Household Items That Can Clog Your Drains

Having blocked drains is a common, yet frustrating thing to deal with in your home. Kitchen and bathrooms inks, toilets, and other drains in your home might be getting clogged from ordinary household items you use every day. Be careful when putting the following items down the drain.

Grease and Oil

The first thing you need to be extra careful with is anything that has oil and grease. You probably know now to pour large amounts of oil down the drain, but don't forget about washing or rinsing dishes in the sink that might have some grease on them. Even a small amount of grease can coat the drains, which then causes other debris to stick to them, ultimately leading to a clog. If you have any dinner plates, pots, or pans with oil or grease, wipe them down with a paper towel before washing them.

Excess Soap

Be careful with excess soap down the drain as well. The soap itself probably won't cause a clog, but if it isn't rinsed thoroughly inside your drain, other substances can stick to the soap residue, which then causes a clog. To remedy this, run the water after washing your hands or a dish in the kitchen sink to make sure no soap residue remains. Also be careful about bath tubs, including excess amounts of soap, bath salts, or bath melts. These can all cause clumping in the bathtub drain.

Peels and Shells

Quite a few food products can be put down your kitchen drain and ground up in the garbage disposal with no problem. However, you need to be careful about hard products like egg shells and vegetable peels. These tend to cause clogs in the drain because the garbage disposal has a hard time grinding them up into small enough pieces before sending them down the drains. Even if you like to peel hardboiled eggs or vegetables in the sink, remove the peels and put them in the garbage can instead of washing them down the sink.

Paper Items

You may already know about this, but it bears repeating. Be very careful with paper items that go down drains or toilets in your home. Even double or triple-ply tissue can clog your toilet. Try to use the least amount of toilet paper possible and stick to single-ply if your toilet has a problem with clogging. Never put napkins, paper towels, sanitary napkins, or other paper products down any drains.

If you have a clog, call a plumber like P1 Plumbing & Electrical to get it cleared as soon as possible. This reduces the overall damage the clog does.