How to Clean Your Washing Machine: A Step-by-Step Guide for Chicago Homes

Between work, family, and enjoying everything Chicago has to offer, keeping your home sparkling can feel like a full-time job. If you’re struggling to maintain a clean space while balancing a busy schedule, you’re not alone. Sometimes you need a little help keeping your appliances in top shape—and sometimes you need professional home cleaning to handle the rest.

Why Cleaning Your Washing Machine Matters

When was the last time you cleaned your washing machine? If you can’t remember, you’re definitely not alone. Most people overlook this essential appliance maintenance until they notice their clothes aren’t coming out as clean, or there’s a funky smell lingering around the machine.

Regular cleaning prevents maintenance issues and ensures your clothes actually get clean. The good news? It’s surprisingly easy to do yourself—or you can always rely on fast cleaning services when you’re short on time.

How Often Should You Clean Your Washing Machine?

The frequency depends on how much laundry you do. For families doing daily loads, aim for monthly cleaning. If you’re doing just a few loads weekly, cleaning once every three months should suffice. This is one of those maintenance tasks that’s easy to postpone, but staying on top of it means you’ll rarely need deep cleaning help for your appliances.

Step-by-Step Washing Machine Cleaning Guide

Step 1: Clean the Interior Drum

Start with an empty drum and create a simple paste with two parts baking soda and one part water. Baking soda works wonders because it’s slightly gritty (helping remove buildup) and excellent at deodorizing.

• Dip a sponge into the paste and gently scrub the entire interior drum
• Spin the drum as you work to reach all areas
• Use a wet microfiber cloth to wipe away all baking soda residue

Step 2: Deodorize and Sanitize

For this step, you’ll need:

• 1 cup white vinegar
• 10 drops tea tree essential oil

Vinegar breaks down soap scum and odors, while tea tree oil tackles mold, mildew, and odor-causing bacteria. Pour this mixture into the detergent tray and run your machine on the hottest cycle or tub clean cycle.

When finished, your machine should be visually sparkling and smell fresh. If you’d rather leave appliance cleaning to the pros, consider cleaning services in Chicago that handle these detailed tasks.

Don’t Forget These Critical Areas

Cleaning the Washing Machine Gasket

The rubber gasket (that warm, rubbery seal around the door) is often the epicenter of washing machine odors. Here’s how to tackle it:

• Mix equal parts dish soap and vinegar, plus 10 drops tea tree oil
• Use a soft sponge to scrub inside and outside the gasket
• Rinse thoroughly with a wet microfiber cloth

If your gasket is beyond cleaning, consider professional replacement rather than attempting it yourself and potentially voiding your warranty.

Maintaining the Exterior

This is the easy part! Simply use an all-purpose cleaner and microfiber cloth to wipe down the exterior. Pay special attention to soap residue buildup around dispensers and controls. For stubborn spots in buttons or wheels, use a damp cleaning toothbrush.

Cleaning the Detergent Tray

This often-forgotten area is a perfect breeding ground for bacteria because soap feeds bacteria, and the tray provides a dark, damp environment. Remove the tray and clean it with the same solution used for the gasket.

If keeping up with these details feels overwhelming, remember that a reliable cleaning service near me can handle both routine cleaning and these deeper maintenance tasks.

Pro Tips to Keep Your Machine Fresh Longer

• Keep doors open: Leave both the washing machine door and detergent tray open when not in use to allow air circulation and prevent moisture buildup
• Wipe after each use: Keep a microfiber cloth on top of your machine and quickly wipe the door and gasket after each load—similar to using a squeegee after showering
• Transfer laundry promptly: Move clothes to the dryer immediately after the cycle ends to prevent odor-causing bacteria from lingering
• Use the right detergent amount: Follow the measuring guidelines—too little leaves dirt behind, too much creates soap scum
• Clean the filter: Don’t forget the washing machine filter (consult your manual for location and cleaning instructions)

When to Call in the Professionals

While regular maintenance keeps your appliances running smoothly, sometimes you need more comprehensive help. Whether you’re preparing for a special occasion, moving, or just want to maintain a consistently clean home, it might be time to schedule a cleaning with experts who know Chicago homes inside and out.

As a trusted Chicago cleaning company, we understand that life gets busy. Between work commitments and enjoying our beautiful city, cleaning often falls to the bottom of your priority list. That’s why we make it easy to book an appointment for whatever level of cleaning support you need.

