How often do you clean it #2

Last weeks post "How often do you"...clean your toaster tray was a hit with several comments on just how often these little fire starters really get cleaned. I don't know that they actually start fires, but after discovering how dirty mine was last week I would think it could.

This week is "How often do you"...clean behind your washer and dryer?

Once a month, sometimes twice when I get really energetic or bored, I scoot my washer and dryer away from the wall and vaccum under and all around the washer and dryer.

I like to vaccum the back of them both to get any dust that comes from the dryer,
and wipe the walls and baseboards down with a damp rag.

And sometimes I find a long lost friend back there.

It's not alot of dirt but this is after only ! month. Can you imagine waiting longer???

While I have the vaccum out I also take out the dryer filter and empty that and then vaccum it to to make sure I get all the nooks and crannies. I did not always do this, infact it wasn't until a few years ago that I really ever thought about it. When we/I (lets face it I'm the only one doing laundry here) got a new set a few years back I was horrified when the Sears men came to remove the old ones and put in the new ones. The mess was undescribable, on first glance it looked as though we had a cat that died under the dryer, but we never had a cat....just 7 years of nasty. So ever since then I vowed I would never again get caught with that in my house and I clean it every month.  It is amazing at how much more efficent your dryer will run when you do this. I like to use the auto dry on my dryer and it usually dries faster when it's all clean.
 Also, if you have the benefit of your dryer vent on the outside of your house, it is helpful to reach in and grab all the dryer dust and clean that out too. Our dryer links right outside so I can get all the funk out pretty easily.

Our old house was not this way, overall it was a very inefficent dryer setup.

So now that you know how often I clean the back of my washer and dryer, tell me what do you do?? Any tips or special tricks to keep this space cleaner longer?

Jen