9 Tips To Unclog Blocked Drains With Common Household Items
June 3, 2025

9 Tips To Unclog Blocked Drains With Common Household Items

Drains are some of the dirtiest places in your home, harbouring millions of bacteria, viruses and fungi. These also trap dirt, hair, food particles, and other debris to block the drains over time. To keep your drains working efficiently, to make them last longer and to avoid them smelling bad, you should clean and maintain them regularly. Should you be a renter, clearing an obstruction in the drains and disinfecting is key to securing your full bond back! You may always engage bond cleaning specialists in Hobart or drain cleaning professionals (if the drains are difficult to clean) and get your bond back on a full scale. Still, you should clean your home’s drains regularly to avoid blockage. Commercial drain cleaners can be effective, but they contain corrosive, noxious and potentially hazardous chemicals. 

How To Remove Blockages with Common Household Items

So you should have an idea how to clear, clean blocked drains with items from home. To dive in, here are 9 hacks by Bond Cleaners Perth to unclog a drain using things you’ve got lying around the house.

Unclog Your Drains with Dishwashing Liquid and Boiling Water

Dishwashing liquid has a degreasing action and can cut grease and dirt faster than many other commercial products. You can even use it to scrub drains and dislodge light buildup clogging the fixtures. Just run boiling water down the drain and give it a few squirts of dishwashing liquid. Another option is just to mix some dishwashing liquid with water, and then pour the mixture down the drain. Allow the soap to remain in place for 5-10 minutes and rinse with boiling water. This will help clean drains as part of the bond clean in Perth.

Flexible Brush lets you pull out hair, clean up with ease, and more!

These can all wind up in drains, particularly those in the bathroom and laundry room, clogging the fixtures and turning them into a breeding ground for germs. Drain Snake Hair Clog Remover Cleaning Tool, Without A drain cleaning brush, which is often seen in the home. Just ensure that your own is pliable and can get deep into the drain with minimal effort. You can use it to remove the gunk and throw it away in the trash without touching it.

How to Clean and Sanitise Drains with Baking Soda & White Vinegar

If your drains are simply heavily soiled, soap and boiling water may only do so much. So, not only must you wipe down the drains with baking soda and white vinegar. Together, their response produces carbon dioxide, a gas that dissolves gunk and grime. So after that dishwashing liquid and boiling water, in goes a cupful of baking soda and a cupful of white vinegar. Let it sit 10 minutes or until foaming subsides, then flush down with boiling water.

Dive into the Drain to Stir Up Gunk & Grime

The backup of the drain water is unclear, or does not drain at all. The simplest yet effective method of unclogging drains is with a plunger. It forms a deep suction and the mire and makes the clog disappear, drains and restores the normal operation of the drain. After plunging, run some boiling water down the drain to test it and wash away the rest of the debris.

Pour Bleach into Drains

Smelly and full of germs, dirty drains are not much to look at, or smell for that matter, and they can even attract pests, such as cockroaches, spiders, fungus gnats, drain flies, fruit flies and more. These pesky pests may ruin your food or leave your home unsanitary. So you have to unblock the drains and bleach them. To do this:

Then pour a cup of bleach down the drain along with the boiling water.

Plug the drain and allow the bleach to eat away at the grime for 30 minutes.

Reveal the drain and rinse it out with water. Theodor of bleach will deter pests, and you’ll also be able to keep the fixture fresh and clean for longer.

Turn a Wire Coat Hanger into a Drain Cleaner

Don’t have a drain cleaning brush at home? Improvise your own and unclog a drain with a wire coat hanger. Stretch the hanger out to make it straight and put a hook in the end to catch the blockage. It is a great cleaning hack to do at bond cleaning in Hobart, you can also do this regularly while house cleaning.

Unblock & Freshen Drains with Lemon & Salt

Lemon juice contains citric acid, which breaks down grease, grime and dirt. With a touch of salt, it becomes a serious house-cleaning staple. You can also use it to clean the drains – try a lemon juice concentrate, salt mix and pour it down the drain. Allow the solution to sit for 30 minutes or longer before you wash it away with hot water. As well as getting rid of blockages, lemon and salt will act as a deodoriser, ensuring a stinky sink won’t be an issue, and your house will smell clean and fresh.

Unclog Drains Using Hot Water & Ammonia

You can find ammonia in many cleansers under your kitchen sink, and it’s one of the most powerful products you can use to unclog drains and to clean your pipes. All you have to do is boil a litre of water and add one cup of ammonia. Then pour this solution down the drain, and allow it to stand for 30 minutes. Use a plunger to disturb the clog if it isn’t draining the solution. Rinse with plenty of water after that to make sure that you don’t have chemically unhealthy drains. This way is most suitable to sanitise the drains while performing bond cleaning in Perth.

Destroy the Clog With a Toothbrush

Most of the time, the drain trap is the culprit when it comes to the clog causing the blocked drain. Its slim head can fit inside a service, so you can clean quickly with a toothbrush. Use a flexible toothbrush for best results. Wash the gunk and mess down with a dishwashing liquid, and the brush will also help gather hair, lint and other debris that clog the drain trap. This is an old-fashioned cleaning hack that does work.

Wrapping Up

Foul drains are unsightly, smelly and work, and it would seem not to work or not at all. You have to clear them on a regular basis to keep buildup from clogging the drains. So, get these ideas to unclog a drain naturally using household products and not spending money on commercial cleaners and expensive equipment. These hints below help to clean out the drains in the normal house cleaning or bond cleaning.