cleaning your dishwasher

Did you know that you really should clean your dishwasher on a regular basis like you do your oven? I didn't! I have never once deep cleaned a dishwasher in the last 10 years. I just figured since it's main purpose is to clean that it stays pretty clean too. I've had the plastic pieces in mine turn orange in spots but I figured that was just because of our water. I'd tried doing the Tang and Lemonaide Kool-aid methods to clean it but it never did any good and just figured there was nothing I could do about the plastic.

Yesterday I had bigger problems than orange colored plastic though. I filled our dishwasher up and started it and a little while later Elle noticed that it was leaking water all over the floor. I couldn't believe it! Another water leak problem already?! I stopped it and drained the water, mopped up the floor with towels and pulled the kick plate off to see where the leak was. There was no water under the dishwasher though so I figured there had to be a problem with the seal. And there was; the problem was food build up in the form of a black goo at the bottom of the door. It was really disgusting.

Today I emptied out all of the dishes and washed them by hand. While the dishwasher was empty I scrubbed all of the crevises with an old toothbrush. After that I ran a normal cycle with a cup of bleach in it (added after the pre-rinse was done). I couldn't believe how much cleaner it was. There was still some residue though so I did a little more scubbing and then ran one more normal cycle with a cup of vinegar (also added after the pre-rinse) and look how sparkly it is now! Just like new and no more orange!

Now that I know better I will be deep cleaning my dishwasher at the same time I do my oven. I'm going to get in a habit of rinsing our dishes before loading them even though I was told that it's not necessary. I'm thinking that it is!