The Best Way to Clean Your Washing Machine (The Old Southern Way)

📖 Get Hazel's Cleaning Book, every measure and method my mother made me write down: https://hazelscleaningbook.com Run an old toothbrush along the fold of your washer's rubber seal. What comes out is in every load you wash. It was never your fault, honey. That gray slime is grease first (body oil, unrinsed detergent, softener), with mildew and bacteria living on top. FIRST, READ YOUR MANUAL: makers disagree on the cleaning cycle. Some ask for liquid chlorine bleach, some for a tablet, and at least one says no chlorine bleach at all. The manual wins. THE SEVEN STEPS 1. Empty it and read what its cleaning cycle wants 2. The seal: clear the fold, then warm soapy water on an old toothbrush, a plain water pass, and a dry towel 3. The drawer: hot water and the toothbrush, and the hole it slides into 4. Run the cleaning cycle empty with only what the manual asks for. No cleaning cycle? An empty hottest wash with plain bleach. 5. Wipe out the drum, seal and glass, and run it again if it still smells sour. Front loaders: check the little filter at the bottom front 6. Dry the fold and the glass, drawer left open 7. Leave the door open between every wash WHERE IT NEVER GOES: bleach after vinegar or any acid without a full rinse between (that makes chlorine gas). Bleach with anything else. Straight bleach on the rubber. More bleach than the manual says. Laundry in a cleaning cycle. THE HONEST LIMIT: black specks left in a clean, dry seal have grown into the rubber; the seal is a replaceable part. A burning or hot smell is not a cleaning job: breaker off, call an electrician. THE HABIT: measure the detergent, wash warm now and then, take wet laundry out the day it finishes, and keep the door open. In a damp house you are not fighting dirt. You are managing water. Try the toothbrush tonight, then tell me in the comments what you found, whether the smell left after one cycle or two, your county, and how old your machine is. I read every single one. #washingmachine #cleaninghacks #theoldsouthernway