Using too much toilet paper can result in a clogged toilet. And this can result in the toilet overflowing when you try to flush it again, creating a dirty and soggy mess on your bathroom floor. While not often a welcome task, unclogging your toilet should be a relatively simple job you can accomplish on your own, without having to pay a plumber.
Assess the severity of the clog. If no water went down at all when you flushed the toilet, but rather filled the bowl, you've got a serious clog. If some water went down, but the clog, and everything else in the bowl, stayed put, your situation is slightly more hopeful.
2
Remove some of the water in the toilet bowl if the bowl is filled all the way to the top. This will prevent dirty water from splashing all over you and your bathroom floor later in the process. Use a cup or other vessel you have handy to empty some of the water from the bowl into a bucket. Set both the cup and bucket aside.
3
Place the mouth of your plunger over the clogged opening of your toilet. Holding the stick of the plunger directly over the center of the rubber part and the toilet hole, push down on the stick, then pull slightly back up without breaking the seal created by the lips of the plunger onto the porcelain.
4
Repeat the up and down motion until you hear movement from the plumbing. Remove the plunger from the bowl once you are successful. If, after 10 or so plunges, your clog still hasn't moved, proceed to the next step.
5
Stick the hooked end of your plumbing snake down the toilet hole as far as it will go. Crank the handle to further extend the snake. This will force the clog down the toilet, but it may drag up some of the toilet paper responsible for the clog as well when you retract it.
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Empty the water in the bucket back into the bowl now that the toilet is flushable again. Disinfect the plumbing snake, the plunger, your bucket and the floor of your bathroom if any water from the toilet bowl splashed out.
Tips & Warnings
If you fear that flushing will result in a minor flood, open the toilet tank and close the flapper.
Call a plumber if you see water coming out of drains in your home when you attempt to flush the toilet; this indicates a backup at the main line.
