1.    The main thing is to run water in the sink, shower and flush the toilet at least once every 2 - 3 weeks. This will keep the traps full. A trap that has evaporated will let sewer gas into your home causing odor and with toilets that don’t have water in its traps snakes and small unwanted critters could make their way through into the bowl.

• What is a trap? Every plumbing fixture has a trap and if you look under your sink you will see an example of a trap. The pipe goes up and down and looks like a ‘p’. That is why it is called a p-trap. Your toilets have integral traps molded into the toilet. Every plumbing fixture should have a trap by code. A traps main purpose is to create a water seal to prevent methane gas from entering your trap Diagram

2.  Another important reason to run water every 2 – 3 weeks in a shower as well, if your home has a single hand shower valve see below.

• Run the water every 2 – 3 weeks or let the hot water reach the particular shower that is not used and shut it off if it’s been not used for a longer period of time. Why do you have to do this?  Well single handle shower valves have an anti-scald balancing cartridge inside them and if they are not used for a long period of time the pin will get stuck in either the hot or cold position causing you to lose your hot or cold water to your shower.

If you have a bathroom or bathrooms that are not being used regularly, the simple thing to do is run the water in all sinks, tubs, showers and flush the toilets every 2 – 3 weeks to prevent you from having to call a plumber.