Okay, so I promised some fails on my part, so here we go. I can admit when I have made a mistake, and this one was a doozy. I had (finally) decided that I needed to clean out the fridge. And after deliberating for a few minutes (because I hate throwing out good food), I put my butternut squash leftovers down the disposal. Now, I cannot pinpoint the exact cause...okay, it was probably the squash, but all of a sudden I was looking at a sink back up. I was running the disposal and the other sink was backing up with disgusting leftovers. So I did as any self respecting wife would do... I tried to fix it myself without letting my husband know that I had massively screwed up. I poured some degreaser into the cloudy, nasty water. I kept running the disposal, only to make it worse. Next thing I know - it is POURING out of the dishwasher. I start trying to stop the water while (finally) screaming for the husband to come and help me. He had that look on his face - come on, wives, you know the one. It is the one that says "you should have called me an hour ago before you did this much damage. lol
So, anyway, he tried plunging while I started searching the internet. I kept coming across the same advice of baking soda and vinegar, but still sent the husband off to the store to find a solution. (I also requested that he purchase another box of baking soda, just in case) He came back with a snake and my requested box of baking soda. Of course, the snake did nothing. It wouldn't go past the curve in the pipes. So back to the internet I go. And found this. I will paraphrase to shorten but I have to say - I got to do that happy dance mentioned in the last step. ;)
1)Dump a fair amount of baking soda down both sides of your two sided sink.
2) Follow that up with a good glug of vinegar and watch it foam. FUN!
3) Let it sit for as long as you are patient. For me, it was about 5-10 minutes.
4) Boil a medium sized pot of water and dump that down both sides.
5) Wait a few more minutes. and then turn on the hot water to fill up each sink about half way.
6) Plug up the non-disposal side of the sink and hold the plug down if it tries to pop up.
7) Plunge the disposal side for several minutes, 5 or so should do it.
8) You should soon hear that wonderful sound of the drain clearing.9) Do happy dance and call back husband that doubted it would work to show him your success. ;)
10) If this does not work try reversing the plug and plunge the other side.
11) Last resort - call a plumber.
I am extremely happy to say that this worked PERFECTLY for me. And at a time that we could ill afford the call to a plumber.
So that's my fail of the week... well, just the one I am going to admit to ;)
