Don't drink the Kool-Aid!

Clean your dishwasher with it! 

I spent most of Saturday "Fall Cleaning."There were a few things I just hadn't had time to in a long time or ever for that matter! 

Our dishwasher was looking pretty gunky and I finally decided I had to clean it and we were spending the day around the house watching football anyway. I googled and came up with some interesting ways to clean it! The first thing I found was to use Kool-Aid! Can you believe that? I have only ever drank Kool-Aid maybe a handful of times because that was never allowed at our house growing up. The amount of sugar is insane, so now I understand where my mom was coming from! But that aside, I trust Real Simple. They have yet to steer me wrong, so I figured I'd try this method. It seemed to work well. It definitely cleaned up a few areas and made the dishwasher smell fresh. It didn't smell badly before, but now it has a fresh lemon scent when I open it. 

Before I tried the Kool-Aid method, I spent 30 minutes scrubbing certain extra gunky areas with a toothbrush. I used baking soda and water paste that was ever so simple to make. I think that was a key factor in the cleaning process too. Then I removed the silverware baskets and the lid/wine glass holders (I don't know what these are called, but they came with the dishwasher and I use them to hold wine glasses upright and for sippy cup lids. I soaked those in a HOT water, baking soda and vinegar combo. It was random but seemed to work. I also scrubbed certain gunky areas of all 6 items as well. While those were soaking, I poured two cups of vinegar into the dishwasher and then I ran it on a antibacterial setting. Then right after that was finished, I started a regular dish load (empty) and used the Kool-Aid! I am amazed by this process and think the Kool-Aid will be a new monthly or bi-monthly procedure to keep everything clean and fresh! Happy Wednesday friends! If your dishwasher needs cleaning, try this method! :)

xoxo,

Ashley