your wishy washy kitchen

I am sure that most of you do not have your washer and dryer in the kitchen, but for those of you who do, and those of you who don't, today I'm going to walk you through the super simple way you can deep clean your washing machine and then maintain it for the future.

I have no idea why, but in both apartments that my husband and I have shared together, the washer and dryer have been in the kitchen which, for me, makes this an easy segue from clean kitchen to clean washer. You may be saying to yourself, "why do I need to deep clean a machine that cleans things?" For one, if you have a top loading machine like I do, water only goes so high in the tub and often a soap scummy substance can build up there. For two, if you have children, as I do, your washing machine has more than likely seen it's share of pee-soaked sheets and possibly and disgustingly, some poo residue in there too (if there's been a stomach bug or if your kid turned out to be lactose intolerant like mine did). If you have kids that are a little older, the stomach bug thing can turn out a whole new set of disgusting laundry, such as kids who are sicky and don't get to the bathroom or bucket in time or a whole other heap of gross disgusting laundry that can leave gross disgusting residue in your washer. For three, maintaining your washer is a lot easier and cheaper than fixing or replacing it. so all in all, it's important to know how to clean and sanitize you machine.

The only product needed to sanitize is bleach.
Bleach is the only product that can adequately kill viruses, germs and bacteria.  There is a reason the hospitals rely on a 10:1 concentration of bleach.  It’s extremely effective when used in the correct concentration.
When diluting bleach, using bleach, or handling even a closed container of bleach (because we all make mistakes and lids can be on the wrong way or there can be a manufacturer error and it's best to be safe), wear gloves and dilute it in a well-ventilated area.  NEVER USE OR HANDLE BLEACH WHILE A CHILD IS PRESENT BECAUSE ACCIDENTS CAN HAPPEN wait for your child to take a nap or until another adult is around to supervise your child.  Bleach may seem harmless since it’s a product all of us have on our shelves at home.  But be extremely careful – it can be caustic and can seriously hurt your airways, skin, eyes and mucous membranes.  Don’t ever use bleach casually – always be extremely cautious and alert.

Bleach must be in a 10:1 concentration to be effective in killing germs.  10 parts water to 1 part bleach.  In a well-ventilated area while donning gloves, measure 10 Tablespoons of water to 1 Tablespoon of bleach or 5 cups of water to 1/2 cup of bleach.  The concentration is important here, so be careful when measuring.  You can store this in a spray bottle that is clearly marked with the solution concentration.  Don’t assume everyone knows what’s in the bottle or that you’ll remember what solution is in there.  Even if you live alone it is necessary to label hand-mixed solutions, I will never forget thinking that a soap and water mixture was the water I kept to dampen my hair, which made for a messy sticky soapy situation and thankfully it was only soap!

• Using your 10:1 bleach solution, spray down the inside of the washer. Make sure you spray down the agitator also (that cylindrical thing in the center).  Let the solution sit a few minutes to loosen the grimy areas. leave the washer door open while this happens, any time you use bleach all areas must be well ventilated. be sure you do not use ANY OTHER CLEANERS WHEN USING BLEACH A MIXTURE OF CHEMICALS CAN CAUSE TOXIC FUMES. I have stories of people who literally died because of toxic fumes while cleaning you do not want to mess with this.
• Use a  dishcloth that to scrub the inside of the washer.  Your washer either has a stainless-steel drum or one coated in enamel.  If it is coated in enamel, be extremely careful not to scratch it.  Once scratched it will rust and rust on clothes is a whole 'nother issue.
• Scrub every surface of the inside tub and agitator and respray your bleach solution as needed.  Scrub up under the lip of tub, just like your toilet, around the lip of the rim is where it gets the least cleaning daily and where the gunk just loves to live.
• When you have scrubbed the entire inside of the washer,  move onto the lid of the machine.  Spray down and wipe everything – inside, outside, lip of the lid.
• Close the lid. use a paper towel and windex to wipe down the outside of the washer.  do not use a bleach solution here because little hands can touch your washer and if you have improperly diluted your bleach, this could cause serious skin irritation. If you are able to remove the knobs, you can rinse those in warm, soapy water.  Once you look at it closely, you’ll see that there is probably more gunk on there than you realized.  It’s easy to spill a drop or two of detergent and those few drops make things sticky in a hurry.
• Finally, you need to run a regular wash cycle in your machine using a cup of bleach and hot water.  It may seem wasteful, but set the water level on the highest setting.  You want as much of the inside drum to be ‘washed’ as possible.  You can even throw in your rag/scrubber that you used to clean your machine.

to maintain your washer after you have done this deep clean, you should run the final step of a one cup bleach and hot water wash cycle one a week and do a deep clean once a month/every other month depending on how much gross stuff gets tossed into your washer

then sit back and enjoy the feeling of knowing that all those yuckies are being washed away!
Join me tomorrow as I share more quick and helpful cleaning tips!!!!

~have a happy and clean day! (p.s. you can now follow me on twitter for quick cleaning tips mamaclean1)