Pinterest Experiment #1: Cleaning Your Top Loading Washing Machine

So if you are like me, you spend some time on Pinterest each day. Or while you are trying to sleep at night. Or while you are waiting at the doctor's office. Or while you are suffering through the tenth viewing of Sofia the First. Anyway, you get my point. I pin stuff all the time. I only actually try a handful of the pins. I even had to re-organize my boards and label one "Realistic Meal Ideas" because some of the recipes I was pinning before were not so much realistic. This is definitely "Pinworthy" and Mom approved.

So, yesterday I decided I was going to try to clean my top loading washing machine. My washer is 3 years old, it is a GE Profile High Efficiency Top Loader with the stainless steel drum. It has been used and abused. My husband works in a field where he sometimes come home with really stinky and dirty clothes. I have two daughters under the age of 5. You get the idea. It needed it and I had never cleaned my washing machine before, because to be honest, I never realized they needed cleaned.

Things you are going to need:
1 Quart of Regular Bleach
1 Quart of White Distilled Vinegar
Approximately 3 hours of your time (Not completely devoted to this cleaning, but that is how long it takes)

1.) Set your washing machine to the highest load setting. You want to make sure it fills most of the drum with water. In my case, I set mine to the "SUPER LOAD" setting. The setting you use when you are trying to cut down the 5 loads of laundry into 3.

2.)Adjust the water temperature setting to HOT. The setting I use after some funky sickness finds its way into my house or when I want to scald the crap out of a load of dirty towels.

3.) As the water is filling up, slowly pour the quart of BLEACH in. And adjust your gas mask.

4.) Once it is done filling, let the machine agitate for two minutes.

5.) Open the lid, observe the gunk that has already risen from the depths of your washing machine. Gag. Then let the water soak for an hour.

6.) After the hour, go back to your machine open the lid and be amazed at the crap that is laying in the bottom.

7.) Let it run through the longest cycle setting. Mine is "EXTRA HEAVY".

8.) Repeat steps 1 and 2.

9.) This time as the water is filling up, pour in the quart of vinegar. Gag. Sputter. Adjust your gas mask.

10.) Repeat steps 4 through 7.

You seriously will be amazed at how well this works. I thought for sure after I did the bleach steps nothing else could possibly come out of there. WRONG! The vinegar step was actually way more gross. The water was tinted a greenish brown and there was still some gunk floating around and settling on the bottom of my machine.

I started to take pictures, but then I had to take K2 downstairs with me to restart the machine between the bleach and vinegar steps and I really didn't need to have my camera knocked into the machine. But here are some pictures from only about 10 minutes into the bleach cycle:

Mind you, these were only 10 minutes into the first portion. It just got worse as it soaked.

This was super easy and effective! And when you are a mom, that is all that matters!