Hey, let me ask you an uncomfortable question. When was the last time you cleaned your washing machine? It’s okay if you’re someone who hasn’t cleaned your washing machine in 6 months or more, you’re the majority. It’s fine. But if you notice that your clothes aren’t coming out as clean as you would like them, your machine is smelling a little bit funky, or it looks worse for wear, then it is time to clean your washing machine. And the good news is it’s really easy to do. If you don’t do it on a fairly regular basis, you’re going to notice that your machine isn’t performing as it should be. It’s going to lead to more maintenance issues and your clothes aren’t going to come out as clean. So, let’s just do this together. It’s really easy and I’ll help you. Now, specifically in this video, I want to cover how to properly clean, deodorize, and maintain your machine. Whether it’s a front load or a top load, we’re going to take care of that. and give this video a thumbs up if you too are on the cleaning varsity team. And just a quick reminder if you haven’t done so already to subscribe to the Clean MySpace channel. And by the way, this video is brought to you by Makersclean. You can check it out at makerscle.com or makerscle.ca. It’s our sister company where we sell premium microfiber cleaning tools and more. People often ask the frequency of doing this particular type of cleaning, and I think it entirely depends on how frequently you’re using your machine. And that would be dictated by how many people are in your family and approximately how many loads of laundry you do a week. If you’re a single person or two of you living in a home, you’re probably doing less laundry than a family of three, four, or seven. So, just keep that in mind. If you do a lot of laundry, say a load a day, you might want to consider doing this once a month. But if you’re doing one or two loads a week, you can probably get away with doing this once a quarter. We’ve kind of rethought the whole cleaning the interior drum process and we’ve slimmed it down. We used to do two loads. Now we’re just going to do one. So the way that I want you to start is like this. Take everything out of the washing machine. You want an empty drum and you’re going to create a paste with two parts baking soda and one part water. Now, the reason I like this paste is because baking soda is our friend. It’s a little bit gritty, so it’s going to help remove any of that buildup that could be stuck on the drum. Baking soda is also great at deodorizing, and we know that the inside of a washing machine drum can be a little bit on the side. All right, so we’re going to take that solution, dip a sponge into it, and start to just gently apply it and scrub the inside of the drum. This shouldn’t take very long. I know it sounds laborious, but it actually can go quite quickly. So, you’re just going to work your way around the drum. And I would just spin it and scrub. Spin it and scrub. Once that’s done, you’re going to take a microfiber cloth, get it nice and wet, and start to wipe out the baking soda. So, again, just give it a good spin like you’re on the Price is Right. Give it a wipe. Spin again. Wipe. And make sure that all that baking soda or as much as possible is out. The second step is to take a cup of white vinegar and to it you’re going to add 10 drops of tea tree essential oil. This is a great and powerful combination. The vinegar is going to help break down soap scum and odors. And the tea tree essential oil is great at tackling mold and mildew and odor-causing bacteria. So throw those two things. Don’t throw them. Gently pour them into the detergent tray and set your cycle for the hottest possible cycle or the tub clean cycle. Either is going to work and they should essentially do the same thing. By the time that is done, your machine is going to be not only visually sparkling, but should smell a lot better. And the thing I love the most is when something has been cleaned and it smells like nothing. Now, there are products that you can buy that would sort of shortcut you from having to do the DIY version I just described. Either will work well. And let me clear up some fake news for you because you might have been scrolling through Instagram or Facebook and seen my face associated with some cleaning tablet for a washing machine or a dishwasher that you’ve otherwise never heard of. Well, the funny thing is neither have I. And they actually stole that footage from a campaign that we did many years ago with Aresh. Aresh is one of the products that you can use to clean your machine. It’s a tablet. There are other mach uh machine cleaning products out there that come in gel form. We’ve had great relationships with two brands that we’ve worked with in the past for machine cleaners. And I can assure you none of those ads are active right now. So if you see me holding up a tablet, just know that that is stolen footage. You know what it feels like. It’s warm. It’s rubbery. It’s a little bit slimy. It’s your washing machine gasket. And it gets disgusting. It’s important to stay on top of keeping this clean because I’ve got to tell you that’s like the epicenter of odors in your washing machine. So, there are a couple of things you can do. We’ll talk about like the actual cleaning and then we’ll talk about the maintenance. If you want to clean it and if it’s not in dire condition, what you can do is make a solution with equal parts dish soap and vinegar to that solution is add 10 drops of tea tree oil for reason previously mentioned. Mix that all up. Get a soft sponge and apply it to the outside and the inside of the gasket. You’ve really got to get your hand and your sponge in there. You want to kind of agitate it and scrub it around. And this is going to help break down any of that odorcausing bacteria and that buildup that just kind of gets trapped in the gasket