Avoid flushing these items down your toilet if you want to ensure the health of your plumbing system.

Homeowners have a lot to think about regarding the care of their houses. Every day can seem to bring a new issue that you need to worry about. That’s why it’s so important to make sure you aren’t doing anything to make more problems for yourself. If there’s one kind of problem homeowners never want to deal with, it’s anything related to their plumbing. If you want to avoid inadvertently harming your plumbing system, make sure you watch out for these things that are dangerous to flush down the toilet.

Tissue Paper and Paper Towels

You can forgive yourself for thinking that paper towels and tissues are safe to flush down your toilet. They don’t seem very different from toilet paper, so shouldn’t they be fine to flush? Unfortunately, tissues and paper towels aren’t designed to break down in water in the same way toilet paper is. This means they can easily get stuck in your pipes and cause a clog.

Sanitary Wipes

If you want to make sure your sewer line stays clear, you should never flush baby wipes or sanitary wipes. Again, they seem like items that could easily go down the toilet, but these wipes don’t break down in water either. Be wary of wipes that advertise themselves as “flushable,” as this can sometimes mean you can flush them, but they still won’t break down as they should.

Old Medication

Of the many things that are dangerous to flush down your toilet, medication can have the biggest impact on other people. The chemicals in your old medication can start to break down in the water, which will eventually get recycled and put back into the water supply. These chemicals can taint water, even after processes like filtration and water treatment.

Hair Trimmings

One of the less pleasant things to think about when flushing hair is how it can get caught and cause a problem in your plumbing. Hair trimmings, even from short hair, can get stuck in different parts of your pipes. All this hair can sometimes catch on itself, creating a disturbing net of hair that clogs and damages your piping.

Food Waste

Because human waste is simply broken-down food, it might make sense to flush food waste down your toilet. However, food in its natural state can often take much longer to break down in water than waste products. Food waste may be biodegradable, but in the process of breaking down, it may cause a clogging issue that you’ll have to deal with.

Menstrual Products

The issue with menstrual products getting stuck in pipes comes from the way they are manufactured. Menstrual products such as tampons and pads are meant to absorb water, not break down in it. This means they will actually expand in the water of your pipes, likely causing a serious clog that will be very unpleasant to deal with.