Can't believe I'm posting this, but here goes...

When I began this blog, I promised to share the good, the bad, and the ugly. This next post is definitely U-G-L-Y. In fact, Mom, if you happen to be reading this, you might as well stop now. Seriously, click off this page. What I'm going to post a picture of will send you over the edge. This applies to any of the rest of you who also keep a sparkling, spotless kitchen.


As much as I'd like to say that my kitchen is, truthfully, it's not. I do try to straighten it up each evening before bed so that I don't start my day off by being overwhelmed by a messy kitchen. I 'shine my sink' (a la Fly Lady) regularly, and I mop my floors every week (okay, let's be honest- every 2). One area of my kitchen that I've never really worried about deep cleaning was my dishwasher.

Maybe this is one of those lessons that I somehow missed growing up, but I never knew that they needed to really be cleaned. I mean, they're constantly cleaning up our dishes with hot water and soap. How dirty can they be, right?

Which brings me to this post. One day after running a load of dishes, I discovered that the grate at the bottom of the dishwasher had some food in it. I decided that I'd pry the cover off and see if I could get the food out. I slipped on my pink, rubber gloves and started yanking on it. What I found nearly sent me into cardiac arrest. Here, I'll show you. Get ready...this is not pretty.
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.GET READY>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
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.SURE YOU CAN HANDLE THIS?>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
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.MOM, I'M SERIOUS- DON'T GO THERE!
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Ahhhhh!!! Now, before you go and think I'm the world's dirtiest, most awful, disgusting house cleaner, I need to remind you that from the outside, none of this was obvious. I guess I never got down and looked really closely, but you couldn't tell from outside that all of that mold was growing in there.

I panicked and then freaked out, then panicked some more. I mean, no pair of pink rubber gloves could tackle a job like this! I called my Uncle Karl, who owns an Appliance Store as well as is a small appliance repairman. He told me that most likely I hadn't been pre-washing my dishes well enough (this is definitely true), and that the food had clogged it up. It's kind of a vicious cycle from then on apparently and is a more common issue that I ever realized. In fact, I googled it before writing this and you wouldn't BELIEVE the pictures that I found of people's dishwashers that looked just.like.mine.!

Here's what he said to do:
1- Get as much of that grime off as possible.
2- Run it with nothing in there except white vinegar. Then, run the dishwasher empty on the pots-and-pans cycle this keeps the drain lines clean and free-flowing, as vinegar is a great de-gunking cleaner.
3- Run a load of dishes with only TANG in the dishwasher. I thought this was strange, but apparently it's GREAT for cleaning dishwashers, and it smells nice too. It looks like this: 

You can buy it in the drink aisle of your local grocery store. 

4- He recommends this type of dish washing detergent ONLY.

Apparently it's got something in it that other cleaners don't?! I'm not sure. I had stockpiled a ton of those little pouch kind of dishwashing tablets back when I got them free couponing and he says that may be contributing to my problem.
5- Each time, before running the dishwasher, run cold water through the disposal for 30 seconds first — to prevent food and debris that’s in your garbage disposal from getting sucked into your dishwasher’s drain line and clogging it.

I'm sure that none of you have dishwasher drains that look like mine, but in case one day you pull up the drain and see a mess like I did, maybe this will help you. At the very least, hopefully this post makes you feel far superior to me in your housekeeping abilities. I'm okay with that. Wishing each of you a happy and mold-discovering-free weekend. 

Love y'all!