How to quickly clean the drain plugs without moving a bucket

 Steps to clean the drain plugs: 1. Rotate the grease remover: – Rub the grease remover inside the drain plug: .

2. Stop actuating: – Let the degreaser take place for one minute.
3. Using the algodón stick: – Introduce the algodón stick into the desagüe slots.

• Rub the inside of the drain to remove any residue.

2. Rinse with hot water: – Run plenty of hot water to clean everything to perfection.
3. The Cotton Swab Trick: Why Your Bathroom and Kitchen Sinks Still Smell After You Bleach Them
4. The two photos you posted — top, a hand holding a cotton swab over a kitchen sink; bottom, a hand pulling up a bathroom pop-up drain stopper — are the same cleaning lesson in two rooms. They are not about unclogging a drain. They are about the place you never clean: the hidden slime tube where water sits still.
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6. If your sink smells like wet dog, sewer, or rotten eggs two days after you scrub it, this is why.
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8. 1. What the photos are showing
9. Top image (kitchen): That small hole near the top of the sink basin is the overflow channel. The cotton swab is going in there. Every kitchen sink has one. Water, food particles, coffee grounds, and grease splash in, but you cannot wipe it because it is a 4-inch dark tunnel that leads straight back to the drain pipe.
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11. Bottom image (bathroom): The metal cap being lifted is a pop-up stopper. Under it is a hollow plastic shaft with holes in the side. Hair, toothpaste, shaving cream, and skin oil coat that shaft and form a black biofilm. You can pour Drano down the drain all day and it will never touch that part, because the stopper blocks the flow.
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13. Both spots stay wet, dark, and warm — perfect for bacteria that make sulfur gas. That is the smell.
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15. 2. Why bleach and boiling water do not work
16. Most people clean the visible bowl, then pour bleach or vinegar down the drain. That kills bacteria in the P-trap, but not in the overflow or on the stopper shaft, because:
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18. The overflow channel is separate from the main drain until it joins below. Liquid poured in the sink bypasses it.
19. The pop-up stopper creates a dead zone. Water flows around it, not through it.
20. Biofilm is not loose dirt. It is a sticky matrix that bacteria secrete to glue themselves to plastic. You have to physically wipe it off. Chemicals alone cannot dissolve it in one pour.
21. Plumbers call this "the cotton swab test." If you can pull a brown or black swab out of the overflow, the smell is not your pipes — it is your sink.
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23. 3. How to clean it properly (5 minutes, no tools)
24. For the kitchen overflow (top photo):
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26. Mix hot water with a teaspoon of dish soap and a tablespoon of baking soda.
27. Dip a bamboo cotton swab, a pipe cleaner, or a zip tie wrapped in a paper towel. Push it into the overflow hole and twist. You will pull out gray slime the first time.
28. Repeat with 3 to 4 swabs until they come out white.
29. Finish with ½ cup white vinegar poured slowly into the overflow hole. It will foam in the channel and kill the rest.
30. Do this once a month. If you cook a lot, every two weeks.
31. For the bathroom pop-up (bottom photo):
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33. Lift the stopper straight up. Most pop-ups unscrew counterclockwise, or have a small set screw underneath. No pliers needed.
34. You will see a black collar of hair and toothpaste on the shaft. Wipe with paper towel.
35. Soak the stopper in hot soapy water for 2 minutes, then scrub the holes with an old toothbrush.
36. While it is out, shine a flashlight down the drain. Use a second cotton swab to wipe the inside of the drain pipe just below the rim — another 2 inches of slime lives there.
37. Reinstall. Run hot water for 30 seconds.
38. Do not use a metal wire. It scratches plastic and makes biofilm stick faster next time.
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40. 4. What you are actually removing
41. That black slime is mostly Serratia marcescens, Pseudomonas, and sulfate-reducing bacteria. They are not dangerous in small amounts, but they produce hydrogen sulfide — the rotten egg smell. They also feed on toothpaste (which contains glycerin) and kitchen grease, which is why the smell returns quickly in bathrooms and kitchens but not in laundry sinks.
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43. If you have a white or beige composite sink like the one in the top photo, the porous surface holds more biofilm than stainless steel. That is why those sinks smell faster.
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45. 5. Prevention, not just cleaning
46. Never pour coffee grounds or oil down the kitchen sink. They coat the overflow first.
47. Once a week, fill the bathroom sink to the overflow level with hot water, then drain. It flushes the channel.
48. Replace plastic pop-ups with metal ones every 2 to 3 years. The smoother surface holds less slime.
49. Skip the cotton swabs with plastic sticks. The bamboo ones in your photo do not snap off inside the hole.
50. Bottom line
51. Your sink does not smell because your pipes are dirty. It smells because two parts you never touch — the overflow tunnel and the pop-up stopper shaft — are growing a bacterial mat that no amount of surface spray will reach.
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53. The cotton swab is not a hack. It is the tool plumbers have used for 50 years because it is the only thing thin enough to fit and soft enough not to damage. Pull the stopper, swab the hole, and the smell disappears in minutes, not because you masked it, but because you removed the colony that made it.