It’s been getting slower. You’ve been ignoring it. Or you have indoor plumbing … barely. Or you’re rushing to an interview, brush your teeth and find you’ll be leaving your housemate a not-so-verdant pool in the bathroom sink.

Not to worry. Whether you are a homeowner, a renter or a couchsurfer, when the drain isn’t draining, you can fix it yourself — and most of the options are eco-friendly.

Stage one: Going slow

The best time to catch a lame drain is when toothpaste residue, elderly plumbing and lost hairs are beginning to gang up. You want to startle clogs into making their way out of your plumbing.

Step #1: Clear the Clumps. First, remove the plug. For most sinks, you can unscrew the plug stopper. For some bathtubs, you can remove it with a screwdriver. If it won’t come out, work around it.

Use a handy tool — perhaps an unbent paperclip, or ask your local hardware store — to fish around and pull out what you can.  Warning: It will be black, gunky and most likely smell. Repeat to yourself, “This is naturally occurring biodegradable matter.” Compost or trash your findings.

Step #2: Volcano! If you liked science fair as a kid, you will like this. Dump half a cup of baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) into the drain.

Photo by author

Now pour in a cup of vinegar. If the vinegar doesn’t drain, swizzle it around with a stick or chopstick until it does. If you have a washcloth handy, use it to plug the overflow drain. Meanwhile, put a big pot of water to boil. When the volcano has bubbled down the drain, pour in the boiling water. Most likely, more black goo will come up, but the water will clear away the slowdown. If it doesn’t, repeat step two.

Stage two: Blocked with standing water

If you didn’t attack it in stage one, you might have more work to do. Wear gloves — this can get messy.

Step #1: Repeat step one from above and see if anything significant comes out.

Step #2: Plunge it. Ideally, use a small plunger dedicated to sink clogs. In a dire situation, you could sanitize a toilet plunger and use that, but you lose bragging rights, or else no one will want to eat at your house ever again. Stop up the overflow drain with a wadded-up rag to make the plunger work.

Step #3: Pull out clogs. If step two fails, try to dislodge the clog and pull it out. In a pinch, use a wire coat hanger or other heavy wire to fish deeper in the drain. Or use a plumber’s snake or pipe auger. This is a dense, flexible wire on a reel that you unwind it slowly, forcing the snake into the drain where it can grab onto clogs when you wind it back. Buy one for around $20 US at a hardware store. For a bathtub, remove the overflow cover and push the snake down the overflow drain. Use care not to scratch porcelain.

Step #4: Remove the trap. The “trap” is a curved pipe (P-shaped or S-shaped) in the plumbing beneath a sink. First, place a bucket beneath the trap to catch the water that will rush out. Next, use a wrench to unscrew the giant nuts that hold the pipe in place. Dump the water in the bucket.

Photo by scott*eric

You might be able to see a clog in this trap that you can remove by hand. Or you might need to run the plumber’s snake into the pipe from here. Replace the trap the same way you took it off. You will need plumber’s Teflon tape to reseal the pipe when you replace it. Check for leaks before you go on your merry way.

Step #5: Last resort –chemicals. For a bathtub clog where you can’t access the trap, you might have to resort to a drain-cleaning chemical. These caustic chemicals usually contain lye and interact with water, so make sure you get rid of standing water first. Wear protective gloves and eyewear, and read the directions carefully. These products are quite hazardous, although they can be used with a septic system. Do NOT use them in toilets — they build up heat that can cause a toilet bowl to crack.

What if it’s the toilet?

If plunging and a snake don’t work, you might have to remove the toilet and turn it upside down to get rid of the blockage. You will need a new wax toilet ring on hand to reseal the toilet when you put it back. If the unclogging takes more than a minute, plug the hole in the floor with an old towel to avoid toxic fumes.

If all of these fail, you might have to call in a professional plumber. If you don’t own the plumbing, talk to your host or landlord before calling a plumber or taking dire steps, of course.

Most of the time, you’ll be able to resolve the situation quickly and without harm to the environment. And after you’ve washed off the black goo and changed out of your sweaty clothes, you’ll have a semi-disgusting anecdote to share with your friends when you go out for the cocktail you so richly deserve.

