I'm going to step out on a limb here and write a different kind of blog. On the one hand, it may not be "blog-worthy," but on the other hand, it's the kind of information that if you need, it may make a difference. Here goes.
Now and then our modern conveniences fail to operate as they should and we need to get help, and usually that help costs money. On Sunday I was faced with paying a plumber to help us get one of our modern conveniences in particular to get up and running, so to speak. But I didn't really have the money to pay a plumber, plus it was Sunday, and I didn't want to go to a store to find a snake or a better plunger or whatever people use for these kinds of problems. So I googled "home remedy" and "clogged toilets" and found a little forum where people exchanged ideas. Some involved some purchases that were relatively minor but would need to wait so for the short-term, I found two suggestions that worked. The first was just pour bucket after bucket of hot, not boiling, water into the toilet until it cleared on its own. That went a long way to taking care of the problem but didn't quite fix it. So I tried another remedy, which was a can of Coke and dishwashing liquid (half a bottle) and let it sit a half hour before flushing. The remedy called for Dawn soap and diet Coke, but I decided to use what I had and it worked just fine. Some people also said to put root killer down their drains, which sounds like a good idea since my house has trees everyone, including several growing very near the house.
I also found a homemade deodorant that looks interesting (no parabens, which is supposed to be a good thing) and a remedy for athlete's foot, soak your feet in Listerine (I'll keep you posted on how that works but for now my feet are blue because I used mint Listerine).
I'm not quite ready to take on Heloise, but it made me feel very smart and handy this weekend, a good way to feel on Mother's Day.
5 comments:
Way to go, Val! My mother knew so many ways to fix things or take care of pesky problems. Sometimes I think it's sad that our generation and the next grew up calling in experts for everything and learned to waste a lot of money when if we knew a fraction of what our mothers and grandmothers knew we could fix half of those problems ourself.
Blue feet! I love it! That filled several minutes of my afternoon with laughter.
Thanks, Val!
Gale
Ok, I'm now alarmed that something I drink will unclog a drain.
This is such a wonderful blog! We've all had these lovely home repair challenges and trust you, Val, to find such a creative and amusing way to approach the task. I love it!
I share Nancy's concern. Diet Coke is one of my favorites, too. One of my sons recently told me that it's a great tool to clean up car engines. This is not a comfort.
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