RIP Mr Pump Dispenser

While hand bombing dishes, I accidentally knocked the dish soap dispenser into the sink and ended up cracking the pump off of the bottle. Sheered right off! I was very sad as I have been refilling this bottle for well over 18 months (give or take). I do love me some method dish soap (well I love ALL of their products) and if it were in the budget to buy a new bottle each time we ran out, I so would. But I can not justify paying $5/bottle of dish soap – eco friendly or not. So, I have been refilling the awesome bottle with Dawn which I manage to get for a great deal with coupons.  Shhh! Don’t tell the people at method 😉

Ain’t he a purdy bottle?
*le sigh*

You can see the piece of plastic sticking up on left side of the inner ring which holds the pump in place. What you don’t see are the pieces of the rest of that support ring which are MIA.

Channeling my inner hoarder, I remembered I had saved a few hand soap dispensers ‘just in case’.   Hey! A pump dispenser is still a pump dispenser right? (Also used in decanting. Read more about that here.)

Voila! Problem solved.
The only downfall, I’ll have to refill the smaller pump bottle more often.

The good thing about this smaller pump bottle – its the same size as the current hand soap dispenser. They’re a match made in heaven hahaha!  They actually look like they belong by the sink whereas the method bottle was much taller and dare I even say bulkier?  The bonus, these pump bottles actually dispense a decent amount of soap in one shot.

RIP Mr Super Awesome Pump Dispenser.

Note: I am not being paid by method to endorse their products but they truly do kick butt when it comes to cleaning (vs other commercial brands of cleaners). AND they’re eco to boot!

Cleaning the HE washer

Lately, I’ve started to notice a not so subtle white film starting to appear on the door of the HE washer.    Having an idea of what it is but not quite sure how to really get rid  of it, I let it stay and continue to build up.  When it turned into this (see pics below) I decided it was time to take action.

Ick right?

It’s kind of hard to see but its on the outer ring on the glass portion of the door.

One last grungy pic. *shudders*

So besides doing the obvious – cleaning it, I took the time to do a quick Google search.  Apparently its laundry detergent residue.  And its totally natural for this to occur.

Common causes of residue build up: too much detergent, constant cold water washing, use of non-HE detergent to name a few.  While being guilty of using non HE detergent from time to time, I always make my final wash of the day a load of towels using HE detergent on the EXTRA HOT setting.

Suggested ways to help get rid of the residue – run a hot wash cycle with a HE cleaning product.   Wait, what? You want me to wash soap with more soap?   Not being happy with that answer nor being willing to fall victim to some marketing ploy, I decided to look for alternate solutions.

You could run 3-4 empty hot wash cycles with vinegar, then bleach, then nothing to give the machine a good rinsing. Waste of water and electricity if you ask me.

None of these seemed ideal for me. I mean my machine doesn’t have an odd ‘odour’ as mentioned while Googling.  And my clothes didn’t come out with any funky or musty smells. Another tip for those of you that do have a problem with the smell:  after your last load, leave the door to the washer open for at least 24hrs so it can dry out.  Same thing with the lil laundry compartment door.

Instead, what I chose to do was give the glass portion of the door as well as the rubber seal (and underneath the rim) a good wiping with straight vinegar while also inspecting under the rubber rim for foreign objects and mold.  Both of which I am happy to report that I had neither.  Not impressed with the results, I gave it another go with MUCH more (and very unmentioned) elbow grease.  Still wasn’t happy.  I decided to bust out my method all purpose spray cleaner – great for cutting grease & grime – and voila!   We had a clean glass door and a very clean smelling washing machine.

Look at how clean that puppy is!

Seriously shiny!

I think the next time the door starts to show any film/residue build up,  I’m going to just give it a quick wipe down with the method all purpose spray cleaner.   Much easier and my that makes me a happier gal 🙂

Has anyone else ever experienced this film/residue issue with their HE washer? How often do you clean your washing machine?