How do you unclog a toilet without a plunger?

The soap-and-hot-water method works often enough to try first. Add a generous squirt of dish soap to the bowl, wait a few minutes for it to sink and lubricate, then pour a bucket of hot water, hot from the tap rather than boiling, which can crack porcelain, from about waist height so the weight of the water pushes on the clog. Give it fifteen to twenty minutes. If the level drops, flush. If the bowl is already near the rim, bail some water out first so there is room for the bucket.

If that fails and you have any plunger, use it properly. The flange plunger with the extended rubber lip is designed for toilets; the flat cup plunger is for sinks and seals poorly on a toilet drain. Seat the flange in the drain opening, push down gently first to expel air, then pump with force on the pull stroke as much as the push, since suction pulling the clog back toward the bowl often works better than pushing it deeper. A wire coat hanger straightened with a cloth wrapped around the end can dislodge a nearby blockage without scratching, and a closet auger, an inexpensive short drain snake made for toilets, handles what the plunger cannot.

Two warnings. Chemical drain cleaners are not for toilets: they are ineffective on the typical clog, can damage the wax seal and old pipes, and make the water dangerous for whoever plunges next. And repeated clogging in one toilet points to a cause: low-flow models from certain eras with weak flushes, mineral buildup in the rim jets, a partially obstructed trap from something flushed long ago, or a sewer line problem if multiple fixtures are affected, which is where a plumber earns the call.