Must Or Bust - Washing Your Washing Machine

It's go time, ya'll.

Must or Bust's third week brings to your very own computer screen:



Cleaning Your Front Loading Washing Machine: MUST

{source}

I've gotta say, when I first heard of cleaning a washing machine, I laughed.

"It cleans clothes." I said to myself. "It spends 90% of it's life full of warm water and soap. How dirty can it be?"

Well, I'm hear to tell you, it gets PRETTY DARN DIRTY. This has got to be the most "MUST" I've come across yet. Seriously. Go do this to your washing machine {assuming it's a front loader. . . although you can click HERE for help with your top loading bad boy}. Right now. RUN. Don't walk.

I changed just a few things from the original (albeit awesome) tutorial found HERE. I'll walk you through those, but just a couple things to start:

1) I would suggest wearing rubber gloves. Take that to mean what you will, but you'll want them.

2) Instead of placing a cup or vinegar and baking soda into the drum PLUS another 1/2 cup of each in the detergent dispenser, I just used a 1/2 of each in the dispenser. Why? Because I didn't have enough baking soda. That's it in a nutshell.

3) When I do this again in another year month, I will do the cleaning you're about to see first, and THEN run the baking soda/vinegar concoction through the machine.

. . . .

My washing machine's main difference from the one made famous in the original tutorial was that it has a billion little holes in the front.  See for yourself:



See all the brown gunk in the holes? Um, yeah. It had to go. Enter my genius solution {that's not so genius, but worked well nonetheless}:



Ta-Da! Yay for ear swabs. :)

Should you find yourself with a similar machine, stick your genius solution in the hole and pull it all the way through, like so:



Repeat as necessary. And if your kid is having a major meltdown in the other room like Hannah was, then you're left with a not-so-great-but-better-than-before AFTER picture:



At least my holes are free of gunk and the rim is wiped free of the completely disgusting nastiness that was there 20 minutes ago.

Now, before you do a victory dance, don't forget this guy:



I simply used a sponge and some Clorox spray {with bleach} and scrubbed. I couldn't figure out how to get the entire thing out because it's my mother-in-law's machine and I didn't really feel like busting it into a million little pieces. So sue me. :)

 I left that yellow stuff there because yellow is my favorite color. 

Okay, fine. You got me. It's a stain. It wasn't comin' off in my lifetime, so I left it. I'm just happy my machine isn't growing things with eyeballs anymore.    

 {click HERE for the previous "Must or Bust"  all about White Brite and Diaper Straps}