When I bought my house the first thing I did was clean it. Trina and I spend hours scrubbing this house from top to bottom. When we were done everything looked beautiful and then I was finally able to start unpacking and making this house my own.
Every time I move I do a huge cleaning before I move my stuff in, I don’t want to feel like I’m living with someone else’s dirt. So I scrub and scrub and vacuum and wash windows. That takes care of everything, right? I love feeling like everything is shiny and new.
Once I was settled in I noticed that my bathroom drains were really, really slow. When I took a shower I was always standing in a few inches of water by the time I was finished and when I washed face in the vanity sink I would always have to wait for it to drain so I could wipe out the sink.
I decided to try to figure this out and once I did I was disgusted! I had been standing in someone else’s dirt every time I took a shower! First I took a crochet hook and stuck it down the drain. I could not believe the clumps of hair and soap scum that came up. It took a long time to get all of that out and trust me, it was not for someone with a weak stomach. I’m surprised the tub drained at all.
The vanity sink was just as bad. I finally took the whole trap apart just to get to everything. After I did that I got a funnel and poured baking soda down both drains, topped with lots of vinegar. After that bubbled for a while I pour boiling water down the drains.
Now drain cleaning is a regular part of my home maintenance. There is a crochet hook in every bathroom, Hailey and I both have long hair so once a month I take a crochet hook to the drains followed by baking soda, vinegar and boiling water. I do this to the kitchen sink as well and when I’m finished I throw some ice cubes and lemon peel in the garbage disposal.
I’m hoping that this one thing will save me major plumbing bills down the road but I have to tell you, the first time I did it made my skin crawl, I had no idea how gross drains could be.