Hair clogged drain? This $3 tool and 30 seconds is all you need.

I don't endorse products or allow random advertising on my blog, but I have recently found out that I am actually not the last person on earth to know about this tool.  None of the people I mentioned it to this week had ever used one, so maybe you don't know about it either.  If you have slow bathroom sink or tub drains, and anyone in your house wears their hair longer than a buzz cut, stop at your local hardware store for one of these this week. 

Zip-It.  Clogged bathroom sink or tub drain?  This is probably all you'll ever need.

Wasband #2 (he of the musician's mane) used to plunge the bejeezus out of the tub drain about once a month, and it still never worked very well.  About once a year, I would give up and dump a bottle of the wickedest drain cleaner I could find down the thing, which also didn't seem to really (di)solve the issue.  A few years back, I found the pipe cleanout under flooring in the closet, and removed a hairball the size of a dachshund from where the plunger seemed to have packed it into a union of the new and old plumbing.

About a year ago, knowing the clog wasn't that far down the pipe, but unable to work any sort of magic with a plunger, I popped around the corner to the hardware store (love small town living!) to see what else there was.  I chose the ultra-super-dissolves-everything-except-miraculously-your-pipes potion, and then spotted this little gizmo.  It's a Zip-It.  Some of the potions now even come with one.  I don't think you need the potion.

Despite my best efforts, and a fine tea strainer that catches most of my baby silk hair, I still get a slow drain a few times a year.  I now know not to push it further along with a plunger, where it will grow from a mouse sized inconvenience to a small monster that will totally clog the pipe fifteen minutes before out of town guests arrive.  Now I just pop in this little zippy strip, wiggle it, tug a bit, briefly panic thinking this will be the time it gets permanently snarled into the drain, and then finally pull out the offending snarl of silk.  Voila!  and Eeew!  (I'll spare you a photo of that.)  Zippy-quick drains, once again.

Okay, this is not the sexiest post I've ever written (Wait.  Sadly, it might be.  This isn't really a very sexy blog is it?), and not exactly a decorative topic (unless you noticed the fab painted marble counter top), but it's probably one of the biggest favors I could ever do for my readers.  Seriously.  I love whoever invented this thing.  I could marry whoever invented this thing.  Oh wait, I can operate it myself.  No spouse required.  Good thing, 'cause I could be in for a really big surprise at the altar... ! :)))  Whoever you are, I send you my undying gratitude.  I hope it's made you a millionaire.