We moved into our new apartment in December, and for the most part it was wonderful. Except for the cat hair we found everywhere (in the cupboards, in the dishwasher, in the FRIDGE...I have no clue how it got in there unless a cat somehow crawled into the fridge…) it has been my favorite apartment so far.
The one drawback has been that the dishwasher smelled like death. I swore that a cat must have somehow crawled into the water heater or garbage disposal and died in there.
After weeks of trying to use the dishwasher, only to have the house stink and half the dishes come out dirtier than they went in, we finally called the landlord to have maintenance come check it out. And I’m glad we did! It turns out that the drainage hose for the dishwasher had been installed wrong and had built up lots of old food and bacteria. After that was done, it smelled sooo much better.
But the dishwasher was still spitting out dirty dishes because of the hard water we have here. So after 2 weeks of washing dishes by hand, I decided to see what I could do to get rid of the hard water. I’d read online to run empty loads with a cup of vinegar in the dishwasher, but that didn’t seem to help any. Then I thought, “what if I washed a load of dishes with vinegar?”
Bam!
Nailed it.
Look how sparkly my dishes are now!
I haven’t a problem since washing my dishes this way. Except when there is chocolate…how does that happen?
So what is the trick to deposit-free dishes?
Pour about 1 cup vinegar into the bottom of the dishwasher (don’t skimp on this or your attempt will be pointless.)
Fill the soap dispenser only half full with dishwasher detergent
Run dishwasher through a cycle like normal.
Note: This mostly prevents hard water, so if you already have buildup on your dishes, you may have to wash them by hand with a little vinegar in the dishwater.
Note 2: You need both vinegar AND soap to make this work. Just one or the other won’t work as well. (And make sure your rinse aid is full)
Hopefully this helps you like it helped me! It’s been a lifesaver not having to do so many dishes.
Thanks for visiting! Do you have any other tips for removing stains? Leave them in the comments below!