What Never Goes Down the Drain

Never down the kitchen sink

• Grease, oil, bacon fat, pan drippings — they're liquid in the pan and concrete in the pipe. Pour into a jar or can, cool it, trash it.
• Coffee grounds — they don't dissolve, they silt up.
• Pasta and rice — they keep swelling down there.
• Eggshells, fibrous vegetables (celery, corn husks, onion skins) — disposal or not.
• Paint, solvents, "just a little" of anything chemical — never.

Never down the toilet

• Wipes. The package says flushable; the sewer line says otherwise. Wipes are the #1 cause of main-line clogs, and the marketing department doesn't pay the plumber.
• Paper towels, cotton balls, swabs, dental floss, feminine products, cat litter (even "flushable"), medication.
• The rule: toilet paper and what your body produces. Nothing else.

Garbage disposal rules (where you have one)

• Run cold water before, during, and 15 seconds after.
• Feed it gradually — small batches, not the whole cutting board.
• No bones, pits, shells, or anything from the lists above.
• Disposal hums but won't spin? Switch OFF, then press the small red reset button on the bottom of the unit under the sink. Still stuck? Leave it off and submit a work order — never put your hand in, even "just to check."

Slow drain or clog: what to try

• Toilet: use a flange plunger (the one with the extra rubber sleeve), get a seal, and push-pull steadily a dozen times. One good session clears most clogs.
• Sink/tub: clear the stopper of hair first — it's the culprit nine times out of ten. A cheap plastic drain snake is a fine tool.
• Skip the chemical drain cleaners — they're hard on old pipes (and on whoever works on them next). If plunging doesn't do it, work order it.

The lease angle

Clogs caused by what went down the drain are billable to the tenant; aging pipes are on us. Either way, report slow drains early — a slow drain is a clog with a calendar.