Has cleaning your washing machine ever been on your cleaning list?
Confession time, I never did until around the time I was married. Washing a washing machine always sounded silly to me, it’s a machine that washes things, shouldn’t it just keep itself clean by default?!
It reminds me of that FRIENDS episode where Joey and Chandler discover they use the same bar of soap in the shower and Chandler says that soap is self cleaning!
Anyone remember that episode?
Then Joey points out the order with which you wash in the shower. “The first place you wash and the last place I wash” line that has me hysterically laughing every time I hear it. Then you see the lightbulb turn on for Chandler!
That was me when I realized you really should wash your washing machine.
How to Clean Your Washing Machine
It’s actually VERY simple to do because a lot of washing machines have a wash cycle built into it. I’ve had a couple different washing machines (our old house and the one we built and live in now) and both of mine had this ‘self clean’ kind of cycle on them.
It was super easy to use, but the gist of it was that you ran an empty washing machine on the wash cycle with bleach. Afterwards, you would run the rinse and spin cycle just to be sure the bleach was completely washed out, because sometimes there would be some bubbles left in the washing machine after the wash cycle finished.
Does the Type of Washing Machine Matter?
My old washing machine was a top load and was super easy to get clean with just the wash cycle program on it. It wasn’t until we built our current home that I had a front load washing machine, and realize that the different types of washing machines do have different cleaning requirements.
How to Clean a Top Load Washing Machine
This one is by far the easiest one to clean from my experience. I have never had to do anything more than running the ‘wash cycle’ with bleach and following it up with a rinse and spin cycle. However I do know that you can fill the washer with water and add 4 cups of distilled white vinegar to the water and let it run its cycle to help with the cleaning as well.
How to Clean a Front Load Washing Machine
Front loaders are a whole different category for washing in my opinion. Mostly because they have the lip on the front that helps seal it while it’s washing. It’s also a great place for mold to grow quickly and easily. Even when you ‘leave the door open for it to dry’ like the pamphlet it comes with suggests.
I was so grossed out by it (plus allergic to it)! I immediately ran the wash cycle TWICE back to back with a lot of bleach!
It was still there, less of it, but still there!
So I started digging into what others have tried successfully and unsuccessfully. There are a lot of things that can be done to clean it when the mold sticks to and stains the washing machine lip like it did for me.
First I tried literally just pouring bleach on it, because that’s supposed to clean everything right?! Well it smelt really clean, but much to my shock it didn’t work, it was still there.
I was concerned I had some crazy mutant mold in my washing machine that was resistant to bleach (clearly that was the only logical conclusion I could come to…. I kid) but then I quickly discovered it was a very common problem for front load washing machines.
It took me a bit until I found something that worked. The problem was that the bleach wasn’t sitting on the spot long enough, because it was a liquid it would immediately run off of the spot (I had a few, one on top, one on the side and one Slightly on the bottom but not on the low part of the bottom).
I needed a paste!
I ended up mixing up a baking soda and bleach paste that I was able to paint onto the spots in question and then put saran wrap around/over it to keep it from drying out. Then I let it sit there overnight. The next day I washed it off with a toothbrush and voila, the mold and discoloration was gone! I promptly ran a rinse and spin cycle to make sure it was all clean and then I dried it myself to make sure it was dry!
If it doesn’t work after the first night, I have read that it may just take another night of soaking to get it to work because it just needed a longer length of time!
How to Make the paste
It was super easy to make, I needed a good amount of paste but what I did was
1 cup of baking soda
1/3 cup of bleach
What have I done to keep it up?
Ever since I did this paste method, I made sure to stay up on washing the machine and leaving the door open between loads to dry out. Leaving the door open may be harder for some than others though because of the placement of the laundry room and visibility reasons. Mine is in my closet behind a door, so I have no problem leaving the door open because the only person ever sees it is myself or my husband.
Have you ever washed your washing machine?
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