The Young Person's Guide to Bathroom Cleaning and Student Plumbing Emergencies

Does this sound familiar? Once you lived at home and took the relative comforts of the family bathroom for granted. But now you are at an age when you find yourself moving (often) between dorms, flats, apartments or shared houses and each new abode has its own special brand of terror.

Your new lifestyle includes the psychopathic neighbour who refuses to acknowledge you and plays weird music throughout the night and a shared kitchen that is so vile you are reluctant to cook there. It sometimes feels like you are trapped in a Nightmare on Elm Street.

However, the biggest shocker is the bathroom. From showers that overflow, to shower heads that are so blocked you only get a trickle at full blast. Then there is the lavatory that resembles the chamber of horrors and the shower stall that obviously featured in Hitchcock’s Psycho.

Here, then is the definitive guide to fixing some of the worst of these sanitary disasters. Please note this is NOT a ‘how to keep the bathroom sparkling clean week after week guide’.

We’ll leave that to your OCD Auntie Aggie. No this is more about how to sort out massive plumbing disasters that need instant attention rather being left for a month for your Landlord to deal with.

Incidentally, isn't it funny how landlords are so quick to pick up on some minor thing you do wrong like not paying the rent, yet are so incredibly slow to actually fix anything that doesn't work?. In particular, sinks or showers being totally blocked or the shower not delivering hot water.

Here are some cost effective, essential tools and aids to help the amateur plumber to get things running again and clean up the bathroom just enough so your new flame and love interest won’t walk out on you in disgust at 3.00 am!

The first vital tool is an Old Toothbrush. Before we continue, a useful tip. Once you've reassigned your old toothbrush to bathroom cleaning duties, then don’t get it mixed up with your regular toothbrush or you could be in for a nasty surprise when you insert it in your mouth!

Yes redundant toothbrushes are brilliant for removing all the vile gunk that you’ll find amongst the tiles, shower screens and shower heads. Because the brush head is so small you can get loads of brush power into those awkward corners and recesses than nothing else can touch.

Lime Scale is one of the biggest contributors to foul bathrooms. Lime scale is caused by ‘hard’ water, in other words, water with dissolved minerals in it such as calcium carbonate (from limestone).

Limescale build up leaves whitish deposits in kettles and in pipes and blocks shower heads. It also stains sinks and toilet bowls.

Another horror in the bathroom is Mould that grows in damp conditions and typically results in black or orange deposits in showers and on bathroom walls. Mound growth can be reduced by better ventilation (open windows and/or extractor fans).

Getting rid of mould or lime scale can be done using a variety of products from supermarkets or DIY stores, dedicated to either problem. A cheap alternative, however, is to use White Vinegar.

For lime scale on surfaces of sinks or showers, rub in white vinegar using your trusty old toothbrush and leave it for a few minutes. You can also unblock a blocked shower head by soaking it in vinegar for about half an hour.

White vinegar rubbed on mould encrusted tiles also clears the gunk. It is particularly effective at removing the black mould from the tile grout (the white filler between the tiles).

The plunger is a basic device you can pick up for less than a £1 (or a $1). The simplest designs consist of a rubber cup on the end of a handle that is about 1 foot long (30cm). More complex models feature a concertina-shaped plastic cylinder.

Blockages in showers are often caused by long hair collecting in a tangled mass. Should someone with long hair use your bathroom then they are likely to be big contributors to this type of blockage.

So, if you, a guy, meet a gorgeous girl with long thick hair and super-model proportions then you may need to rethink a serious relationship. After all you really don't want a blocked shower, do you?

Blockages often occur in the u bend under the sink or shower. If you push the plunger rapidly up and down over a blocked plughole or shower drain, it should either push or suck the blockage free and allow the water to drain away.

Sometimes the blockage forms just under the drain plug before the u bend.

Hair collects here and soap and other deposits are trapped resulting in a blockage anchored to the drain. This is best removed using a small brush that fits between the holes in the sink drain.

A small test tube brush or bottle brush will typically do the job well. Twist it through each of the holes and it will detach the loose hairs.

When you pull the brush out some of the hair and gunk will typically be pulled back into the sink. You can then collect it together and dispose of it.

Another way to shift a shower or sink blockage, if plungers and brushes don’t work, is to buy various chemical-based products designed to dissolve sink blockages.

If you can’t afford these, then a cheap, green alternative consists of a pint of white vinegar and a large cup of bicarbonate of soda or, as shown in the video below, you can use Alka Seltzer tablets.

Pour the bicarbonate of soda down the plughole first and then add the vinegar. When the solution stops fizzing, simply flush with hot water.

Here's hoping you never find yourself in a hellish bathroom but if you do then these simple tips should help you to survive the horror.

They may also save the love of your life from walking out on you in the middle of the night because they can't endure your encrusted toilet or the blocked sink.

So, without further delay, get yourself a sink plunger, an old toothbrush, a small brush and some vinegar and bicarb.

To finish with I've included a simple video where you can see the sink unblocking mixture in action!