Who Needs Drain-O!

I found the best idea on Real Simple the other day. 

It worked and now, I'm happy to share it with you!

picture from Real Simple

My bathroom sink drains incredibly slow.  I'm not sure if this is because of something the previous tenants did to the sink or what.  In any case (I'm going to gross you out here) the stopper is covered in gunk.  It's black and I know for a fact that the pastic part of sink stopper is white...yeah.  We've plunged the sink and that helps for a couple days, but the water begins to back up and I get frustrated.

I was ready to finally go buy some Drain-O and then I found a PIN to cleaning tips on Real Simple.  I read down the list and found a drain cleaner idea.  How simple is this?  Baking soda and vinegar.  We all know and love this combination from our science fair volcano days, but to clean my sink's drain? 

This morning I had enough.  I dug out the vinegar, baking soda, wash cloth and measuring cup.

I poured 1/2 cup baking soda over the drain. 

My stopper is lodged in it's place.  So to help things along, I pushed as much of the baking soda as I could down the drain.

I pour 1/2 cup vinegar over the baking soda, and covered the drain with a wet washcloth, as instructed.

I waited 5 minutes, removed the wash cloth and pour very hot water down the drain.

Tah-Dah!  My drain is perfect now.  Water runs down it freely and I am especially happy to report that the gross gunky stopper is white again (if you can believe it)!!  I am so happy I tried this before running out the spend the money on Drain-O.  Even better I didn't have to worry about Thing 1 & Thing 2 being around all the chemicals.

Thank you Real Simple.  After the success I had with this tip, I will definitely be trying out the others on your list (and sharing them with you too).