Washing machines deal with filth on a daily basis. Dirt, grime, sweat, germs, oil, and bodily fluids all get tossed into the washer without regard for the machine itself. Ironically, this means the very appliances we use to clean other things tend to be the dirtiest.
When it comes to cleaning the home, washing machines are one of the most neglected appliances in the house. They are often the nastiest thing we clean at @gocleanco. (Probably 80% of the washing machines we clean have mold and stink to high heaven.) Today we’re going to focus on how to get them sparkling so that your clothes aren’t soaking in a barrel of filth.
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Washing Machines
Front Loaders
Front-loading washing machines are often the worst offenders when it comes to their level of filth. Besides some machines just omitting an unpleasant odor, we often find mold. Before you start cleaning, grab some gloves and a mask. We’re using bleach, so you need to be extra cautious. Opening a window or turning on a fan is recommended. Also, be careful not to let bleach splash on your clothing or anything else nearby (wear crappy clothes just to be safe).
Rubber seal

Front-loaders have a rubber seal at the front of the drum that gathers hair, coins, socks and any other grime and debris that goes through the washing machine. It often collects a gross, slimy build-up of hair and dirt, and about half the time, there’s mold. To put it simply, front seals are usually freaking nasty.
Step 1: Before you begin, put down an old towel to protect the floor.
Step 2: Open the machine door and pull open the seal to really see what’s going on in there. Start by pulling out as much gunk as possible with a paper towel.
Step 3: Grab some bleach and a scrub brush, small enough to fit into the seal of your machine. Make sure your washing machine is empty, and pour about half a cup of bleach straight into the seal. Grab your scrub brush and begin scrubbing the inside. Scrub all around the seal, working your way around the circumference of the drum. (Make sure you pull the seal away from the drum, and you should see a plastic piece where more sludge is usually hiding. Hold back the seal while you scrub in there.)
Step 4: Once you’ve lifted as much mold and staining as possible, use a paper towel to wipe out the seal. Sadly, sometimes the mold will stain the rubber when left too long, but the bleach will disinfect and kill any active mold.
Detergent Drawer
After the seal, detergent drawers are the second most offensive part of a washing machine. Pull your drawer out, and you should see a little push tab near the back. Push down on the tab and pull the drawer out at the same time. Look into the slot where the drawer came out and scan for any mold or detergent buildup. The top is usually where we find the most mold. Grab your scrub brush with some bleach and water again and get scrubbing. Use a paper towel to wipe away the excess after you’ve lifted the mold.
The drawer you just removed can also accumulate mold, hard water deposits, and detergent build up. Take apart the inserts of the drawer in your sink and use bleach and a scrub brush to clean off any mold or filth. Rinse well. If it has hard water deposits, let it soak in vinegar for about a half-hour or as long as needed, then scrub with a brush. Make sure you thoroughly rinse and dry it off before putting the drawer back together and into its slot. If there are rust stains, you can use Iron Out on a cloth to remove them. Always leave your detergent drawer slightly open in between washes to allow airflow; this helps prevent mold growth.
Drum/Door

Once you’ve cleaned the seal and the detergent drawer, it’s time to clean the drum and door.
Some doors will build up with limescale or soap residue, leaving a white coating. Gently scrub inside the glass door with bleach and water. If this doesn’t lift everything, wipe off the bleach, grab powdered Tide® and water on a microfibre cloth and wipe to remove any remnants. If it’s still not entirely off, then the bleach cycle you’re about to do should leave it sparkling.
Fill the bleach dispenser in the drawer with bleach to the top line. Close the door, and set your machine to the longest and hottest cycle possible. The bleach cycle will clean not only the drum but also the glass and seal. Once the cycle is finished, your machine should be sparkling and smell clean. To keep up with the cleanliness of your machine, use Tide® washing machine cleaner and follow the instructions on the packaging. You typically use it once a month, but if your machine is horrible, use it every week for three weeks.
Pro tips: To maintain the clean smell and make sure the mold doesn’t come back, leave the door and detergent drawer slightly ajar between washes. We love the Door Doc® (Canada) (USA) for this!
Top Loader Washing Machines
At GoCleanCo, we LOVE top loaders. They are much easier to clean and don’t grow mold or hold onto dirt as easily as front loaders.
