Pin 9: Cleaning the dishwasher

Time: 5 minute prep
Cost: $0.50
Result: Good...I think? Excellent!

Originally pinned from: onegoodthingbyjillee

Dishwasher was starting to smell funky (who wants their clean dishes to smell like wet dog?...shudder) and get a little gunky. We've had it 4 years and never cleaned it, so..yeah. It was about time. (In case the 1st post didn't give it away, I'm not a very good housekeeper.)

1.) Clean out the trap at the bottom of the machine. Actually only found one little tiny piece of something.

2.) Fill the soap dispenser with unsweetened Lemonade mix. Apparently the citric acid is good for the machine or something?

3.) Fill a bowl with vinegar and place it upright in the top shelf.

4.) Run a cycle.

It smells faintly of vinegar now and no lingering bad odor. Unfortunately it does NOT smell like lemonade. That would have been cool. We'll see how the dishes smell next time we run it. I think the reason it gets funky is because we never have enough to fill it up every day, so why waste the water. But then the dirty dishes sit all close-up in it for 2-3 days and ...well..you get the idea. This was so cheap and easy that I plan to do it monthly. Okay, okay! At least a few times a year.

I considered a before and after picture, but since there's no such thing as smellavision, it's sort-of pointless.

Edit: After running a load of dirty dishes through, they came out smelling wonderful and fresh. No lingering odor. Love this trick!