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Apparently Melanie at New Leaf Natural Home doesn’t hand out her “Two Thumbs Up Award” very often, which makes this review all the sweeter:

This little gadget is a lifesaver. And less than $3, which means it gets one of my rare two thumbs up awards. If you have a clog in a sink or tub, and are not horribly squeamish (I’ve learned not to be), try this before you use one of the horrifying liquid drain cleaners.

I would like to thank all the people who made this award possible….. (Alright, I’ll keep the speeches for later).

Local 10 in Miami, FL just reported on 5 home improvement products to avoid. Number 2 on the list:

2. Liquid Drain Cleaner

Highly toxic and only marginally effective, liquid drain cleaners fail time and again, leaving you with a sink-full of poisonous solution to deal with when you or your plumber has to clear the drain manually. Interestingly, one of the leading brands of drain cleaner recently began selling a drain-cleaning tool (much like a Zip-It) along with their liquid product. Isn’t this obviously admitting that their product doesn’t work all that well on its own? The right tools for the job: Zip-It or other flexible hair-clog extractor; coat hanger; drain snake; or tongue-and-groove pliers, for taking apart the P-trap assembly to clean it by hand.

We couldn’t agree more. Thanks Local 10!

The folks at Gizmodo are concerned about your bathroom. Yes, YOUR bathroom. They know your bathroom is a mess, so they have listed 6 Tools to Make Your Disgusting Bathroom Pristine Again. Wouldn’t you know, Zip-It makes the cut. Of course it does. We’re a little concerned about your bathroom, too.

The Christmas stocking. Hung so carefully by the chimney. But they don’t look nearly as good as when they are stuffed to overflowing with presents. And there in lies the trick – overflowing. To properly stuff a Christmas stocking, to elicit squeals of joy from it, you must load it with goodies that breach the upper lip of the sock. You know where I’m going with this. Zip-It, in it’s packaging, is 23-3/4″ long.  This thing is definitely going to extend past the lip of the stocking. And the very act of pulling Zip-It out of the stocking is very much like actually using it in a drain. Zip-It deserves to be stuffed in a stocking (and then a drain). Even Alan Miller, the Old House Handyman at the Columbus Dispatch agrees:

Next on the all-time favorites list is something called Zip-It Clean, a tool so simple and vital — especially in a house occupied by four women with long hair — that I should have thought of it. The tool is a thin, flexible plastic rod with a handle and short spines sticking from the sides. You can find it at most hardware stores for about $3. Shove it into any sink or floor drain in my house, pull it back out, and along with it will come a pile of hair and gunk the size of a drowned rat. I used it two weeks ago to clean out a slow drain in the bathroom. The job took all of about three minutes, including the trip to the basement to get the Zip-It. (I recently bought one for one of my college-age daughters for use in her houseful of women.)

Oh, just think of the squeals of joy you will hear when your loved ones find a Zip-It in their stocking on Christmas morn.