You've probably heard this tip before, but as recently as yesterday it saved me the cost of a plumber's visit. It requires the cheapest vinegar you can find. (Any kind of vinegar will work, but why spend the extra cash?) I recommend the plastic gallon jug from Wal-Mart that goes for $1.78. It also requires a box of baking soda. Again, the cheapest kind you can put your hands on works fine. You won't need a whole box of baking soda, or a whole gallon of vinegar, unless you have gorillas using your shower. In that case, you don’t need a plumber. You need a scud missile!

I first read this tip in the newspaper, and they gave precise measurements:

1/3 cup of baking soda
1 cup of vinegar.

But now, like all master chefs, I ignore recipes and go with what feels right. You can do either one.

My wife or I uses this mix in our shower drains when they start to slow down. We scrape off whatever hair, soap scum, vegetable matter or whatever else is covering the drain, then push a bit of baking soda down the hole. We wash that down with some vinegar, then do it again. Usually twice is all it takes to loosen up whatever's ailing the drain and send it to where the sun don't shine, as they say.

Unless your sister-in-law with long black hair comes to visit and spends the entire visit in the shower, furiously washing hair down the drain. Don’t call the plumber yet though! Take the cover off the drain. Ours have a screw in the middle that seems to screw into the foundation of our neighbor’s house—12,000 miles straight below us in China. Other drain covers can be pried off with a well-placed screwdriver on the edge. Pull out as much hair with your fingers and screwdriver as possible, then douse the drain twice with vinegar and baking soda.

I’m not sure what this final step does, but I pour a pot of boiling water down the old cram hole once I’ve poured the vinegar down it twice. If nothing else, this’ll guarantee that you can eat off your the drain once you’ve got it draining properly again.

You're probably dying to know how this saved me the price of a plumber's visit yesterday. Well, the side of our sink that goes to our garbage disposal hasn't been draining for the last few weeks. I have no idea why we couldn't just run the garbage disposal and clear the block, but that didn't work. It did spray a fair amount of gross water in my face though, on more than one occasion. So finally yesterday morning I'd had enough of scraping all the dishes into the trash before I washed them. I got out my trusty box of baking soda and jug of vinegar, and ten minutes later we had drainage. Oh, did we have drainage!

Note of interest: Baking soda and vinegar can be used in science fair projects to imitate a volcano's eruption. But that won’t save you the cost of a plumber’s visit.