Sinks are for washing ourselves, our dishes, food and sometimes even our pets or babies. However, many people use their basins to wash things that just shouldn’t be in the sink. While sinks are obvious for brushing your teeth and washing your face and hands, people make some strange calls with other items:

1. Candles

Candles are a great way to add to your home. A touch of color and various seasonal fragrances throughout the year are a wonderful treat. However, many people don’t like letting the wax dry after they blow out their candles – especially with little ones running around the house. So they end up pouring it down their sinks! However, wax hardens when it cools and causes serious clogs in your drain. The best bet is to move the candle out of reach until the wax dries, or get creative and put a wick in an old pickle jar and start building a new candle!

2. Electrical Appliances

From toasters and microwaves to Foreman grills and blender basins, people actually put electrical items in their sink, thinking that a quick wash won’t harm the appliance. Then, when the appliance stops working, people often wonder why! Aside from potentially causing a shock if there is still an electrical charge, the water can short out the fuses in the mechanisms and break the appliances.

3. Fuel Injectors

Over time, fuel injectors can become clogged with dirt and restricted by a large buildup of fuel varnish deposits, reducing the amount of fuel that the injector can spray. While some car enthusiasts invest in a fuel tank additive to clean their injectors, others find it necessary to wash them in their kitchen sinks and often end up needing a sink repair job to fix the damage.

4. Plastic Bags

Look, it’s great that you want to be frugal, but those bags are designed for only a handful of uses. If you’ve used your resealable bag more than four or five times, it’s time to recycle instead of reuse. The plastic bag begins to wear down and add chemicals to the food you’re storing in them – and the water in which you’re rinsing them.

5. Hairbrushes

Years ago, women would fill their kitchen sinks with ammonia to rinse out their hairbrushes. While some people do this in the shower or simply pull the hair off the brush, cleaning the entire brush in a pool full of ammonia in a kitchen sink can often lead to hair-related clogs in the fixture.