The Month of Smells, Week 1: Washing Machine

Washing machines deal with 3 things:

1. Dirty clothes
2. Soap
3. Water

Its no surprise that things can end up smelling weird. An unfortunate truth is that there may be build up, mildew, or even mold causing these smells. Luckily, they can be very easy to get rid of! We even have a couple of different methods:

Method 1: Natural

Run your washer on a large load with the hottest water possible *with no clothes or soap*. pour 3-4 cups of white vinegar the the water. The white vinegar acts as a disinfectant and kills the mildew and mold.

Let your washer mix the vinegar into the water for a minute and stop it again. Add in about 1/2 cup of baking soda. Let it run again to mix the baking soda in, and then stop it again. Let it sit for 30-60 minutes. After that let it finish the cycle. Run one more cycle with nothing in it to get any more residue, and repeat the process as needed.

Method 2: Chemical

This method is almost identical to the natural route, but we just use bleach instead. When the washer is filled with water, pour in 1 cup of bleach. Let it run the rest of the cycle, and then run one after that's just water to get any left over bleach washed away. Make sure that there is lots of air movement when working with bleach!