I have never in my entire life cleaned a washing machine.

There, now you have it.  Have you cleaned a washing machine?  I mean, it cleans clothes so the thought of cleaning it, seems somewhat redundant.  But there I was again on pinterest and what did my eyes see?  Someone shared details on cleaning their washing machine.

And to be honest, ours did need it.  Our washing machine and dryer are in our basement.  They needed some love.  And since all I was going to need was bleach and vinegar, it seemed like an easy clean-up kind of thing.

How To Clean Your Washing Machine

1.  Fill the washing machine with hot water.

2.  Add 1 quart of bleach.  Agitate for 2 minutes.  Let set for 1 hour.  Use regular cycle until completion.

3.  Fill the washing machine with hot water.

4.  Add 1 quart of vinegar.  Agitate for 2 minutes.  Let set for 1 hour.  Use regular cycle until completion.

5.  Clean around the bleach dispenser and fabric softener dispenser using a wet rag.  Clean the top of the washing machine as well.

*** Do not mix bleach and vinegar.  Follow the directions above using bleach first and running a complete cycle to clean the machine.  Then the use of vinegar for the second wash can be used because the bleach has been removed form the machine.

I’m not going to lie.  My fabric softener dispenser was nasty.  We have not used fabric softener since my first son was born (more than 4 years ago) because of allergies.  That doesn’t mean it wasn’t needing some scrubbing love.  In fact, we took the entire dispenser out.  I started to clean it and decided that it was pointless to scrub something that we are not going to use.

Apparently, you’re supposed to clean your washing machine every month.  hahahahahaahahaha…..

whoops.  Here’s to doing it again before the next 7 years happens.

Have you cleaned your washing machine?  If so, any additional tips?