Battling the toilets

It's not a pretty job - but somebody's gotta do it. And when hubby's not home, that somebody is me. I think our new toilets have a conspiracy to clog up right as they know my husband is gone for the day. That or my kids are trying to drive me crazy.

My first battle came the first week we moved in. It was between the master bath and me (although Carson was the main reason why it was clogged.) They don't call it master for nothing. This toilet proved to be king of all clogs. Normally I am fairly gifted at using a plunger. My dad taught me well. And I'm not afraid to tackle the job. Bodily fluids don't scare me much. But this job was going to take more than my muscle to get it out. I attempted to "snake" it out, but it would only go so far and then it would get stuck. I'm not sure if it was getting stuck on the pipes or the thing that was causing the clog. I left a message for Jason hoping he could give me any tips to get the toilet working again and figured I'd give my dad a ring in the meantime. His brilliant solution was to put hot soapy (dish detergent, such as Dawn) water in the toilet and let it sit for a bit. I kept at it plunging every half hour or so trying to let the soap do the work. Finally after all day of sitting - literally 9 - 5 - I was able to plunge for the last time and the water went down. Yes! Success!

I thought my toilet troubles were over. Not so fast there plunger queen. The next week the boys bathroom toilet becomes clogged. This time it was either Carson or Luke, neither of which would fess up to feeding miles of toilet paper into the toilet. I fished out what I could which probably equaled 32 pounds of soggy mess. And I went at it again with the plunger. Either I am getting weak or these are some stubborn unrelenting toilets. I resorted straight to the hot soapy water. I wasn't about to wresting with the snake again. This time it only took half a day 9 - 1 and I was again able to get whatever the clog was down and had a happy working toilet.

Then today the last and final toilet that wanted to fight me decides to clog up. This one was all to blame on Luke. I couldn't see any obstruction, but he was the last one in there using it before it decided not to flush. First up, plunge-a-thon 2008 - not working, but I got a good sweat out of it, or maybe that's because I forgot to turn the air conditioning on. Last resort, hot soapy water to the rescue - ta-da baby! Like I said, my dad's a brilliant man. It worked within 10 minutes.

Although I never figured out for sure what the clog was, I am pretty sure it was from too much paper being used. I'm never buying thick toilet paper again. It may be nice and cushion-y for the job at hand, but it sure is a pain in the rear to dislodge it from the toilet.

So moral of the story here - if you ever get a clogged toilet - call my dad. And it won't hurt to have a bucket of hot soapy water ready.