How to Prevent Clogged Drains

Your shower and sink drains can often get clogged, and you maybe able to clear the clogged drain yourself without a plumber.
(Read: Staring in disgust at a clogged drain – We’ve all been there)

But why go through the trouble when it’s cheaper and easier to just prevent clogs in the first place?

Taking care of a drain mostly requires you to be careful about what you put in them. Cooking grease, food waste, soap scum, hair are your drain’s most common and the biggest enemies. So how to prevent them from forming clogs? Simple. Using the tips below;

• Save ‘Cooking Grease’ in a container and dispose of it in the trash. One of the worst things you can put down your drain is grease. Warm grease runs down your drain until it starts cooling and forming a clog and then the other stuff gets stuck in it and before you know it, you have a major clog.The best solution is to have a jar or a container handy to collect the grease and throw it in the trash when it gets full.
• Use a screen/filter to cover your drain’s opening to collect scum, hair and the other yucky stuff Hair, soap scum, your dental floss and all the other yucky stuff combine in your drain pipes and form clogs that can create blockages and an unpleasant odour. Buying a filter/mesh screen from your nearest hardware store can let you catch it all before it reaches the drain. There are different sizes available. So make sure you take along a picture of your sink.. Most screens or filters can simply be laid in place.

Regular cleaning also has it’s merits. To keep drains clog-free and odourless, try the following;

• Run hot water in the sink after every use. Hot water keeps the grease and food waste running down the drain rather than building up and forming clogs.
• Throw in some baking soda and vinegar. Baking soda and Vinegar are terrific cleaning agents. Pour a 1/3 cup of baking soda and 1/3 cup of vinegar mixture down the drain and the follow through with hot water after 30 minutes.

Follow these tips and your drain will be super clean and fragrant as a rose. Well, maybe not like a rose, but a lot better than they otherwise would.

And if you need professional advice or a plumber to clean your clogged drain for you, you know what to do!

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