Taking a shower is an everyday routine for most people. Now that hygiene and cleanliness play even bigger parts in everyday life because of COVID-19, it’s become even more essential. Plus, showers can provide you some time for yourself to de-stress and take a step back from your day. So when things go awry, it can be inconvenient and incredibly annoying. To help you avoid those situations, we’ve rounded up a list of the most common shower issues and how to fix them:

Clogged drain

Dirt, hair, and soap and shampoo build-up are all culprits of clogged drains. And if you have small children around the house, you may also need to contend with other items like toys, paperclips, pieces of paper — you name it — accidentally dropped into the shower drain, too.

If you can see what’s causing the blockage, you can try removing it by hand. For things like soap build-up in smaller clogs, it can usually be fixed by running some baking soda and vinegar down the drain; although a plumbing snake may be needed for larger clogged drains. Whenever you bring out the plumbing snake or any chemical drain cleaners, be wary if you’re unsure about what you’re doing. It’s best to call in the pros for stubborn clogs since you may end up causing more damage to the drains or to yourself.

Erratic water temperature

You’re taking a nice hot shower, but someone in the upstairs bathroom flushes the toilet, and your shower suddenly becomes that of scalding water— yikes! This happens because the cold water your shower uses to temper the heat is rerouted towards the flushing toilet.

This can be prevented with the use of high-efficiency toilets, since these require less cold water for flushing, leaving you with stable shower water temperatures even if someone in the other bathroom is flushing the toilet.

You may want to consider installing an efficient macerating toilet. Macerating toilets use less water than the standard ones do, making them more water-efficient and environment friendly.

A Tree Hugger review of the best water-saving toilets recommends choosing one-piece designs in toilets, which means that there won’t be leaking problems around the bolts or gaskets. Another feature to look out for is a powerful and centrifugal washing system to ensure that a re-flush won’t be necessary.

Low water pressure

Low water pressure can happen for several reasons, some of which may be beyond your control like faulty valves or low water supply. But most of the time it is because of an old showerhead. After an extended period of time, mineral deposits may build up on your showerhead nozzles.

Thankfully, there’s an easy fix for those cases. A HomeServe Living guide to fixing low water pressure in the shower suggests unscrewing the shower head from the hose and immersing it in vinegar for around eight hours. Then you can scrub off any remaining debris by hand. You can even use a toothpick to pluck out sediments from the small nozzle holes. If you’ve thoroughly cleaned your showerhead and checked for issues in your water source and pipes, but you’re still getting low water pressure, it may be time to switch out your shower head for a new one.

Everyone deserves a relaxing and cleansing shower, so make sure to keep these quick fixes in mind. For more maintenance and upkeep tips, view our other #Household write-ups and articles.