HOME MAINTENANCE TIPS: (1) don’t put stringy things (like celery tips) in the garbage disposal, and (2) don’t use a toilet plunger to clear the resulting clog.

I knew (1), but there were only a couple, and they were already in the sink, having fallen off the cutting board enroute to the garbage can. Well, the disposer clogged at the diverter, but just barely - water was still flowing through the disposer, but more slowly than normal.

If it had been fully clogged, I’d have crawled under the sink, uncoupled and cleared the diverter, checked the trap, reassembled the whole mess, cleaned up the water that inevitably drips out, and gone about life.

But ... it was still draining, so it clearly wasn’t fully clogged. So I thought that maybe if I put just a bit of overpressure on the diverter clog with the plunger, it might clear out. So I tried it - “one plunge only” to paraphrase the Soviet captain in The Hunt for Red October.

That led to tip #2. Even as gentle as I tried to be, something inside the garbage disposer gave way and I had several gallons of water on the kitchen floor, and more water on the basement floor underneath.

The kitchen - and basement - are now relatively clean (and drying). Tomorrow I go under the sink to remove, and probably replace, the garbage disposer.

Lesson learned - the hard way.