DIY Kitchen Plumbing

Last night after dinner Seth carried our plates into the kitchen then called out to me in the dining room, "Why is the floor all wet in here?"

I walked in to see a small puddle of water leading out from under the kitchen sink. We opened up the cupboard and pulled out the garbage can to have a look. Seth turned on the faucet and the sink immediately began to fill up. I went for the plunger.

Seth began to plunge the sink drain when we heard a wet "splat" from the cupboard below followed by water oozing across our toes. We both bent down to see a filthy, sopping wet rag on the floor beneath the sink drain.

DIY Plumbing Step 1: Remove old pipe stopper rag 

"Where did that come from?" I asked.
"From the pipe."
"What was it doing in there, and why is the end of the pipe just open like that?"
"I don't know."

Seth started to plunge the sink drain again, only this time water started to pour out from the now unblocked and open ended pipe.

"Stop!" I offered helpfully.
"Go get me another rag!"
"For what?"
"To stop up the pipe! What do you think?"

DIY Plumbing Step 2: Replace pipe stopper rag. A greasy bike cleaning rag should do the trick.

We now have an unusable kitchen sink and more than a few questions about the plumbing techniques used in this apartment and why these issues always seem to happen right before bedtime. It looks like I'll be washing dishes in the bathtub until someone can take a look at this.