Tips from my email
I have soooo many emails saved with tips that I want to post here, so I’m going to list several great links to check out today and a bit of information on septic tank care. These tips come from MyHomeIdeas.com.
Spruce up your home with these natural tips for dealing with the dirty work.
› See all 7 tips!
More for a Healthy Home
• Get organized in style.
• Breathe cleaner air.
• Create a fitness room.
• Rid your home of allergens.
We have a septic tank and there are certain things that we do NOT do because of that. The big one is that I do not put food scraps down the sink – they go in the trash can. This drives my mom crazy because my kids put their scraps in her trash can (they don’t need to because she lives in the city – we live in the county). Here are a few more tips for you from Country Living Association:
- Buy white, undyed toilet paper instead of colored toilet paper. There are dyes in colored toilet paper that bacteria have a difficult time breaking down.
- Consider buying toilet paper that is designed to dissolve quickly. All toilet paper is designed to work in septic systems, but some types dissolve more quickly than others.
- Wrap feminine products and dispose in a trash can instead of flushing them. These products do not dissolve quickly and can cause septic problems.
- Flush only toilet paper – not facial tissues, paper towels or wet wipes. The packaging may say that they are septic system safe but they do not always break down quickly enough, particularly if several people use the system.
- Do not flush paint, antifreeze or other chemicals down the toilet. These chemicals can kill the bacteria that are treating the waste materials in your septic system, causing serious septic problems and possibly causing ground water contamination.
- For more information on septic systems, check out the Septic System Maintenance information from the Virginia Cooperative Extension.
Molly, thank you for publishing these ideas for protecting a septic tank and its drain field. This is very important information for the millions of homeowners who have septic systems.
The septic tank serves as a home for gazillions of bacteria that actually digest the waste, so you want them to stay alive and healthy. Strong chemicals that you put in the drain will slow or kill their activity, and that will permit untreated wastewater to pass through and contaminate the ground water.
Another way to reduce the stress on your leach field is to minimize the amount of water that you use. High-efficiency toilets use a little over a gallon per flush, compared to 3.5 or 5 gallons for older toilets, and if they are certified as “high efficiency” they actually flush well!
Make certain that kitchen and bath faucets have aerators to reduce the flow, and use a low-flow showerhead.
All these ideas will prolong the life of your septic tank while helping protect the environment.
Plus….beware trying to flush your “evidence” of sneaking snack foods in the middle of the night and flushing the empty, foil style packages down the toilet. As my girls can attest to, that is a $75 plumber visit (and thus getting busted) you don’t want. LOL (it is funny in hindsight
Keep the great advice and tips coming
Vickie
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Molly responds: Oh my gosh …. I am positive that this situation si definitely funnier in hindsight than it was when it was happening to you!