Context
I just moved apartments, and when I went to the bathroom, there was a lingering smell of mold. When I looked at the bathroom sink, I could see the stopper had some white mold on it. So I took the stopper out to clean it and scrub the drain with a pipe cleaner.
But when I removed the stopper, I noticed there were two gaps on either side of the pipe that were gummed up with gunk. It took me part of a day and a lot of scrubbing to get the gaps clean. I have no idea what purpose these openings serve though. In the gap, there's rubber that looks shaped like a shock boot.
Question
What are these gaps for? And if anyone has advice for keeping them clear, you'd save future me some headache.
Images
Here are some photos taken after cleaning out the gaps.