How to Un-Clog Your Bathroom Sink

Ew.

I know that some of these photos are gross but this project had such a positive impact on our daily lives that it felt criminal not to share. The bathroom sink in our new rental apartment started acting up the day we moved in. At first it was an inconvenient slow drain but soon it turned into a full on clog and we knew that we had to do something about it.

The only issue was that the sink stopper wasn’t the old fashioned kind that just pops right out of the sink making it easy to clean out whatever was clogging the drain (the previous tenant’s hair, in our case – beyond gross). After a few helpful youtube tutorials, we figured out how to unclog the bathroom sink and I am so happy to say that we now have a fully functioning sink! Read on to see how we did it.

So you have a clogged sink, now what? If your sink is anything like ours (which is likely if you live in a modern home) then you need to first look underneath.

Under the sink you will see a vertical metal piece that is attached to a horizontal piece screwed into the drain pipe. This is the mechanism that allows you to lift and lower the drain stopper from the lever behind your sink faucet. In order to remove the sink stopper, you first have to unscrew the horizontal piece attached to the pipe as displayed in the photo below.

If you would like to see a video how-to watch how to clean out a sink pop-up drain stopper.

Once the drain stopper has been removed, grab your needle nose pliers to help you remove any gunk that might be causing the clog.

EW! I had to put this photo in black and white to minimize how repulsing it was.

But once you’re finished and you replace the drain stopper back in your sink, you will feel the glory of a properly working drain – so worth it!