Does Anyone Know How To Unclog A Laundry Chute?

When my husband and I bought this house last year, we thought the two laundry chutes it has were the coolest things ever!

I've heard laundry chutes are a thing of the past for the most part, as I think they have been deemed hazardous, especially in households with small children. My house was built in the 50's, and I think they were still very much in use back then.

The laundry chutes are so convenient! I love it that I don't have to have an unsightly hamper taking up room in either the bathroom or our bedroom. I just place laundry baskets under the chutes, and throw the dirty clothes down the hole. Pretty sweet!

One small problem. The upstairs laundry chute gets clogged a lot. My husband says it's because I put too much in there at once, but honestly, I don't! I throw one or two items in there at a time, and I don't even bother putting bed clothes down the chute, cause those will get stuck. No matter what I do, it still gets stuck.

Trying to unclog this thing is ridiculous. We both search the house for things to shove up or down the laundry chute to unclog it. We throw heavy items down there to try to unclog it...doesn't work. We've tried a brick and a 12 lb. dumbbell, nope. We've tried shoving curtain rods down there, vacuum cleaner attachments, anything that we think could push the clothes down the chute. Nope. Nothing works!

Finally today, I googled 'how to unclog a laundry chute', but I got the same answers as what we've already tried. As a last ditch effort, my husband took a speaker stand (don't ask) and shoved it up the laundry chute repeatedly, until FINALLY the clothes dislodged and fell to the cellar floor. Finally!!

I had been missing both of my FUN 107 polo shirts for days now cause they were clogged in the dang laundry chute!!

So, the problem is solved for now, but I can't see myself shoving a speaker stand up the laundry chute every time this happens. Does anyone know of a better, safer, more reliable, less weird way to unclog a laundry chute? I'm all ears! Thanks!