Kitchen Sink Drain Maintenance: Homemade Drain Cleaner

Keeping your kitchen sink from clogging in the first place is the key to always having that sink drain when you want it to. Here is a super easy recipe that you can do every few weeks or so to keep your kitchen sink clog-free. Courtesy of my weird know-it-all neighbor.

My neighbor makes a powder that she uses twice a month in her kitchen sink to clear out all the debris that gets clogged in there, namely grease and cat hair (she has a ton of cats). She makes a huge batch of the stuff then runs it through her kitchen sink with boiling water to clean out her pipes, so to speak, and swears it makes all the difference in the world.

You need: cream of tarter, salt, and baking soda to make the homemade drain cleaner. She uses equal parts salt and baking soda, then 1/4 part of cream of tarter. She says she usually makes a big batch, combining 3 cups of baking soda, 3 cups of salt, then 3/4 cup of cream of tarter and shakes it up in an old kitty litter bucket. Every few weeks or so she dumps about half a cup of the homemade drain cleaner into her kitchen drain, then pours a huge kettle of boiling water down the drain to flush out her pipes.

To make sure the drain cleaner flushes all the way through, she leaves her hot water faucet on for about 5 minutes to clear out whatever powder or junk may be in her drain still. When she guts fish (she goes fishing a lot) and the fish guts get down in her drain and cause a stink, she pours vinegar down her drain first, then adds the homemade drain cleaner. Since she has all those cats, she fears using anything with chemicals since her cats get under her sink, so she's chockfull of eco-friendly household cleaner recipes. I never know what I will find out next!

She keeps the homemade drain cleaner in an airtight kitty litter bucket with a lid so the drain cleaner doesn't get wet or clump. She puts dried vanilla or lavender in the bucket to give the drain cleaner a nice smell when she uses it in the summer months (which is when the fish guts end up in her drain) but you can use the drain cleaner plain if you like.

Depending on what you pour into your drain (again, we're talking fish guts, here), you can use this drain cleaner once a month or every few weeks, or even when your drain just starts to act more sluggish. I bet it works great, too- I've used baking soda before to clean out my drain, and I bet the salt just breaks up that clogged grease!

Source:

my neighbor