Dishwashing Soap in the Laundry?

Does your front loading washing machine smell mildewy? We've had ours for about a year and it's smell got progressively worse. My husband decided to play the part of Tim Allen and see if he could figure out the problem? He turned what could have been a 10 minute consultation into a one hour repair for Luigi the repairman. Yes, his real name is Luigi. Luckily our warranty covered everything and we didn't have to pay a cent. So after Luigi took our machine apart in order to get the rubber thingy back in place, he told me the best kept secret to keeping front load washing machines smelling fresh. My homework assignment was to go to the Dollar Store and get a box of powder dishwasher detergent (It MUST be powder) and use half a cup in the soap dispenser with a normal cycle set on hot water. Do this once a month and that will take care of the icky stuff that builds up in the washer after awhile. I must admit that I was a little skeptical at first, but it was worth a try. I did it yesterday and was a little disappointed to find that the rubber still smelled a little, but after I did a load of laundry, the smell was completely gone! I'm still amazed. No more pinching my nose when I do laundry.

Read more...

WFMW

This weeks "Works For Me Wednesday" tip comes straight out of the March 2008 issue of Consumer Reports. They give tips on how to "properly" load your dishwasher to achieve "cleaner" dishes. They start by saying to "Keep large items at the sides and back, so that they don't block water and detergent from reaching other dishes". Then they go on to say to "Load dirtier side of dishes toward the center for more exposure to the spray". In other words, don't do what I've been doing my whole dishwasher using career. Don't face all the plates and bowls in one direction. Think of an imaginary line down the center of your basket from front to back and line your dishes up from the center out with the dirty side of the dish facing toward the center. This sounds logical to me. I tried this last night and found that by loading my dishes this way the dishes actually stood up better. Who knew there was a "proper" way of loading your dishwasher? Certainly not me, until now.

Read more...