Clean and maintain your dishwasher

We have notoriously bad luck with dishwashers at my house. The last one caught on fire, and after my husband, father, stepfather, and repairman each separately reminded me that I needed to scrape the dishes before I loaded them, I nearly fired each of them. Sheesh.

I think I take pretty good care of my dishwasher (yes, I thoroughly scrape each dish before loading), but after reading this post on how to properly clean and maintain one... well, I could probably be doing more.

I clean it regularly and run a cup of vinegar through it, but rarely do I get down in there and disassemble it to make sure nothing has gotten stuck. WikiHow also recommends wiping around the doors and in the "dead spots" where water doesn't reach.

As I said, I usually use vinegar when cleaning my dishwasher, but did you know you can also use Kool-Aid? (Be sure not to use a strong color, however, as it may stain.) Once your dishwasher is freshly cleaned and ready to go, you can get the most out of each cycle using tips and tricks from Good Housekeeping.

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