Community Connection

Want to share any plumbing horror stories? Any other unclogging tips?

For more green ideas, check out Neha Puntambekar’s guide to creating a peaceful and positive home. Looking for some DIY tips? Find tips on saving your sanity during home renovation projects here.

Photo by quinn.anya

Yes, it’s simple. You just need the right recipe. This one comes from the Artisan Bread In Five Minutes A Day cookbook, and this is how I do it.

Mixing day:

1. Get a container that can hold several quarts of dough. My container’s square dimensions mean it takes up little space in the fridge.

Photo and Feature Photo by author

Add ingredients as follows:

* 3 cups of warm water (about 750 ml)

* 1 1/2 tablespoons of yeast (about 37 ml)

* 1 1/2 tablespoons of salt (about 37 ml)

* 6 1/2 cups of flour (about 780 g).

The recipe calls for all-purpose flour. I usually bake bread with bread flour, which is a higher-protein flour that typically makes longer strands of gluten, and I like a little bit of whole-grain tooth. For this recipe, I’ve generally been using 1 cup of whole wheat flour (ours is stone-ground and quite rough), 1 1/2 cups of bread flour, and 4 cups of all-purpose flour. Experiment with mixtures you like.

2. Stir up the ingredients until everything is damp. If you live in a dry climate and your flour seems exceptionally dry, add a little bit more water (a couple of tablespoons). Don’t worry about being super thorough — overmixing isn’t necessary. This should take about 2 minutes.

3. Leave it on the counter for a couple of hours if you want to bake immediately. If not, put it in the refrigerator. Overnight is good. A full day is great. Up to a week or two should be OK. This is what it will look like after it’s been chilling and rising:

Note: For those with small refrigerators, you can divide the recipe in half, let the dough rise on the counter, and bake it immediately so you don’t give up valuable refrigerator space to the dough. Or collaborate with neighbors and share a big batch!

Baking day:

1. Get the dough out of the fridge. You’ll want a nice, peaceful, nonstick surface for your dough to rise on. I like to use a Silpat mat — it is nonstick, nontoxic, reusable, heat safe, and flexible for easy dough-dumping. (I got mine 10 years ago at New York Cake & Pastry, which is stamped on the mat, making them a useful souvenir of my time cooking in NYC.) If you don’t have a Silpat, you can use the counter, a towel or a small plate or cutting board.

2. Dust your rising surface with a good coat of flour. Any kind will do.

3. Pull off a hunk of dough. Some guidelines: A piece the size of a grapefruit is about a pound (450 g). A piece the size of a cantaloupe is about 1 1/2 lbs (675 g). I use a piece probably closer to 2 pounds (900 g) — the size of a really big cantaloupe, or maybe a somewhat petite honeydew. You can use a knife, too, but mine usually tears easily and doesn’t require cutting.

Set the dough on the floured surface. Flour your hands. Shape the wad of dough into a round loaf just like this:

4. Cover the dough with a towel and let it nap for a while. How long it rises will depend on how warm your kitchen is. An hour is sufficient if it’s warm (75-80F/25C and up). My kitchen is usually freezing (60-62F/16C), so I leave it out 2 to 3 hours.

5. About 25 minutes before you want to start baking the bread, put your covered heatproof pan in the oven and turn the oven on to very hot (450F/232C). (My pan is a Williams-Sonoma covered cast-iron Dutch oven skillet that my co-worker Jill, God bless her, gave me in 1992.) I like to put the pan in the oven when I start the bread rising, long before I turn the oven on; otherwise, I am prone to forget it and just heat the oven sans pan.

6. When the oven is preheated, uncover your dough. It doesn’t look too much different — just a little bit taller, softer and more refreshed after its rising “nap.”

7. I bend the edges of the Silpat around the dough to shake as much flour close to the dough as I can to minimize the mess. Take the pan out of the oven (careful! It’s SO hot) and remove the lid.

Photo by ansik

Carefully dump the dough into the pan. What was the bottom will be on top, with some rough edges showing. That’s OK! It will all work out in the end.

