One rushed morning, I watched in horror as one of my favorite earrings slipped down the bathroom sink drain. After postponing the inevitable a couple days later I finally figured out how to retrieve it and after giving it a good cleaning we were good to go! Here's how I did it!

Earring Lost

A while back when I was rushing to get ready early in the morning I made the mistake of dropping my earring down the bathroom sink drain. I carefully attempted to pull the stopper out as it's not securely attached and heard the earring drop further into the water below. I was short on time and since we have two sinks in our bathroom I made the quick decision to simply not use my sink until I had a chance to figure it out. To stop myself from using it I laid my dental floss container over the drain as a reminder.

That said, the fix was so easy that in hindsight I could've, maybe, had time to fix it right then and there. Here's how to get it back!

Step 1: Stop & Prepare

Although looking back the earring was caught in the trap I'm glad I was careful not to use the sink so it wasn't flushed away in anyway.

Materials Needed

• bucket or plastic container to catch the water under the sink
• towel in case water overfills the bucket, splashing
• paper towels to wipe things clean
• optional Clorox wipes to help sanitize
• optional gloves

Step 2: Research & Learn

I started by hopping online and typing in under the sink pipe catch open, hoping to find a quick solution. When that didn’t give me the results I needed, I refined it to under bathroom sink dropped earring how to get it out and that did the trick! This got me several promising results but I went with this article on hunker to figure it out which includes warning you to turn off the water until the earring is recovered, a step I missed, and then either reaching into the drain or disassembling the trap. You can read more about it here:

The plumbers who invented the P-Trap in the 19th century probably didn't have jewelry recovery on their minds, but P-traps are great at catching and holding small objects, such as earrings. All paths from the sink lead to the trap, so if your ring fell in an overflow tube, the trap is where it will go. A pool of water sits permanently in the inverted "P" to block sewer gases, and that pool is where you'll find your jewelry, as long as it hasn't been flushed away by a strong flow of water. -hunker

Step 3: Opening the Trap

The process, once realized, was really quite simple. Here's what I did!

i. Empty the space under the sink.

The first step was simply removing everything under the sink. Technically you just need the space under cleared out but I did it all so I didn't have to worry about splashing or overfilling. Depending how much is stored under your sink this could be a quick or time consuming task.

ii. Place a bucket/towel underneath.

With the space under the sink emptied I next laid out a Dollar Tree container directly under the pipe with a precautionary towel folded underneath. With that and some just in case paper towels I was ready to go! Though in hindsight I wasn't prepared for the stench.

iii. Unscrew the P-trap

With the area prepped all I needed to do was unscrew the compression nuts on either end of the curved pipe at the bottom. Once unscrewed I was able to pull it free flip it over, keeping it above the bin, to dump all the liquid inside out into the pink bucket.

iv. Retrieve the item and clean the trap.

It took just a quick second of looking to find my earring in the gunk in the container. I quickly set it aside on the counter where it would be safe.

v. Reassemble the plumbing and test for leaks.

With the trap was removed I took the opportunity to attempt to clean out the pipe with the nearby paper towel before re-attaching it. It was simple to reverse the steps by holding it up to the holes and rescrewing the compression nets on. With both ends securely fastened I next ran the sink for a couple minutes to both test for leaks and fill the trap up to block the smell again.

Step 4: Cleaning the Earring

With the earring retrieved and the trap closed up it was time to clean the earring. I started with a quick rinse then paused to search online for solutions. After reading a couple ideas I ended up rubbing dish soap all over the earring before carefully rinsing it all off with warm water and setting it aside to dry. Once dried I deemed it clean and the pair was reunited! All was well!

Final Thoughts

Although this happened over a year ago, it gave me much more confidence about how the sink works. Just the other day my daughters' sink was plugged and the water wasn't draining. Not sure looking back if I needed to remove the trap but this time around that was my first step, the sink drained, and then I removed the stopper. After cleaning it and dumping out the trap I reassembled it all. The whole time the sink stunk... kids complained but it got the job done! Who knew losing an earring would turn me into an amateur plumber?

If you're going through a similar issue I hope this helps you out. I'd love to hear what you lost in the comments below especially if you succeeded in saving it! Have a great day!

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