How to unclog a toilet without a plunger

You know that feeling? You flush the toilet and the contents in the bowl stop disappearing halfway through the flushing process... And to make it even worse;  you don't have a plunger or snake handy to force the clog down the drain.

But there is a way to unclog a toilet without a plunger. Common household items from your kitchen or closet will work well to dislodge the obstruction. In less than 10 minutes, your toilet can be operating normally and you won't have to spend any money hiring an expensive plumber.


Toilets can get clogged when foreign objects, like clumps of tissue, get wedged in the U-bend, causing a blockage. If you don't want to get messy I recommend the following tip for clearing blockages without using a plunger.

Utilizing Dishsoap

One of the more basic and easy methods to unclog a toilet without a plunger is simply by showering some dish soap directly into the toilet bowl, accompanied by a bucket of hot water. This method to unclog toilet raises the water temperature around the clog, and may also release the blockage. The dish soap provides a little bit of lubrication within this process. So let's get started:

1. Fill a bucket with hot water, a gallon or two should do the trick with a minor clog
2. Squirt generous amounts of dishwashing liquid into the toilet bowl. I prefer liquid soap instead of a soap bar
3. Carefully pour the hot water into the toilet bowl to dissolve the liquid soap. The soap should quickly begin to unclog the toilet drain by helping the clogged object start sliding down the pipes
4. If the drain isn't cleared yet then repeat the process. When the water in the toilet bowl goes down, the blockage has been dislodged.

Once you have got this done, and your blockage is removed, place another bucket of hot water down the toilet bowl to eliminate any kind of crud that may have developed within your pipes. If this method doesn't clear your drain you can try the messy-way

Rubber gloves

If you have a weak stomach you will certainly not want to go down this road, but sometimes if you have a rather large object wedged in the toilet, there is no other way but to remove it manually. Plumbers have found all sorts of strange things plugging a toilet such as cell phones, underwear, so you never know what you might find once you start digging.

Put on the rubber gloves and try to dig your way into the drain. Keep a towel in a close distance to avoid your floor is getting wet all over the place.

If you have found the blockage and the water is flushing down the drain again, pour some hot water afterwards in the toilet to remove all of the clog.