As the appliance that’s responsible for keeping your favorite blouse or lucky shirt clean, the last thing you want is your washing machine smelling funky. While the best way to keep your washing machine smelling fresh is regular cleaning, here are few things you can do to if you notice less-than-fragrant odors coming from your appliance.

Be bold against mold

Mold is often the main culprit when it comes to a smelly washing machine. Mold can build up in the door seal, detergent drawer and debris filter, so make sure you keep these parts of the appliance clean.

Turn the heat up

Detergent and softener are things that are supposed to clean your clothes, right? Well they can cause bad odors if they don’t fully dissolve during a wash cycle and are left hanging around in the drum afterwards. Cooler wash cycles can cause this, so make sure you use a hot wash program every so often.

Don’t sweat it

Bad smells can be caused by humid air trapped in the drum after a wash cycle. Leave the door open for 15 minutes or so after a wash to let the drum air out.

Self-clean dream

If you’re lucky enough to have a washing machine with a self-cleaning program, like DrumClean+, run this every month or so to keep your drum smelling fresh. If your appliance doesn’t have this feature, you can run the hottest cycle without laundry or detergent to get similar results.