It can be tempting to flush something down the toilet out of convenience. However, just because something can be flushed doesn’t mean it should be. Here is a list of household items you should never flush down your toilet.

• Cotton products — Q-tips, cotton balls, cotton pads
• Wipes
• Dental floss
• Paper towels
• Anything “flushable”

At Burton, we recommend homeowners be skeptical of any items categorized as “flushable.” To determine if something is genuinely flushable, that would require all toilets to be engineered the same. The amount of water in your toilet and your sewer line’s health determines what is “flushable” and what is not. A lot of flushable items still carry debris with them and clog your drain.

Certain household items can also be detrimental to the environment. Biodegradable products are not immune to causing blockages. They can even end up polluting water and killing wildlife in aquatic environments.

Place a wastebasket in the bathroom so you can resist the urge to flush harmful items down the toilet. Clogs are preventable. Debris collected from flushed household items will snowball and cause a massive blockage. To avoid a significant pipe jam, stick to only flushing toilet paper.