Registry Regret: Things You’ll Wish You Asked For

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A professional grade toilet snake

This is the least glamorous but most useful item you’ll find on this list. It will literally save you thousands of dollars over the lifetime of owning a home (something you will be able to do now that people are contributing to your down payment). Every single time a toilet or sink gets clogged in your home and you call a plumber, that’s several hundred dollars out the door at minimum if all he has to do is snake a drain. And often, that’s all he has to do. There’s a blockage that needs to be pushed through to the mainline, and the plumber puts his snake in and does his thing. This will happen more times than you can count as the years go by. Meanwhile, you can get your own professional grade snake for under $300, and just learn to clear clogs yourself. The one-time purchase is what it costs to have a plumber show up, one time. It pays for itself the moment you find that you need some assistance.