Cleaning Your Coffee Maker

It's Saturday morning. And it's winter. (I'm just telling you in case you forgot.) To me, the perfect Saturday morning in the wintertime is curling up in your pajamas with a hot cup of coffee, visiting with family while the smell of breakfast frying on the stove lingers in the air. Yep, frying. I like the good ol' fattening bacon and eggs with pancakes. Unfortunately, with so much to do all the time, I haven't been able to have one of those mornings in a long time. It's not even 11 o'clock right now and I already have 3 loaves of zucchini bread made, 4 loads of laundry done, and my coffee maker cleaned.

Since I was cleaning my coffee maker this morning, I haven't even had my coffee yet. SOOO looking forward to that! It's brewing now, so I'll have it soon. Anyway....back to the point. Cleaning coffee pots. 

When I moved into my first apartment 5 1/2 years ago, my parents came to stay overnight. We got up the next morning, and one of the first things my mom noticed was that I didn't have a coffee maker. My mom is an avid coffee drinker. I really didn't have much of anything. If it wasn't handed down to me, I probably didn't have it. My dad, being the super sweet guy that he is, said he was going to run and pick up some things he needed while he was in town and came back with my first very own coffee maker! It is still the same one that I use today.

Supposedly, you're supposed to thoroughly clean your coffee maker every 5-6 weeks. I'm ashamed to say that, other than wiping it down and washing the pot itself, the coffee maker rarely gets cleaned. 

I wanted a good cup of coffee this morning, so I decided to clean it before I brewed a pot.

Cleaning Your Coffee Maker

Using 1 part white vinegar to 3 parts water (I used 3 cups vinegar & 9 cups water), fill your reservoir and "brew" the liquid.

 Let it cool. Dump the same liquid back into the reservoir and "brew" it again.
(After the second time of brewing the vinegar mixture, this is what I got. Gross. Somehow it evaporated 2 full cups, too. Weird.)

 Pour it down the drain.
Fill the pot with cold water and "brew" just the water this time.
Dump it out.
Fill it with cold water again & "brew" it one more time.
The smell of vinegar should be gone by now. Using hot soapy water, wash the pot and wipe down your machine.
It's ready to brew fresh coffee!