I blamed the laundry detergent for about six months. My clothes would come out of the wash smelling… not dirty exactly, but not clean either. A kind of musty, basement-adjacent smell that got worse when the clothes were damp. I switched detergents twice. No change.

Then I bent down to grab a sock that had fallen behind the drum and got a face full of the actual problem. The washing machine itself smelled. Not the clothes — the machine.

Front-loaders are the worst offenders

Front-loading washers have a rubber gasket around the door that traps water, lint, and detergent residue. If you never wipe it dry, it grows mold. Pull the gasket back and look in the folds. I found things in there I cannot unsee — mostly black gunk and a hair tie from 2022.

Wipe the gasket with a 50/50 mix of white vinegar and water on a microfiber cloth. Get into every fold. If there is visible mold, soak a paper towel in undiluted vinegar, stuff it into the fold, and leave it for an hour before wiping.

The bleach clean cycle

Pour half a cup of bleach into the detergent dispenser — not directly into the drum. Run the hottest, longest cycle your machine has with no clothes inside. The bleach kills mold and bacteria throughout the internal hoses and pump. Do this once a month.

If you cannot stand the bleach smell, run a second empty cycle with just water after the bleach cycle to flush everything out.

The filter nobody cleans

Most front-loaders have a small access panel at the bottom front. Behind it is a drain pump filter — a little round cap that unscrews. Put a shallow pan underneath first because water will come out. Mine was full of coins, a bobby pin, and a wad of lint that looked like felt. Clean this filter every three months or your machine will eventually refuse to drain.

Leave the door open

The simplest thing that makes the biggest difference: leave the washer door cracked open between loads. Moisture trapped in a sealed drum is a mold incubator. An open door lets it dry out.

I do the bleach cycle on the first of every month now. My clothes smell clean again. So does the laundry room.