Cleaning the washer before the next load of dog towels

If you have finished washing a dirty dog bed, pause before the bath towels go in. The bed may have left hair and a smell in the drum. Towels are very good at picking that up, and they are a pain to rewash. A quick gasket wipe, plus a tablet cycle in the empty drum when the machine smells, gives the next load a cleaner drum to start in.

You do not have to deep clean the washer after every bedding load if you already move loads out quickly and keep the door ajar. Do it when you can smell the machine, after a messy week, and about once a month. That takes less effort than a second full day of towels.

Once the machine is clean and dry, the towels can go in as usual. That is the thinking behind the advice to clean the washer before washing dog towels, and it is why we keep washer cleaner tablets on the shelf for the empty cycle between pet loads.