when it TOTALLY worked!

Within half an hour, my drain was clear. Unbelievable.

Here it is, the natural remedy that REALLY works!

Mix:
1 cup baking soda
1 cup white vinegar

Pour the mixture down the drain, and lay a washcloth over the drain to keep too much air away from the bubbling action (it looks a little like a science experiment).

When it’s all the way through, or if it’s totally stuck, pour a boiling kettle of water down after it (it must be boiling – hot tap water won’t work!).

If that gets stuck, wait until it’s mostly clear, then pour more boiling water down.

By this time my sink cleared up, but if yours hasn’t, try another round, with a 1/2 cup each this time.  I also learned that baking soda and salt is another effective combination at breaking through grease clogs.  Follow with boiling water again.

Good luck!

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Posted by Gillian Aldrich, Features Editor

Photo by Charmainezoe, Flickr

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