How to Easily Unblock a Toilet with a Brush and a Plastic Bag

A few weeks ago, my toilet became blocked. Living in a serviced apartment in Thailand, I'm used to calling downstairs and the reception desk sending up the maintenance man in just a few minutes. This time though the maintenance guy was out of town visiting his mother which meant, if I didn't want to pay for a plumber, it would be a week before my toilet was unblocked.

Not a huge deal as I do have two bathrooms, plus the offending material blocking the toilet wasn't anything nasty or smelly - just five big paper towels that had ended up stuck in the pipe when I flushed them down the loo after cleaning the bathroom counter.

But, it is handy having the second toilet, particularly when friends or my boyfriend are in town. So, I set to work to try and unblock the offending toilet myself.

Over the next few days, I tried pouring hot water down the toilet from waist height. Three hours of that, scooping it back out and pouring again, and it did absolutely nothing. Then I went the stick-a-coathanger-down-the-toilet route. Again, no luck. Finally, after trying various other can't-miss methods over the next three days, I still had a blocked toilet and ever lessening patience.

Luckily, at this point, I called a Thai friend who told me how to unblock my toilet easily and quickly and with the simplest of tools. All it took was my toilet brush and a plastic grocery bag. Two minutes later, my toilet was unblocked for the first time in days and I couldn't have been more surprised.

If you have a similar problem with a blocked toilet, try this fast and easy way to rid it of the blockage. Not only does it work, it doesn't cost a penny either.

1. Get your toilet brush.

2. Put the brush inside a plastic grocery bag and wrap the bag tightly around the brush head. Secure it by either tying the two ends together around the brush handle or with a rubber band.

3. Stick the brush into your blocked toilet and push it down the hole until it hits the bottom of the bowl (no need to shove it down the pipe, just in the toilet bowl itself).

4. Making sure the hole is mostly stuffed closed with the plastic bag, pump the toilet brush vigorously up and down a few times like you would if you were using a plunger. Within seconds, you should hear a quick sucking noise and the contents of your blocked toilet will be sucked down the pipe. And that's it.

From start to finish, it literally took me two minutes and, within 10 seconds of my beginning to plunge with the toilet brush, my toilet was unblocked for the first time in three days. From now on, if I ever have a blocked toilet again, I'm rushing to find the toilet brush and a plastic bag. The speed of the unblocking really was that spectacular