8. Bake for about 30 minutes. Then open the oven, take off the lid, and let the bread keep on baking for about 20 minutes longer. (Those rough edges have made a gorgeous crown on the bread.) Check it after that initial 30 minutes — if your oven is hotter, the bread might not need as much time. It will be done when it is fairly brown on top, quite brown (but not black) on the bottom, and sounds hollow when tapped.

9. It comes out of the oven brown and amazing!

10. Gently (and carefully! — it’s hot) tip the bread out of the pan and let the bread cool completely on a rack.

11. Slice it and enjoy the texture. It should be moist, chewy and crusty — perfect for toast, sandwiches or just scarfing down with butter.

Please note that it has probably taken you almost as long to read this post as to make the bread!

COMMUNITY CONNECTION:

For more recipes, tips and tricks check out Matador’s Food and Travel page.

Plastic bags, the scourge of our planet. On the one hand, plastic bags are innocuous carriers of stuff. We use them to bring home groceries. A restaurateur ties them carefully around our take-out soup to prevent spills. They keep the wet swimsuit from soaking our clothes in an overnight bag.

Yet they also serve as the modern marker of impending doom. In movies or photographs, every bad neighborhood, every empty stretch of road where evil is surely soon to invade, is populated by a plastic bag impaled on a barbed-wire fence or blowing listlessly across the street.

Photo by Samuel Mann

Plastic Damage

That doom, of course, also applies to our planet. Only about 12 percent of plastic bags and film were reused or recycled in 2007, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The rest were discarded. Plastic bags are lodged in our waterways, creating irreversible harm to animals on a physical level — bags in stomachs or around necks — and on a molecular level as the bags disintegrate, the chemicals they release into the environment can create hormonal changes in living things.

While China has banned plastic bags — reportedly saving 1.6 million tons of petroleum for bag production in just one year — most of the rest of us are offered plastic bags daily. Reduce your plastic-bag impact on the world by taking personal action.

How to Keep the Plastic in Check

First, just don’t take a bag – Bring your own with you. If you travel by car, keep a stash of reusable bags in the car. Carry a knapsack or messenger bag where you can stash purchases. Invest in a few expandable string or nylon bags. Bring along reusable mesh produce bags for fruits and veggies, and reusable muslin bags for bulk buys.

What if the deed is done? Put your stash of bags to good use by reusing them. Here are seven ideas to get you started.

Line the trash

Many people reuse plastic bags as small trash can liners. But don’t use this as a reason to get bags, necessarily — we avoid accepting plastic bags and leave our trash cans unlined, putting all our trash into one larger, recycled plastic bag that we dump each week. It doesn’t smell, because we compost our degradable waste.

Photo by ThisParticularGreg

Fuse your own plastic “fabric”

If you have a stack of bags, an iron and some parchment or other non-waxed paper, you can fuse layers of plastic bags together to make waterproof linings for other bags, floor cushions, and more. Be sure to open a window and maybe even wear a respiratory mask to keep the fumes out of your body. Watch a tutorial, and visit Craft for ideas of what to do with the fabric — like making a raincoat!

Fill a flowerpot

You can crumple up plastic bags to put in the bottom of a flowerpot, before filling with potting soil. The pot will be lighter, have easier drainage and require less dirt. Best for non-edible annual plants.

Be ready for emergencies

Throw one or two in your bag or luggage to keep dirty shoes off your packed clothes, or keep your notebook dry even with a damp umbrella in the same bag.

Make plarn

If you’re a knitter or crocheter, consider slicing and dicing bags into plastic yarn, or “plarn.” See a tutorial here from Helle Jorgensen, who crochets phenomenal plastic sea creatures from old bags.

Recycle the bags – and other plastic

While the EPA reports that only about 6.8 percent of all plastics were recycled in 2008, many communities now have drop-off sites that accept plastic bags for recycling. And “filmy” plastic includes more than just grocery sacks. In the same bin, you can return dry cleaning bags, shrink-wrap from boxes, clean plastic wrap, newspaper bags or any lightweight plastic to be turned into another product, like lumber, garbage bags or milk jugs.

Buy recycled plastic

If you must buy plastic bags — to carry away major garbage, for instance — buy recycled.

