That Weird Smell is Not Normal

I do not own a dishwasher. Our counters are six inches too short. But, when I was babysitting for a family for two weeks, whenever I would open the dishwasher, I was hit with this, shall we say, “off-putting” smell. I called the kids upstairs and asked them to stick their heads in. They gagged. One may have offered a match to burn the smell away. We took out the dishes and got to work. We pulled out the racks and the spray arm. I took to the spray arm and picked out the old food with a toothpick. I ran water through it for a while until it worked again. The food trap wasn’t bad, so I just rinsed it out and put the whole thing back together. But it still smelled really bad. What else were we supposed to do? Until I remembered an old trick I read once: vinegar. I ran a cup of vinegar through the machine, and it ran like new.

It is important to keep your dishwasher clean. A clean appliance means clean products. Whenever you smell something funky and think, “Maybe I should clean that,” you’re right! Clean it! It is recommended to clean your dishwasher, either with vinegar or a dedicated dishwasher cleaner, minimum four times a year. If you can’t remember the last time you did it, maybe today is the day to get scrubbing!

Written By Hailey Bennett