To clean a top loader, start by pouring some bleach into a bowl and grab a scrub brush. Dip your brush into the bleach, then scrub the seal around the top and the softener dispenser in the middle of the machine. Sometimes the dispenser comes apart so you can scrub them in the sink. Don’t forget to scrub or wipe the inside of the door and where the door rests. Pull out any grime with a paper towel, then pour one cup of bleach into the washer tub. Set your machine to the hottest, longest cycle and hit start. Top loaders don’t stink up as quickly as front loaders, so you shouldn’t have to do a bleach cycle often. Use Tide Washing Machine Cleaner monthly to keep your machine fresh and clean!
Outside of Washer

Before you wipe down the machine, make sure to vacuum behind and under. (Pull it away from the wall if you can, but watch your floors!) If you can’t move your machines, grab a Swiffer® (Canada) (USA) and glide it under them to pull out any lint and debris. Now, grab your Tide and water mixture with a clean rag. Wipe the sides, front and top of the machine thoroughly. For the finishing touch, use Windex® to polish both sides of the glass door and, of course, the machine’s exterior.
After your machine is clean, you will feel so much better knowing your clothes are genuinely getting clean! Now click here for all things dryers.
Clean Your Entire Home the GoCleanCo Way
At GoCleanCo, our team spends thousands of hours per year professionally deep cleaning every square inch of homes. If you’d like to learn the same tricks, methods, and recipes that we use to deliver pristine results, look no further than Basic Training.
The GoCleanCo Basic Training course is a 75-minute interactive resource that shows you how to clean every room in your house from top to bottom. Click here to enroll today!
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gocleanco
Sep 22
It’s Kitchen week of the Fall Cleaning Challenge and I can finally share my new kitchen sink from BLANCO that everyone has been asking about. I am very excited to be working with @blancoamerica1 they are THE kitchen experts and a global brand with over 95 years of experience. Head to my stories to see how I care for this beauty on the daily and how easy it is to treat stains. BLANCO is more than just sinks; they also have faucets and organizational systems (like the BOTTON) that work together as an integrated UNIT. #ad
gocleanco
Sep 19
We kicked off the Fall Cleaning Challenge by flying to Burnaby, British Columbia and cleaning our Spring Cleaning Challenge (2023) winners house! We had so much fun doing this clean. Lots of team work, planning and love was poured into this project! Getting cheered on by you folks makes it all worth it! Being able to pay our good fortune forward to our followers makes us all warm and fuzzy. Big thanks to our brand partners who generously hooked us up with so much gifted stuff for the winner. We all need to go nap for 3 days now 😂 Did you enter the Fall Cleaning Challenge so that this can be you Spring 2024?! Link in our bio or head to our website to enter. #cleaning Special thanks to @ruggable @bollandbranch @oceansalesltd @proctergamble @amazoninfluencerprogram 💕
gocleanco
Sep 15
Want to open your front door and see our smiling faces coming to clean your house? Then you better get over to bleachpraylove.com on Monday, September 18th and join the Fall Cleaning Challenge! That’s right, the Grand Prize is a house clean by yours truly and my crew. We fly to you and give your house a top to bottom clean like only we can. How does the Fall Cleaning Challenge work? Each week for four weeks follow along and clean your house with me! Plus we have soooo cool many prizes! Each week we will be giving away some of my favorite things like @bollandbranch @ruggable @sharkbeauty blow dryers, and my personal fav cold hard 💰 to help you catch up on bills, buy a new vacuum or hire someone to help you with your looming House Work if you can’t get caught up! If you want to see more of our adventure at the Spring Cleaning Challenge winners house stay tuned in stories for the next few days PLUS we are filming it all for YouTube and you can watch it all the behind the scenes dirty laundry…The good, the bad…the filthy. Love you folks. For reals. 💕 Thank you for making our job so fun! #cleaningmotivation
gocleanco
Aug 25
No visit from @hellohairhouse is complete without a kitchen haircut! #fallhairtrends
gocleanco
Aug 24
The Fall Cleaning Challenge starts on Monday Sept 18th, 2023. Y’all ready? The download will be available on September 18th and the grand prize is a house clean by yours truly! We also have some new vacuum testing coming your way 😈 My garage is FULL of suckers baby and I’m not mad about it. #fallcleaning
gocleanco
Aug 19
Update: It’s a damn ice box in here and I’ve been sleeping like a baby. #airconditioning
gocleanco
Aug 8
Perfect example that cleaning 👏🏻 is 👏🏻 home 👏🏻 maintenance 👏🏻 Take care of your stuff and it will last longer. This little handy-dandy-doo-dad scrubber is linked in my Amazon Storefront. #cleaningtips
gocleanco
Aug 3
Had fun in the angels’ city chasing fortune and fame 😎 Thanks @amazoninfluencerprogram for #hosting me. And no I didn’t get tickets to any shows this weekend but for the rest of you—take the moment and taste it. 🫶🏼
gocleanco
Jul 19
To the Salon!!!!!! (Or in this case, the laundry room.) Saved these fabulous scuffed up pumps with some @tidelaundrystainremover a cloth and some patience. Just in time for @barbiethemovie premiere! Have fun @lauren_lally always happy to be of service 🫡 #barbiethemovie
gocleanco
Jul 12
Bathroom organization top picks! Everything is in my storefront to 🛍️ #amazonfinds
gocleanco
Jul 11
Summer is here! Clean up your space so you actually want to hangout in it. That hot tub…it’s not mine…k🤦🏼♀️ Link in bio for these products, some are on sale for Prime Day, just check the albums for your country.
