"You've just put the finishing touches on the birthday cake. The streamers are in place, the snacks are on the table, the lawn chairs are set up outside and everything else is ready to go. You take a glance around your kitchen and sigh with relief. This birthday party is going to go smoothly after all. And then you hear it, the muffled cry from the bathroom: ?Mom, the drain is plugged!?

You go to check out the situation. You knew that there had been some build-up and that the sink was draining more slowly than usual but you didn't think that it was going to be a serious problem. As you look at the dirty soap water leaving grime rings on your sink, you can see that the only thing that's going down the drain is your party. Where are your guests going to wash their hands?! Hopefully you have some emergency drain cleaning tips up your sleeve so that you can pull off this party.

Emergency drain cleaning is all about getting the water flowing smoothly through your pipes again so that you can use the system as needed. It doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to solve the problem permanently but the temporary fix will be able to hold your plumbing over until you can really resolve the problem. So the thing to do is to clean out what's causing the blockage and make sure that water once again goes down the drain.

The most common thing that people do for emergency drain cleaning is to get a bottle of drain cleaner and pour it down the drain. This solution tends to provide a quick fix which resolves the problem. It won't necessarily get rid of all of the build-up but it'll remove enough of it to make sure that your party guests can wash their hands. You should keep a drain cleaning solution on hand in case of emergencies like this one. Alternatively, try a solution of vinegar and lemon juice to clear up some of the blockage.

You might find that the drain cleaner doesn't work for you (or that it's too late to run out and buy some since you forgot to stock up). In that case, you're going to want to put up some household cleaning gloves and get ready to get dirty. To remove the blockage, you're going to try reaching into the drain. If that fails, you're going to try taking apart the pipes and cleaning out the mess that's inside. First things first, see if a finger swipe down the drain catches on to anything. Hair in the drain is a common cause of clogs; if you can grab it and free it, you can solve the problem. If this doesn't work, try getting a toothbrush to get further down into the drain. If you still catch nothing, consider taking the pipes apart.

Of course, you should only take your pipes apart for cleaning if you know what you're doing. If it's not something that you've tried before, you probably don't want the day of your big party to be the day that you become a handyman. However, if you know the basics of screwing and unscrewing your pipes, you can take them apart, scrub out the gunk and replace them. Just make sure that you have the number of a good emergency plumber on hand in case you do something wrong!"