Laundry definitely gets moldy when you forget to put it in the dryer.
Try to remember to open the lid after the cleaning is done. The mold will be in your clothes; but it will also grow in the outer drum of your washer. Which after years of use will start showing up in your “clean” clothes as these little dark flakes of mold and soap mildew gunk. Ask me how I know. If it gets to that point you likely need to take the washer apart to remove it. Or spend a week running “cleaning” cycles until they go away.
Don’t overfill the detergent. Leave the lid open after a wash is done. And use the “tub clean” feature once a month with no clothes in it.
You can add DISHWASHER powder detergent (yes dish detergent) directly in the tub when you use the cleaning cycle. If no cleaning cycle exist just use the “heavy duty” or “bedding” cycle with the hotest water.
They sell “cleaning tablets” for washers but they are basically just dishwasher detergent. And powder detergent is superior anyway for dishes so you can just use that (bull I’ll leave the liquid vs. powder rant alone this comment is already long).
Also a good habit to hit the “extra rinse” option sometimes. Will purge the detergent more and reduce a chance of mold building up.
Yeah I meant more on the dishes themselves waiting to be washed vs on the clothes waiting to be washed. If I put off washing clothes, I just have more to wash. If I put off washing dishes, they turn to horrible piles of mold and other rancid smells.
My issue this week was getting throat surgery and the next day wildfire smoke moved in strong. I have to avoid coughing at all costs. Dishwasher was full and I ran it but didn’t empty it due to a coughing fit. And that doesn’t help with good knives, pots and pans and utensils and such that can’t go in the dishwasher. So now all of the dirty dishes are in the sink and getting rancid. Hoping the smoke clears so I can stand up without literally bloody coughing and sneezing fits that were likely tearing the sutures even more than from coughing while just sitting around.
But the laundry is just sitting there. I might end up with an extra load or two to do, but it won’t be attacking me with rancid smells and spores every time I approach it for the next week or so. Since I didn’t leave the house and only have to go out a few times next week, I should have plenty of clothes to make it through. But dishes there’s a much more limited supply and limited room in the dishwasher and sink.
And yeah that’s an extreme with the bad timing on conservatives who don’t believed in climate change setting themselves on fire yet again, but just the ADHD alone often puts me in those situations. So laundry seems less daunting than dishes. It can be set aside in a spoon conservation time and not affect my health too much compared to dishes. I’ve thought about disposable stuff, but the price for true compostables, not just “biodegradables” just isn’t there yet. We do have commercial composting trash pickups in my city at least.
But laundry doesn’t get moldy…at least not as quickly… Lol. Mold kicks my ass.
Laundry definitely gets moldy when you forget to put it in the dryer.
Try to remember to open the lid after the cleaning is done. The mold will be in your clothes; but it will also grow in the outer drum of your washer. Which after years of use will start showing up in your “clean” clothes as these little dark flakes of mold and soap mildew gunk. Ask me how I know. If it gets to that point you likely need to take the washer apart to remove it. Or spend a week running “cleaning” cycles until they go away.
Don’t overfill the detergent. Leave the lid open after a wash is done. And use the “tub clean” feature once a month with no clothes in it.
You can add DISHWASHER powder detergent (yes dish detergent) directly in the tub when you use the cleaning cycle. If no cleaning cycle exist just use the “heavy duty” or “bedding” cycle with the hotest water.
They sell “cleaning tablets” for washers but they are basically just dishwasher detergent. And powder detergent is superior anyway for dishes so you can just use that (bull I’ll leave the liquid vs. powder rant alone this comment is already long).
Also a good habit to hit the “extra rinse” option sometimes. Will purge the detergent more and reduce a chance of mold building up.
TLDR: clean your washer
Yeah I meant more on the dishes themselves waiting to be washed vs on the clothes waiting to be washed. If I put off washing clothes, I just have more to wash. If I put off washing dishes, they turn to horrible piles of mold and other rancid smells.
My issue this week was getting throat surgery and the next day wildfire smoke moved in strong. I have to avoid coughing at all costs. Dishwasher was full and I ran it but didn’t empty it due to a coughing fit. And that doesn’t help with good knives, pots and pans and utensils and such that can’t go in the dishwasher. So now all of the dirty dishes are in the sink and getting rancid. Hoping the smoke clears so I can stand up without literally bloody coughing and sneezing fits that were likely tearing the sutures even more than from coughing while just sitting around.
But the laundry is just sitting there. I might end up with an extra load or two to do, but it won’t be attacking me with rancid smells and spores every time I approach it for the next week or so. Since I didn’t leave the house and only have to go out a few times next week, I should have plenty of clothes to make it through. But dishes there’s a much more limited supply and limited room in the dishwasher and sink.
And yeah that’s an extreme with the bad timing on conservatives who don’t believed in climate change setting themselves on fire yet again, but just the ADHD alone often puts me in those situations. So laundry seems less daunting than dishes. It can be set aside in a spoon conservation time and not affect my health too much compared to dishes. I’ve thought about disposable stuff, but the price for true compostables, not just “biodegradables” just isn’t there yet. We do have commercial composting trash pickups in my city at least.