When you made your New Years resolutions this year, you probably didn't even consider your plumbing system. However, resolving to make some basic changes in your behavior as well as the system itself can result in savings for both your plumbing and your bank account.

Resolve to Protect Your Drains From Clogging and Damage

Although drain clogs can occur naturally over time, you can help to prevent them through careful consideration of the types of materials that you put into them.

Garbage Disposals

Your kitchen sink gets a workout on a daily basis, but particularly so during the holiday season. If your kitchen drain is slow after the season has passed, it likely that inappropriate items were tossed into the disposal and down the drain. These types of items include:

• Liquefied grease and fats
• Bones
• Fibrous materials such as vegetable rinds, egg shells, and anything else that will be shredded into long strands in the disposal

Disposals are designed for food waste from meals. Throw away or compost scraps from food preparation.

Toilets

Toilets drains are designed to accept human waste and tissue paper. however, toilets are often used as trash cans for items such as:

• Paper towels
• Clumps of hair
• "Flushable diapers and wipes
• Feminine hygiene products

The holiday season already tests the limits of your toilets, so resolve to keep forbidden items out of your toilet all year long or you may receive a post-holiday gift of a mini-volcano overflow that will flood your bathroom with foul water.

Drain Cleaners

Use of acid based chemical drain cleaners will damage your drain pipes over time, and can cause serious injuries to family members or unfortunate plumbers who attempt to clean the drains when caustic drain cleaners fail. You must resolve to use only biological type drain cleaners in your drains to protect the pipes, your family, plumbing professionals, and the local environment.

Resolve to Upgrade Your Inefficient Plumbing Components

Older plumbing components use much more water than more recent high efficiency models. Resolve to replace components such as:

Toilets

Your toilets use more water than any other plumbing fixture. Upgrading to a high efficiency toilet will save gallons of water with each flush.

Faucets

Low flow faucets produce the same amount of water pressure with lower water use. If you really prefer the design of your old faucets, you can choose to replace the aerators on the ends of the spouts with upgraded models that perform the same water saving functions.

While you may have forgotten your plumbing system in your New Years resolutions this year, it's not too late to contact a full serving plumbing company to protect your plumbing system and your wallet. Remain mindful of your plumbing all year long and you can save your resolutions for other goals.