Clean theย dishwasher?!
Yes, yes you should!
And NO. No you don’t clean it every time you run it. ย Think about it… do you clean a dish towel every time you use it? ย What about a washcloth?
But those things are actually cleaning other things. ย Yeah, I hear ya. ย And I get it… Kinda, kinda not. ย Because isn’t the dishwasher (and the washing machine) actually cleaning other things too? And especially for non-rinsers,ย where do you think all the food goes that you don’t actually clean off the dishes first? ย Hmmmm.
News flash: ย soap (or detergent) & water alone do not make ANYthing clean.ย ย As a matter of fact, your soap or detergent could be making things worse. ย You may not see dirt, but there could still be build up, bacteria, or other things lurking. ย Sometimes you just gotta get in there, use some elbow grease, and “git ‘er done”.
You may be thinking “where in the h*%$ did she get that from? ย Clean the dishwasher?! ย Who does that? Who cleans machines that clean things?” ย Lots of people, including me and so should you. ย I’ll tell you why.
About a month or 2 ago, I was washing clothes and noticed that a pair of white shorts came out of the washer dirtier (I thought) than they went in. ย I have my days (and my wine) so immediately I thought I must have forgotten to put the detergent in. ย So I rewashed the whites with an EXtra scoop of detergent. ย Same result.
WTH?! ย I’m not that crazy! ย I know you are probably thinking “well you use that natural stuff and it’s just not going to clean the same”. ย And you would be right – it doesn’t clean the same. ย It leaves NOTHING behind – not scents, not chemicals, and not DIRT. ย Moving on….
I don’t know why but something made me look into the machine. ย I mean really look – I didn’t know what for but something had to be up and sure enough, the agitator was dirty. ย I mean I could see the dirt dirty. ย So I went about my way spraying and scrubbing and wiping down until that machine sparkled like new.
(BTW, yes I did say agitator. ย Yes I am old school and there is something about an agitator that just makes me feel like something is happening inside that machine. ย Something has to do the “work” and I’d rather it be my old school top loader than my beautifulย brown woman muscles. ย Don’t judge.)
Fast forward to today…. recently I’ve noticed my dishwasher being a little “off”. ย Again it’s not the detergent – I ran a little “test” (okay really I just slipped off the green wagon, got a little lazy for minute and used a few tabs – shame on me) and there was no difference. ย I thought about the washing machine debacle and decided I should clean the dishwasher. Not with those products you can just buy and run through a wash cycle, but actually get in there (not literally physically, but you know what I mean) and clean it.
There were a few things that made me want to try to clean the dishwasher; it was:
- running longer than normal
- running louder than normal
- cleaning butย not as well as I expect it to
I don’t know if I can list this s a reason, because I hadn’t noticed it before cleaning but… ย For some reason the “walls” and “ceiling” of my dishwasher were slightly blue before this cleaning. ย I’m guessing that’s from the commercial (chemical) tabs that I used when I fell off the wagon. ย You know they all (or mostly all) have that blue stuff in them that no one seems to know what it is. ย Maybe it’s Bluing, maybe it’s dye. ย Who the heck knows?! ย Who cares, I won’t be using those anymore.
To do a really thorough job I used the following tools:
- liquid castile soap in a spray bottle – peppermint (because I love the smell), diluted 3:1
- borax – for scrubbing power
- a scrub brush (or a towel – microfiber works great but any will work fine)
- a small bottle brush or toothbrush – for hard to reach places
And finally, the all important technical steps to clean the dishwasher:
- Remove the racks (top & bottom if you can)
- Remove the spray arms and make sure there’s no food particles caught up in them. ย I used a pipe cleaner for that (this would be the perfect job for the kiddos).
- Check for gunk in and around the filter and flapper. ย It’s great if you can remove them to do this.
- Sprinkle a little borax in the bottom and inside the door. ย Spray it down with soap (enough to make it pasty), scrub with brush (or towel), and rinse.
- Repeat. Multiple times, everywhere – even the rollers for the top rack are dirty. ย Ick. For this, my old baby bottle brush finally came in handy – I knew it would someday!
- Runย the dishwasher through a rinse cycle with plainย white vinegar.
And DONE!
Seriously, where do y’all think all the food goes that you don’t clean off the dishes first? ย I make folks clean their plates around here so steps 2 & 3 wereย pretty uneventful. ย And I really think that’s the hard part – the rest is just like anything else, except for the super tight squeeze in the dishwasher. ย But unless you’re anal like me, you don’t really have to get ALL up in there. ย Again, don’t judge.
This is SO worth the effort and seriously maybe a once a year thing – if that. ย Plus the whole house smells divine from that peppermint castile soap! ย LOVE!
Theย dishwasher probably wasn’t this clean when I bought it. ย My mama would be proud!
Nice ๐
Another great tip from Nikki G – Xtraordinary by Design!