Saturday, January 17, 2009

Tip Of the Month

First of all, Happy New Year to everyone! I know I haven't posted in awhile, but I have developed very bad tendinitis in both of my elbows, so I'm not using the computer near as much as I have. It's been pretty excrutiating, and so far not much has worked.

At any rate, I thought I'd start doing a new feature which will be called 'Tip Of the Month'. I thought about doing weekly tips, but I know me, and I know I wouldn't do it weekly, so monthly it is.

Anywho, I like getting helpful tips, but what I don't like is tips that are silly or just over the top, so my tips will be things that I've at least tried once or twice.

So, for this month's tip, I give you Dawn's Liquid Detergent. Now, we all know Dawn 'gets grease out of your way', and some of us probably know that wildlife biologists use it to clean water fowl that may have been victims of the bad environment, but did you know that Dawn can unclog your toilet?

I know what you're thinking, and yes, it's completely true. I found this out about two months after we moved to our new house. We have an older home that has a lot of character--I've come to discover that 'character' means that your house has special issues with the plumbing, electricity, heating, or maybe all of the above. We're on a septic system, and in our naive little innocence quickly learned that there are certain things that cannot be flushed down a septic system. Hence, weekly we sloshed around in disgustingness--I'll spare you the details. Suffice it to say, it was enough to break me until one day my father gave me an article that he pulled from the Internet. The article stated that if you dump 1/2 cup of Dawn (the original blue formula), let it set for about 1/2 hour, and then pour a couple of gallons of very hot water down the toilet, your toilet will unclog.

I was a total non-believer, but one hot summer day, 'character' would not go down, and so in my desperation, I ran to Target (best store in the world) and purchased some Dawn. It worked like a charm. Here are my helpful tips:

  1. Make sure you turn the water valve off first--trust me on this
  2. Pour the water slowly--Dawn is detergent after all, and if you pour it too quickly you'll get a bubbly mess
  3. You may still have to plunge once or twice more, but it will go down
  4. You may have to go through the steps more than once
You basically have to adjust to your on toilet. By that I mean, I kind of think that some toilets unclog more easily than others. We have older toilets, so it takes a little more time, but I can tell you, I have found this to be the best thing I've ever used to unclog a toilet. It's cheaper than calling a plumber, and it works.

Unfortunately, I don't have the original article my dad gave me, but I'm sure you can Google 'Dawn' and 'toilet clog' and you'll find additional articles.

Till next time...

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