Community Connection

Several countries have banned (or taxed) plastic bags in an effort to reduce plastic bag usage. To learn more check out our page on green living.

Above: Various spices used in chai. Photos by Susanna Donato.

In our temperate North American climate, October means crisp blue skies, the sweet dusty smell of leaves piling up beneath trees, and of course, a burning desire for warm, spicy food and drink.

Nothing says “you’re home” in fall like a pot of something to warm you up. I love to draw that warmth from around the world: Fall is for chai masala.

“Chai” means tea in many languages, and “masala” means mixed spices in some Asian languages. In the world’s biggest coffee chain, a place where the littlest drink is “tall” and mixed lingos rule, “chai latte” is the international term for spicy tea with milk.

A warm cup of chai

In India, the person who makes and serves chai masala is known as a chai wallah. In areas where no master of chai is handy, you can do the job yourself.

Of course, you can stop into a café or buy a boxed, condensed version of chai. If you do so, expand your horizons by asking about locally available brews. (In Colorado, where I live, some cafes carry locally microbrewed Bhakti Chai, a fiery, spicy variety.) Or you can save money and gain insight by brewing your own.

Brew in Bulk

For years, my husband has made chai in large batches — about a half-gallon (2L). The recipe is flexible and easy to personalize: add more pepper and ginger if you like it spicy; more cinnamon and vanilla for a smoother, sweeter style. But the basics are:

Put a large pot of water to boil.

Toss in spices (refer to leading image): About 1/4 cup (approximately 30) green cardamom pods, a cinnamon stick or two, 3-4 star anise, about 12 cloves (too many will make it numbing), a few slices from a ginger root or a teaspoon of ginger powder, a teaspoon of black peppercorns, and a piece of nutmeg and/or a vanilla bean if you like.

Boil for 30 minutes to an hour. Your house will be infused with the good smell.

Tea brewing

Turn off the heat, add tea — 1/4 cup of tea powder, or about six black tea bags. Cover and steep 5 minutes.

Strain into a pitcher. Stir in a spoonful of vanilla extract and sweeten to taste.

To serve, heat gently with milk to taste.

The whole process takes about an hour, largely unsupervised, and you can keep the pitcher in your refrigerator for a few days, reheating as you like. Explore local markets to find spices in bulk — you’ll have a travel souvenir or a new local haunt, and you’ll save money, too.

Authentic Style

You can also boil the mixture together with milk for a strong, creamy drink that is much closer to real Indian chai masala. Caveat: India is still on my travel wish list, so feel free to chime in with your own recipes or tips if you know better! But I can guarantee this tastes fantastic.

You can crush or grind the same spices used above. Out of curiosity, I recently picked up a packet of masala chai mix at our local Indian market. The word online is that these pre-packaged spices might be stale, but this shop is well-regarded and busy.

This style is best made to serve immediately. Double or triple the recipe if you’re serving more than one.

Bring 1/2 cup of water to a boil.

Masala chai mix

Add 1/2 teaspoon chai spice mix (or to taste — our mixture’s ingredients begin with black pepper and ginger, so it is very spicy). Boil 1 minute.

Add 2 teaspoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon tea powder (powdered tea reportedly holds up better and produces better flavor than tea leaves when boiled vigorously like this; we had some Ethiopian tea powder on hand). Boil 1 minute.

Add 1 cup of milk. (Some swear by using only half-and-half or whole milk to be really rich and creamy.) Bring close to a boil.

When the mixture is almost boiling, remove it from the heat for a few moments. Then put it back. Repeat this process — a dance of almost boiling, removal, return close to the boil — 5-7 times.

Steep, covered, off the heat for two minutes.

Strain the mixture and enjoy.

Boiled chai masala is richer in taste and more expensive to make, with the milk or cream, not to mention the personal effort. You can make it while doing other kitchen chores — I’ve been known to brew it up while emptying the dishwasher — but it’s also wonderful to be contemplative about it. Mixing up this spicy goodness can be nourishing to the soul, as well as the body. Breathe it in, connect and enjoy. Namaste!

COMMUNITY CONNECTION