Christmas morning we made the mistake of thinking our garbage disposal and pipes could handle potato skins. Water and food particles were not draining in the kitchen sink. Did I mention this was Christmas morning?! Uh-oh!

There was still food to prepare and my normal first instinct when there is a plumbing issue is to call the plumber. Ugh - time to spend the Christmas money. The first plumber service technician bid $400 (after discount). I sent them away. After all, I knew exactly what the problem was and it did not add up to what the plumber wanted to charge.

Still, a backed up garbage disposal could be a very messy problem. One that I would rather pay someone else to resolve. So I called another plumbing service. I was upfront on the phone that I had sent the first plumber packing because I wanted to get some pricing information before waiting another couple of hours only to be disappointed. Nope. The technician would need to provide pricing info upon arrival.

Sure enough, I was disappointed again. When told about the bud from the first plumber, the second one said, "Well actually sir, that's kind of the going rate these days."

I had already wasted hours trying to have someone else fix the problem, and now I had to "figure something out," as my wife put it.

Google pointed me to 6 steps I could take to tackle the issue. I tried a few, like plunging the sink drain, adding a natural cleaner (vinegar and baking soda), turning off the power and clearing the drain of larger food particles, etc. But, I wasn't finding much of the potato skins that I knew were the main culprit.

So after much avoidance, I grabbed some tools from my tool box, a towel and bowl to catch the water and went to work under the sink. I removed the P-trap segment and yep, it was clogged with potato skins. After some fumbling around with the wrong part of the pipe, the P-trap removal was actually pretty easy to remove and if this happens again, it will be a quick fix.

I realize there are many DIYers out there that would say, "Yeah, it's easy - so what?" We all have our strengths and weaknesses. I just felt great satisfaction that I had turned away two plumbers and saved $400. Yes, I wasted a couple of hours of Christmas, but much enjoyment was had the rest of the day.

Don't ever pay a plumber to unclog your P-trap. They are taking advantage of you. I will not say which two plumbing services bid the $400 ("discounted" down from $500), but I will never use them again for any plumbing issue. I realize people have to make a living, but I refuse to employ predatory service providers.

Happy holidays!