What's Gonna "Funk" You Up?

Or Justin Case your dishes are not as clean as you like.

Clean your dishwasher??? Who knew? Certainly not me...until my dishes were not as clean as they should be. Have you had to re-wash because of caked on crud? Less than sparkly glassware? A vague odor?

Me too! 

But wait... isn't your dishwasher cleaning already? Shouldn't it be cleaning itself while its cleaning your dishes??? Apparently not! I found this out when I goggled it. Tips and videos galore.

So take a peek into my less than stellar dishwasher and see another dirty little secret. Naive me has NEVER cleaned a dishwasher. And we have had this one about 10 years!

Don't judge people. I'm putting it out there so you don't have to.

After considerable research I decided to go with the all natural, vinegar and baking soda method. There was a lot of baked on water residue aka hard stuff so I had to use a scraper and toothbrush to get into some of the corners. I also added an extra step at the beginning because of all the goo.

Here's how to clean your dishwasher:
1. Remove the bottom rack.
Heat 2 cups of white vinegar. I have found that heating is important. Add 1 tablespoon of Dawn dish soap. Yes, it has to be Dawn. I don't know why but I did use another dish soap for something else and it did not work nearly as well. Put in a spray bottle and spray away. By the end of the project I used almost all 2 cups. Add some baking soda. Do some scrubbing if you have gunk in the corners and on the sides. Scrub some more... and more... and scrap with a plastic scraper. You can also take out the filter and clean in, under and around that but I couldn't find the right screw driver to get the filter guard off. I pried mine up enough to get a small tooth brush in there and scrub around.

2. Run the dishwasher on high with a cup of vinegar. I waited for the rinse cycle and threw in another cup of vinegar for good measure.

3. Sprinkle a cup of baking soda on the bottom and run again. I added another cup of vinegar in the rinse cycle.

Well now, looky, looky! I can bask in its sparkling beauty. I sort of don't want to even use it.

Don't let your dishwasher FUNK you up!  It is suggested to clean your dishwasher every 6 months. Now that I know I have to clean mine, I think I'm going to go every 3 months so I don't have to work so hard next time.