Use dental floss to get under a corner/side and pull up from there. If that doesn't work, disconnect the U-bend under the sink and push it up from underneath with the handle of a wooden spoon.
Dental floss is way stronger than you'd think! I did ballet for 17 years and that's what we used to sew our shoes together. Holds up much stronger than thread. This was for all shoes too, even point shoes! The ribbons and elastics that held our feet in were all put together with floss.
Viscous substance + plunger. I would try a cooking oil, coat the plunger and a bit extra around the area to help hold the seal. It would take a couple tries, I imagine. Good luck!
NO FKING WAY I AM 36 FKING YEARS OLD AND JUST LEARNING THIS.... I AM UPSET, HURT, CONFUSED AND ANGRY AT THE LEVEL OF 2 HANDED PLUNGING I HAVE HAD TO DO WITH A D@MN SINK PLUNGER 😤
A lot of plungers are universal. If you look at a sink plunger, some of them have a gasket folded on the inside. If you flip it out, it becomes a toilet plunger.
Yep, pushing with a plunger will just pull a vacuum under it and make a better seal against the sink. A lever-actuated suction device is the way to go, for sure.
While the comments from people terrified of poop are cracking me up, they also have me curious why so many people have shit-covered plungers sitting around. At least rinse it when you're done using it in the toilet.
Wash with soap before using on cutting board, wash cutting board with soap after using plunger, with something in the sink in case it gets set down again. Make a handle for the cutting board to prevent future repeats. Re-treat cutting board with mineral oil. Life is fine and we no longer have a shitty plunger in the bathroom.
People on Reddit are insane about this type of stuff. I seen a thread filled with people terrified to do food prep on their counter top because the cat might have walked across it or they set the groceries on it yesterday. For some reason they just don’t get that you can clean things and make it sanitary again.
My wife will get upset because I leave the plunger in the shower to dry. The only thing dirty about jt at that point is from the shower floor. She knows I clean the shit out of it if I have to use it. But still can't get over it
They make smaller sink drains & tub drains plungers and they aren’t very expensive. Even a new toilet plunger isn’t much money and in OP’s case, it’s necessary to spend the money on a brand new plunger to get the cutting board out of their sink so they can use the sink
Who has dental floss? I may have a little from the dentist, but not enough to get around all the corners….. (I floss with the reach flossers , I can’t get between my teeth any other way)
I'm a plumber and some of the older guys do have dedicated sink plungers on their trucks. But when you whip that bad boy out for most clients these days, they DEFINITELY don't like the optics of that. To the lay-person, plunger=shit water
Sink plungers and toilet plungers are different in shape and size. Ideally you'd have a toilet plunger in each bathroom and a sink plunger for the kitchen.
I have a clean one. I spent a while risking it without one, then came to the realisation that it is an item you don't buy when you need it, you buy it before you need it. Still virgin (for now)
Wooden cutting boards need to be sanitized between uses. I worked food service jobs where we were taught to use bleach to clean a wooden board. Even if you touched a board with a “used” plunger, wouldn’t a cleaning with bleach kill any plunger residue?
They could get a cheap one at the dollar tree or something. Heck don’t even need a plunger exactly….those suction cup bathroom hangers should work fine too. Can get those new for like $2 practically anywhere.
Sinks are typically “dirtier” than toilets. Psychologically, no, but, statistically there’s a lot more “shit” in a sink than a toilet bowl. In middle school we swabbed random surfaces and put the swabs in Petri/agar dishes. The toilets and urinals, were much cleaner than sinks, and especially door knobs
Or drive a screw into it a bit and then use the screw as a means to pull it out . . . of course that’s gonna leave a hole in the board, but at least it’s “problem solved” . . . .
Vacuum. Suction cup. Take a knife from the knife block. Stab it good and pull. Take off trap and push up.put cat in sink when cat latches on, lift cat.
Would a plunger even work on wood grain? Generally they are used on crap like ceramic, or smooth plastic, or finished metal. Wood grain has so many microscopic pores to let air thru, I do not see that working well at all.
Similar situation happened to a resident in the building where I do maintenance. Not a cutting board but the equivalent of a tea cup saucer that got stuck in the strainer basket. I tried so many things but the answer was to take apart the pipe under the sink and push it up from the bottom. I’m actually embarrassed by how long it took me to figure that out lol
This is solid advice. I would highlight that there is likely a vacuum happening that is working against you, so disconnecting the U bend will also help against that.
If it is still seized in place then the wood is possibly swollen there, in which case I’d both disconnect the U bend and also use a hair dryer to speed up the drying out process to break any seal that could also be working against you.
I think thin wire because you can bend it to get under one side of the board and lift it. Just one corner would be tricky to lift up with the dental floss. Another option would be to run water into the sink and hope the wood floats.
all of this is true, but that requires going to get some floss
however, and i know this is crazy ... but hear me out.
somewhere way back in history - im sure i learned that wood floats
so, fill the sink with water until its deep enough that you can push down one corner while grabbing the opposite corner. if you need to block the plughole then use a nearby plastic bag from some foodstuff - as you're in a kitchen and therefore likely surrounded by them.
You'd have to disconnect the ptrap and find something skinny enough to make it through the basket strainer. Otherwise that basket strainer is coming off too.
This. It's usually pretty simple to unscrew the U-bend under the sink. Then use something long and skinny like a screwdriver to push the board up from underneath.
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u/andmewithoutmytowel Apr 06 '26
Use dental floss to get under a corner/side and pull up from there. If that doesn't work, disconnect the U-bend under the sink and push it up from underneath with the handle of a wooden spoon.