I am definitely not a fixer upper type of gal. I’ll clean my home and keep it organized, but I look to Reggie or the superintendent whenever things get broken. That’s one of the main reasons that I don’t want a house…no super! Well, last week I fixed something that was problematic. Actually, it was two things…the kitchen and the bathroom sink!
It started on Thursday night. Reggie noticed that water was gurgling in both the bathroom and kitchen sinks when the dishwasher was running. I thought that was normal and said as much when he asked about it. I was wrong. The next morning when we woke up, both of the sinks were half-filled with yucky, backed-up sink water. Reggie needed to go to work, so I was left with the drains.
I really wanted to avoid those drain unclogging chemical products and unclog the sinks in a natural way. When doing a Google search for “how to unclog a sink”, several sites suggested that a ¼ cup of baking soda and 1cup of vinegar would do the trick. I went to the store to get a big old jug of vinegar and some baking powder, but it didn’t work.
After trying three rounds of that, I tried the plunger. That didn’t work either. The only result at that point was that my home reeked of vinegar. I was about to throw in the towel and call the plumber…until my friend Monique of Platinum Spa Diva, a fabulous company that makes custom natural and organic hair and body products, suggested that I use a cup of bleach followed by hot water after 30 minutes. (While she uses natural products in her business, bleach has helped her to unclog drains in the past.)
I hesitated at first because I go through periods when using bleach kind of scares me. I was asked to work with this bleach company last year on something…and that’s exactly what I told the PR person when I turned it down. While I do use bleach on occasion (with a house full of guys, there is a ton of white tees and socks!), I get nervous every time that I do. The kids can’t be near me when I use it because I have some irrational fear that it will splash on them and somehow scar them (?!) AND I have ruined more pairs of jeans than I care to remember due to bleach!
Anyway, since the kids weren’t around, I tried it out. It worked! I had to open the windows so that I wouldn’t gag from the smell of the vinegar and bleach, but it accomplished its purpose. I’m still not a bit scared of bleach and I prefer to use more natural solutions, but I must admit that it worked like a charm. In a pinch, I’d use it again. (If you know of a better, more natural way to unclog drains definitely let me know!)