gocleanco
Jul 11
Robot Vacuum Fight Club! 💪🏻 Things we threw on the floor: Shreddies, Powdered Tide, (clean) Cat Litter, A crumbled up loaf of sourdough and good old dirt! Stay tuned for the results. 🧐 #thiswasmorefunthaniexpected
gocleanco
Jul 8
Spent my morning making a very aesthetically pleasing Raspberry Pie Reel for y’all but it ended up being a Raspberry Scramble 🥴💀 Wasn’t gonna post it BUT when life feels like a scramble it can still be delicious. 🤌🏼🤌🏼🤌🏼 Please consider this my official petition to bring @jello back as a dessert staple.
gocleanco
Jul 7
Shower tracked destroyed with built up hard water minerals? Here’s an easy solution with a simple house hold ingredient and elbow grease. Still gonna take some scrubbing friends, good results take work. #cleaningtips
gocleanco
Jul 6
Is pressure washing considered a form of therapy? Asking for a friend. #backupvocalsduuuuuuuuupe
gocleanco
Jun 29
Years in the making…it’s FINALLY here…and it’s a masterpiece. Over the years I have received thousands of DM’s asking what to pick when renovating your home. What is the easiest to clean? What will survive the test of time? So I compiled it all here in our Home Renovation Guide. Apologies for taking so long but we kept adding and it kept getting longer and longer. This has been a labour of love. Link in bio to purchase or tap to shop! #itsbeenalongtimecoming
gocleanco
Jun 21
Sounds like a lot of you have slime problems. Here’s how we got it out! Sprinkle baking soda on the slime and smush it down into the carpet fibres so it gets in deep. Add straight vinegar and let it sit for about 30 mins. Scrub it with a brush. Repeat until it’s gone! When you repeat, you need to let it sit each time for 30 mins so it starts to break down the slime. We scrubbed for 30 mins too, don’t give up! Think about how expensive the damn carpet is to replace and that will give you lots of energy! As always: It is a good idea to test an inconspicuous spot first (like in a closet) before try you so this because all carpets are different. Try at your own risk but also if you have dried slime all over your carpet I think you are screwed anyways. GOOD LUCK and report back. #slime #slimetoturial
gocleanco
Jun 18
I’m a simple creature. Here’s the haul I promised from the viral sweater set. Yellow usually isn’t my colour but I’m feeling it the most! Wearing a medium, it’s machine washable but I have been laying it flat to dry. Everything is linked in my bio and up in my stories. #amazonfinds
gocleanco
Jun 17
If you thought I was going to miss an opportunity to use this bop, you were wrong. Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads out there, reminder that a clean tractor is a sexy tractor. @kubotacanada if you wanna detail this thing next year LMK. 🚜 🧽 🫧😎
gocleanco
Jun 16
5 days left to get in that spring clean!! 😂💪🏻 Here’s a round up of all the stuff we’ve cleaned with @mrclean if you need some inspiration! It’s been quite the journey 😵💫🤢What else do y’all use @mrclean for? #mrcleanpartner #sponsored