I come from a traditional Italian family where I lived with my parents until I got married.
They didn't even want me to go away to college so I went to a good local school and commuted from home.
I've had jobs of course, even during college and my first one during high school, but none of them involved plumbing.
My dad did all the plumbing in our house and although he's a great dad he's not so terrific when it comes to teaching me stuff I didn't realize I should have known until I moved out.
For instance: basic electrical work and plumbing.
I learned on my own how to replace light switches, outlets and ceiling light fixtures.
Today I learned how to clean out the trap.
Last week I started having a pretty bad problem.
The toilet kept backing up.
Nothing terrible, it didn't overflow or anything and every time I used the plunger it got better.
The next day though, or at most a few days later, it would happen again.
I have these big basin sinks in the basement and I saw they were backing up a little bit too.
That's when I realized it wasn't just the toilet that was the problem.
I did not know what to do, however.
Liquid drain cleaner was my first thought.
It was simple and at least worth a try.
Unfortunately it did not do the trick and I was still having problems after trying it for a few days.
So I called my dad.
What I needed to do was buy a snake down at the local hardware superstore.
This is basically a long metal strip that's somewhat flexible and coils back on itself into a roll.
The guys in the plumbing department will know exactly what you're talking about and point you in the right direction.
Then I needed to go down into my basement and find the trap.
This was a bit harder to find, but depending on your basement it may be very easy.
Mine was sort of hidden.
It should be the lowest point in the basement and basically what you do is open it up and shove the snake in.
There's not much of an art to it, although maybe a little.
You just kind of shove it in and move it around and back and forth, basically like cleaning out a gutter but not with your hands.
Key point: you may have to or want to use your hands to get started.
This is not a good idea if you have been flushing liquid drain cleaner down your pipes.
No, I did not find this out the hard way, I figured it out on my own and confirmed it with my dad on the phone, but I guess it would have made for a funny story.
Seriously though, if you have to then use rubber gloves that come up your arms a bit.
In fact, get those anyway.
I would not stick my bare hands in that thing.