over time. Now, when that’s done, take a microfiber cloth soaked in water and give it a really good rinse just to get rid of any of that suds and any of the remaining vinegar. Now, if your gasket really has seen better days and you think that it’s beyond repair, it’s worth replacing. Now, you can find videos online about how to do it yourself. I always feel like when it comes to something like an appliance or something that’s expensive, rather than trying to jimmy rig it, I would much prefer bringing in a professional and letting them do it. We actually looked into it and there’s quite a bit of work that you have to do to replace the gasket. You have to remove several parts of the machine. And the thing I always worry about is potentially voiding the warranty. So, here’s what I’ll tell you. Your machine costs several hundred. It’s probably going to cost a couple hundred to replace the gasket. You might as well just bring in a pro and let them do it the right way. Maintaining the exterior of the washing machine is a breeze. You can just use all-purpose cleaner and a microfiber cloth. Give it a good wipe down. The thing I have found over the years cleaning hundreds of places and hundreds of laundry rooms, you get a lot of soap residue and it’s just because, you know, you’re pouring soap, some spills, eh, big deal. You kind of move on with your day, but over time it builds up. So, the best thing you can do is just take a damp cloth, give it a wipe, couple scrubs, and it should be gone. If you notice any detergent caught in buttons or wheels, you can just use a cleaning toothbrush that’s slightly dampened. Give it a little bit of a scrub and wipe it down. An area that we often forget to clean, but that really needs attention is the detergent tray. And here’s the reason. Soap feeds bacteria. A nice dark, damp environment, which is where your detergent tray is, quite literally, is the perfect breeding ground for that odor-causing bacteria and other moldy buildup that you can experience in your machine. That’s why it’s so important to remove it and give it a good cleaning. Now, the exact same solution we use for the gasket is going to be perfect for cleaning your detergent tray. As well, if you pick up a store-bought liquid or gel machine cleaner, that would work just fine for cleaning that tray as well. A few rapid fire tips to keep in mind to keep your machine clean and smelling fresh for as long as possible. Your doors should always be open when they’re not in use. That goes for your detergent tray door as well as your actual washing machine door itself. When those two are open, air is allowed to circulate, which means the odorcausing bacteria doesn’t have access to that warmth and moisture that it thrives on. So, keep that in mind. This is one of those great pieces of advice that I try to keep in mind each and every time. I’m not perfect at it, but I do it as often as I can remember. and that is to wipe the inside of the door and the gasket after each load of laundry. Now, the easy way to do that is just to keep a microfiber cloth on top of your washing machine for that specific purpose. It doesn’t take that long. Honestly, when I’m in a rush, I forget to do it. But when I see the cloth there, it signals me and it reminds me. And what this does, it removes any of that soap scum both from the door and inside the gasket so that moisture isn’t there. Therefore, that bacteria builds up which causes odor and that mold can’t actually grow. It’s kind of the same as using a squeegee in your shower after each shower. Another great way to keep your machine from smelling unsavory is to move your laundry over as quickly as you can. So, when you hear the bell, dinger, whatever you want to call it, move it on over to the dryer. That just prevents odorcausing bacteria from lingering and building up. Also, make sure that you’re using the right amount of laundry detergent for the load. If you use too little, too much dirt will be left behind in the machine after the wash and your clothing actually won’t come out looking great. And if you use too much, you’re going to have soap scum lingering behind. So, use those little notches on the cup to think, is my machine a third full, halfway full, or 3/4 full? And that should really tell you how much detergent you should be using. And finally, we have a video on this. And the only reason we have a video on on it is because my mom kept telling me that I had to do this, otherwise I would have had no idea. And that is to clean your washing machine filter. I’m going to link that video for you down below. So, now you know how to properly clean, deodorize, and maintain your washing machine. This means that your washing machine is going to be happier and perform better for longer, and ultimately that your clothes will come out cleaner, smelling, and looking fresh and amazing. And that brings me to this week’s comment question, which is, and be honest, when was the last time you cleaned your washing machine? For me, I can honestly say it was about a week and a half ago cuz I was doing a little Instagram video on those active washing machine tablets. But before that, again, this is a new machine, so I haven’t cleaned it all that often. You know where you can find out about things that I’m testing and learning about in the Dirty Dish, which is our weekly newsletter, where I’m sharing lots of great cleaning advice. And if you’re not already subscribed to the dirty dish, I’ve got a link for that down below. If you love what we do here at Clean MySpace, consider becoming a member. On the topic of cleaning and maintaining your appliances, let me help you do the exact same thing to your fridge. You can check out this video right over here. And if you haven’t done so already, make sure that you subscribe to the Clean MySpace channel. Thanks so much for watching and we’ll see you next time.