Finding New DIY Ways to Wash Household Items in the Dishwasher

This week, our Jill of All Trades, Jill Washburn, shows us how the dishwasher can clean so much more than just dishes.  

Of course, we know that the dishwasher is super handy in the kitchen, but Jill tells us that you can wash many household items in it, as well.  First off, let’s start with things like make-up brushes.  Just put them in the silverware rack or in one of the small dishwasher baskets, bristles up.  

How about pet brushes or grooming tools?  They do great in the top rack of the dishwasher.

You can clean a whole bunch of toys at once by running them through the dishwasher.

Next, says Jill, put toys through the dishwasher.  This is especially great for baby or toddler toys, if you have multiple youngsters, or if one (or more) of the kids are sick.  It’s super easy to pile a bunch of the toys in the top rack of the dishwasher and get them all clean at once.  
***NOTE*** Make sure that you leave out toys that run on batteries or have any kind of circuitry in them.  Obviously, getting things like that wet is a no-no.  But, for things like plastic blocks, Barbie dolls, baby dolls, toy cars, etc., it’s a super easy way to clean in volume.

Next up, baseball caps and tennis shoes.  While those things can be cleaned in the washing machine, sometimes they do better by not being rolled around and tumbled in a normal washer.

How about larger things from around your kitchen?  Depending on the size of your dishwasher, you may be able to fit in oven racks, freezer racks, or refrigerator shelves.  Jill says that things like that would fit best on your lower rack in the dishwasher, and you may have to adjust or remove the upper rack to accommodate them.  Since dishwashers vary widely, says Jill, you have to know your model and what it can do.

You can run the rubber floor mats from your car through the dishwasher.

Let’s go out to the garage!  Another possibility?  Floor mats from your car!  Yes!  Especially if you have the more rigid kind that you can stand up in the bottom rack, but even the more rubbery kind can get clean in dishwasher.  Also, garden tools can benefit from a trip through the dishwasher.

Now, Jill says, there are some caveats.  

1.  When things are really dirty, or even muddy, you want to shake them off or rinse them before you put them through the dishwasher.  Just like you rinse your dishes before you put them in, you want to pre-rinse the household items.  Failing to do that could clog or cause damage to your dishwasher.

2.  When you’re washing household stuff, you don’t want to be washing dishes in the same load.  

3.  Last, but not least, once you’ve done a load of household items, depending on what they are, you may want to run an empty load to clean the inside of the dishwasher before you do a load of dishes again.  Jill says that this would be the perfect opportunity to run the dishwasher with a dishwasher cleaning product like Affresh, or something similar, in it.

PROJECT RATING: Super Easy

To watch Jill take you through the process, just click on the video player above.