How to Clean Your Washing Machine: Your Machine Needs a Bath

How to clean a washing machine, in one breath: run an empty hot cycle with an oxygen-based cleaner, wipe down the door gasket, pull out and rinse the detergent drawer, check the drain filter, then leave the door open so everything dries out. Do that once ever few months and your washer stays as fresh as the laundry it produces.

That's the whole recipe. The longer story is a little funnier, because it starts with an appliance identity crisis. Your washing machine cleans everything in your house except itself. Towels, sheets, jerseys, the dog's blanket, all sparkling. Meanwhile the machine quietly collects residue like a hobby.

Time to return the favor. Let's give the hardest-working appliance in the house a spa day.

Why the Machine That Cleans Everything Gets So Grimy

Here's the plot twist most people never hear. The grime inside a washer is mostly leftover product, not leftover dirt.

Every load leaves a little behind. Excess detergent that never fully rinsed. Fabric softener, which is basically a clingy houseguest. Body oils and lint that settle into corners the water can't reach. Add warmth and moisture, close the door, and you've built a cozy little cave where residue and mildew feel extremely welcome.

Front loaders collect it in the rubber door gasket. Top loaders hide it under the agitator and along the drum's upper rim, where water rarely says hello. Detergent drawers grow their own mysterious crust in every machine ever made.

None of this means you did laundry wrong. It means the machine has been throwing a party for months and nobody cleaned up. So let's clean up.

How to Clean a Washing Machine: The Full Ritual

The drum goes first, and this part is delightfully lazy. With the machine completely empty, add an oxygen-based cleaner such as sodium percarbonate, choose the hottest and longest cycle your washer offers, and press start. The good news is both Coco Clean’s Laundry Detergent and Oxi Booster both contain sodium percarbonate. Oxygen bleach releases its magic in hot water and lifts the built-up film off the drum while you do absolutely nothing. Dreamy.

While the machine hums along, the detergent drawer gets its moment. Most drawers pop out entirely, and the gunk hiding back there is a genuine jump scare the first time. A soak in warm water and a scrub with an old toothbrush brings it back to showroom condition. The cavity it slides into deserves a wipe too, since drips love to collect on its ceiling.

Once the cycle finishes, the gasket takes center stage. Peel back the rubber fold on a front loader and run a damp cloth through the whole channel, including the sneaky bottom section where water pools. A paste of oxygen cleaner and water handles any stubborn spots. Top loader owners get to skip this step and feel smug for exactly one minute.

The drain filter is the deep cut of this whole routine. It usually lives behind a small hatch at the front bottom of the machine, and it catches coins, hair ties, lint, and at least one sock you gave up on in 2024. Keep a towel handy, twist it out, rinse it clean, twist it back. Finding treasure is a bonus feature.

The finale costs nothing. The door stays open, the drawer stays cracked, and airflow does the rest. A dry machine is a fresh machine.

The Gasket Deserves Its Own Paragraph

Front loader folks, gather round. That rubber ring is doing heroic work sealing water in, and its reward is becoming the dampest fold in your whole house.

A ten-second wipe after laundry day keeps it happy. Pull the fold back, run a cloth around, done before your coffee cools. The monthly deep clean handles the rest. It's the difference between a gasket that ages gracefully and one that develops opinions.

How Often Should You Do All This?

Every few months covers the drum cycle for most households. Big families running daily loads might visit every three weeks. The gasket appreciates a quick wipe weekly, the drawer joins the monthly party, and the drain filter is content with attention every few months.

The real schedule is your nose. When laundry comes out smelling like less than nothing, the machine is raising its hand.

How to Keep It Clean Between Baths

This ritual gets much easier when the daily habits carry their weight, and the biggest habit is a plot twist: use less detergent.

Overdosing is the number one source of machine buildup. More soap feels like more clean, but the rinse cycle can only carry away so much, and the surplus stays behind as film. An ultra concentrated laundry detergent powder makes the right dose easy, because the right dose is genuinely tiny. CocoClean's is 1/2 tablespoon per regular load. Wet loads want out promptly, since a sealed drum full of damp towels is mildew's dream vacation. The open door habit keeps air moving. And skipping fabric softener, or at least going easy on it, removes the clingiest residue of all from the equation.

Small stuff, big payoff. Your monthly clean becomes a touch-up instead of an excavation.

Where the Oxi Booster Comes In

Here's the convenient part of this whole story. The same sodium percarbonate that brightens your whites is the ingredient that gives your machine its bath.

CocoClean's Oxi Booster is our Universal Super Cleaner, powered by oxygen and built for laundry boosting and all-surface cleaning alike. For the machine itself, an empty hot cycle with Oxi Booster, following the directions on the carton, lets the oxygen do the drum work. The paste trick for gaskets and drawer scrubbing comes from the same box.

One paper carton, many jobs, zero plastic. The mom hack your laundry room didn't know it needed, and your washer's new favorite spa treatment.

Frequently Asked Questions About How to Clean a Washing Machine

What should I use to clean a washing machine?

An oxygen-based cleaner like sodium percarbonate is the classic pick, released in a hot empty cycle. CocoClean's Oxi Booster is built on exactly that, and it doubles as an all-surface cleaner for the drawer and gasket, following the carton directions.

Why does my washing machine smell?

Trapped moisture plus leftover residue, almost every time. Detergent film, fabric softener, and lint feed the funk, and a closed damp drum lets it bloom. The fix is the full ritual above plus the open door habit afterward.

Do HE machines need cleaning too?

They do, and arguably on a tighter schedule, since HE machines use less water per load and rinse away less excess product. Correct dosing matters even more here, which is where an ultra concentrated powder at 1/2 tablespoon per load quietly shines.

Should I clean a washing machine with hot or cold water?

Hot, for this one job. Oxygen bleach activates fastest in heat, and the empty cleaning cycle is the moment to let your machine run its hottest, longest program. Your regular laundry can go right back to cold afterward.

The Bottom Line

Learning how to clean a washing machine is mostly learning one loop: an oxygen-powered empty cycle monthly, quick wipes for the gasket and drawer, an occasional filter treasure hunt, and a door left open to dry. Twenty minutes of light effort, and most of that is the machine cleaning itself while you live your life.

Your washer bathes your whole wardrobe week after week. Coco Clean's Oxi Booster handles the bubbles, the recyclable paper carton handles the guilt-free cleanup, and your machine goes back to doing what it does best.

Cleans like a dream, from the inside out.