From your yoga pants to your bedsheets, your washer carries a heavy load for you, delivering pristine clothes and linens week after week. But did you ever consider you may need to clean the machine that you use to clean your clothes? Vicious cycle, but it’s true, your washing machine should be washed every now and then. Whether you use a top-loader or front-loader, learn how to clean your washing machine.

Washing Machine Cleaning

Has your washing machine lost its shine? Start by cleaning the outside of your washer. Affresh machine cleaning wipes work wonders removing built-in grime from the exterior surface, controls, detergent tray and door.

Once your washing machine is looking so fresh, so clean from the outside, it’s time to think about what’s on the inside. Use a cleaner specifically formulated for your washer interior, such as affresh tablets. With affresh, you simply place one tablet in the washer tub, run the washer on a normal cycle with your hottest water setting and then wipe away any residue left once the cycle ends. The tablet dissolves slowly throughout the entire wash cycle to break up dirt and soap residue.

Bonus Washer Cleaning Tips

Anytime you have water, there’s a chance for mildew. To avoid a mildew smell in your washing machine, keep the door open after you run a load. This allows the machine to air out and dry. With front-load machines in particular, the gasket can be a common culprit contributing to the mildew smell. Wipe your gasket dry when you’re finished with laundry for the day.

Image via Samsung

Some newer washing machines come with a self-clean function. Samsung is well known for their self-cleaning washers, which remove dirt and bacteria through a combination of soaking, pulsating and high-speed spinning.

Now that you know how to clean your washing machine, there’s only one thing left to do. Give it a spin.

Do you have any washing machine cleaning tips? Share them in the comments below.

This is an updated version of an article previously published on Oct. 28, 2009.
Featured image via LG