Washing your washing machine

Any other front-loader washing machine haters out there? 

If you own a front-loader washing machine, you know what I mean.

The mold, the smell, the constant cleaning... it's THE WORST!!!

If I could, I would return my front-loader and take back my grandmother's 15-yr old top loader. Seriously.

Apparently with front-loader washing machines, water collects in the rubber seal area of the door. And if you don't continually wipe it out, it will stain and then smell like mold... forever.

Oh, you also can't use liquid fabric softeners, like Downy (which I love). Apparently this makes it even worse.

This annoys me, to put it lightly.

We can create cars that parallel park by themselves, strollers that fold by themselves, phones that text by themselves... why can't someone create a front-loader that drains properly?!?!?

Urgh.

Since my husband has reminded me time-and-time again that we are NOT getting a new washing machine any time soon, I have learned how to "deal" with the one we have.

I run a hot water & bleach load every week.

I leave the door open every time I finish running a load so it can dry out.

I remove, and hand clean - with an old toothbrush - the detergent drawer (which also doesn't drain and easily collects mold) every few weeks.

HELLO PEOPLE... I'M WASHING MY WASHING MACHINE... does this seem wrong to anyone else???

Well, apparently I'm not the only one out there with this problem. In fact, I know several friends who have gone back to top loaders just because of this annoyance. And if you do a search online, you'll see hundreds of pages of complaints, solutions, suggestions, and questions about how to clean the moldy smell from a front-loader washing machine.

Also, this just came on the market...

I saw an ad on TV the other day and immediately went to Target the next morning and purchased it.

I used it the same day.

IT WORKS!!!

But for how long, I wonder.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying my fresh-smelling washing machine and really, really enjoying not having to clean it.

Thank you Tide, from the bottom of my tired-of-scrubbing-hands. :)